From disappointment to reigning champions, how Canada overhauled its on-ice philosophy

“It is the best team that I have ever seen for Canada.”

These were the words proclaimed by two-time Olympic gold medalist Cheryl Pounder on the broadcast moments after Canada beat the United States 3-2 for gold in Beijing last February.

The victory avenged the heartbreaking shootout gold-medal loss in 2018 in Pyeongchang that saw the United States end Canada’s run of four straight Olympic titles and re-cement Canada at the top of women’s hockey. 

From the first drop of the puck at the Winter Games in Beijing, Canada romped its way through the tournament, scoring 57 goals in seven games with eight of the top 10 scorers in the tournament being Canadian.

Sarah Nurse set two Olympic records for most assists (13) and points (18), toppling fellow Canadian and Hockey Hall of Famer Hayley Wickenheiser’s previous benchmarks. Captain Marie-Philip Poulin was not far behind with 17 points and tournament MVP Brianne Jenner led the Olympics in goals with nine.

This Olympic performance came just six months after Canada claimed gold at the worlds when Poulin scored the overtime winner over the Americans in the final.

While Canada’s dominant season looked easy, both tournaments were the successful products of a philosophical overhaul on the ice. After Olympic silver in 2018 and a disappointing bronze at the worlds in 2019, Team Canada made two key changes that unlocked this team’s potential.

One of the biggest changes was the activation of the defence. At the Olympics, the seven defenders, consisting of Jocelyne Larocque, Renata Fast, Erin Ambrose, Micah Zandee-Hart, Claire Thompson, Ashton Bell and Ella Shelton, combined for a Canadian-record 41 points. Thompson was named a tournament all-star after putting up 13 points, an Olympic record for a defenceman.

In comparison, the 2014 and 2018 Olympic defensive groups put up six and five points as collective units respectively.

Larocque, Canada’s most experienced defender with three Olympics under her belt, notes it has been a dramatic change for the defence. 

“I think in the past like 2018 and prior that we were as a group playing a little bit more, not to lose, than playing to win,” she said. “And I really think we take way more calculated risks.

“I find that we're playing much more loose. We're playing where we're trying to read plays and not necessarily have an insane amount of structure.”

Primarily known as a shutdown, hard-to-play against defenceman throughout her career, the 34-year-old has noted the change in her own game since the coaching staff, led by head coach Troy Ryan, introduced a more aggressive style.

“I really think the way that we see defending now is like, the better that we're at defending, we're just going to have the puck more and I really think that's helped everyone buy into like being super hard to play against and taking away time and space,” said Larocque.

“That's the way that I've always played but it's helped me see that as like an offensive piece. And it's like ‘oh, yeah, like if I can take away this person's time and space, we grab the puck and let's go on offence.’ So it's really changed the way that I've seen the game.”

Pounder, who played defence for Canada at the 2002 and 2006 Olympics, notes that the defence being aggressive created more opportunities for the offence to go to work.

“Once they got into the offensive zone, I felt it wasn't static,” she said. “I feel like when the ‘D’ activates it really disrupts the coverage and it creates lanes and motion creates lanes. So I felt like they were consistently activating, which was opening up lanes and creating switches in motion.”

Like Larocque, Zandee-Hart is known for her strong play in the defensive end of the ice. After missing the 2021 worlds due to recovering from shoulder surgery, she came back and played the fourth-most minutes on defence at the Olympics and recorded four assists.

“I had to shift a bit, I've always been a little bit more hesitant, a little more defensive-minded,” said Zandee-Hart of Canada’s philosophy change. “I still am that way, I know that those are my strengths. But I definitely had to learn to be a bit more offensive minded and a bit more aggressive on the offensive side of things.”

One of the final cuts from the 2018 Olympic team, Zandee-Hart also adds that special teams has become more of a focus in recent years.

“Over the past four years, I noticed we put a lot more focus on power play, and winning the special teams battle in a game so having a strong PK, and also being able to produce on the power play. I just think we wanted to be able to score more goals, have contributions from everyone, defence included.”

With the defence opening up to be more aggressive, it led to the second big change for Canada, which is the relationship between the forwards and the defence playing as a connected five-player unit instead of operating as separate entities.

“I think we started to play more as a five-man unit, there was way less separation between 'D' and forwards,” said Jenner. “Just the way that our ‘D’ played aggressively without the puck, stepping up a lot in the neutral zone, forcing plays to end early, that gives us a lot of confidence as forwards and it allows us to play on our toes where we can jump to offence really quickly.”

“You'd often see them diving down the weak side to get engaged off the faceoffs, presence below the goal line, often we'd be talking in the booth about it was the defender that was below the goal line, but it didn't matter because it was about an offensive group, not necessarily a ‘D’ core and a line,” added Pounder.

For the coaching staff, the buy-in from the players was instant. Assistant coach Kori Cheverie says the staff wanted to let the players have the creative freedom to be aggressive offensively.

“I think that this program had been so focused on playing defensively for quite a few years, that it was easy to get them to buy into wanting to play a more offensive style of game and, and be more aggressive all over the ice,” said Cheverie.

“I feel like a lot of times on the women's side we hear you know, women's hockey, it's low-scoring games, it's they don't score a lot of goals. But I truly think that comes back to the coaching piece, teaching our players how to score and giving them solutions to find the back of the net.”

The 2022 worlds kick off on Aug. 25 and it is the first time that a world championship is being played in an Olympic year. The Canadians are confident going into Denmark as the reigning world and Olympic champions for the first time since 2012. 

“Honestly, the way that we play now, I think that's how hockey should be played,” said Larocque.