Penton: Hockey peak: U.S. women have climbed past Canada
By Bruce Penton
It’s time to admit it: The U.S. women’s hockey team is better than Canada’s.
Even though an outstanding performance in the Olympics gold medal game gave Canada a good chance, only to lose 2-1 in overtime, the evidence has been strong for about the past year that the U.S. women’s program has surpassed our country’s.
Based on population and the acceptance that there is strength in numbers, it’s no surprise that Canadians can’t compete with our neighbours to the south when it comes to major sports such as baseball, football, basketball and golf. But we could always brag about being No. 1 in men’s and women’s hockey.
We’d joke about having our first pair of skates dangling from the end of the crib, and while we didn’t learn to skate before we could walk, saying that we did always made for a good chuckle. As for beating up on the U.S. in hockey, both men’s and women’s national teams did it regularly.
While U.S. and Canada men’s hockey is basically a coin flip when they meet in big tournaments, the women’s game has tilted strongly to the south. The Canadian women’s national team may have a significant edge over the U.S. through the years in head-to-head competition, but in 2026 at least, Canada is a distant second..
The gold-medal game showed Canada’s grit, pride and determination, but the more powerful Americans came from behind to win in the end. Canada can still lay claim to having the best individual player in the world in Marie-Philip Poulin, but hockey is a 20-player team game.
In a four-game Rivalry Series leading up to the Olympics, the States went 4-0 and outscored Canada 24-7. The Americans’ power was on even greater display at the Olympics when they outscored their Pool A opponents 20-1 in four games and then won their quarter- and semi-final games by a combined 11-0 score to breeze into the final.
One stat Canada can still brag about: In nearly 200 games through the years in Olympics, world championships and 4 Nations Cups, Canada holds a 106-87 edge.
The sport where Canada is making the most progress against the U.S. is in basketball, a game whose reigning Most Valuable Player in the National Basketball Association is a Canadian, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Canada’s starting five might be able to stay with the five best Americans for a while, but bench strength would be our downfall in the end.
In baseball, Canada has a number of well known stars (Josh and Bo Naylor, Tyler O’Neill to name three) but in the upcoming World Baseball Classic, we’re going to have our caps handed to us by the world powers such as the U.S., Japan, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
Still, considering the U.S. has about 10 times the population of Canada, our athletes do amazingly well in head-to-head competition. But the falloff of our women’s hockey domination hurts.
James Colgan of golf.com after the gold medal hockey game between Canada and the U.S.: “3 on 3 overtime to decide the Olympic gold medal is like bringing in the TGL arena to decide the Masters.”
Arpon Bssu of the Athletic, on Canada’s performance in the gold medal hockey game against the U.S.: “Canada dominated the final 40 minutes of regulation, outshot the USA 42-28, and if that game were played 100 times, Canada would probably win 95 of them.”
Sean McIndoe of the Athletic, wrapping up his Olympic men’s hockey coverage: “Good morning to everyone except whoever decided to hand out stuffed animals to hockey players who’ve just lost the biggest game of their lives.”
Former MLB commissioner and Brewers’ owner Bud Selig, on Bob Uecker’s initial job as a scout for Milwaukee before transitioning to broadcasting: “The first scouting report Bob sent back here had mashed potatoes and gravy all over it.”
The late Notre Dame football coach Ara Parseghian: “A good coach will make its players see what they can be rather than what they are.”
Cathal Kelly of the Globe and Mail, on Nathan MacKinnon’s missed opportunity in the gold-medal game against the U.S.: “… Nathan MacKinnon,10 minutes to go in the third, with the puck on his stick at the side of a wide open net with enough time to fill out a mortgage application and somehow missing.”
Kyle Porter of Normal Sport, after the PGA Tour said its lift, clean and place rule meant you could move a ball no more than the size of a scorecard:”When Patrick Reed finds out about this rule shift, he’s going to show up with a scorecard the size of a winner’s cheque.”
Bruce Coxon on X: “Best quote I heard from the Olympic hockey final: “I’d rather be a Canadian with silver than an American with gold.”
Comedy writer Torben Rolfsen of Vancouver: “The American figure skating champion and Olympic favourite, Ilia Malinin, crashed out of his event and finished eighth. Who knew the ‘Quad God’ meant four mistakes?”
Headline at the onion.com: “NHL Launches $800 Marketing Campaign In Major Push To Attract New Fans”
Care to comment? Email brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca