The U.S. captured the gold medal at the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship, with host Finland taking silver and Canada bronze.
photo: Matt Zambonin / HHOF-IIHF Images
From the bubble format to the August start date, there has never been an IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship like the 2021 edition. Excitement is reaching new heights as we head into this long-anticipated tournament in Calgary – with the 2022 Beijing Olympics less than six months away.
Accordingly, we’ve assembled an exceptional, experienced panel for our traditional pre-tournament media round-table. The participants hail from the countries that won gold (U.S.), silver (Finland), and bronze (Canada) at the 2019 Women’s Worlds in Espoo. The opinions expressed by the writers are their own and do not reflect any official views of the IIHF.
Emily Kaplan (U.S.) is a national NHL reporter at ESPN. She has covered all levels of hockey for ESPN, and appears on shows such as Around the Horn, SportsCenter, and Outside the Lines.
Donna Spencer (Canada) has spent 24 years as a sports reporter for The Canadian Press. She has covered 14 IIHF Women’s World Championships and 13 men’s World Juniors. This summer, she staffed the 10th Olympic Games of her career in Tokyo. Based in Calgary, she writes about the NHL’s Flames and the CFL’s Stampeders, as well as Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
Markus Viljanen (Finland) is a managing editor at Jatkoaika.com, Finland’s biggest private hockey web site. He reported from the Women’s Worlds in 2015, 2016, and 2019. His main employers are Liiga, the top professional ice hockey league in Finland, and the Finnish Ice Hockey Association, where he covers Naisten Liiga.
Who are some players you’ll be watching closely at these Women’s Worlds?
Emily Kaplan: Team USA is experiencing a changing of the guard, with long-time stalwarts Meghan Duggan, Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson, Monique Lamoureux-Morando, and Kacey Bellamy all retiring in the past year. So I’ll definitely be watching Kendall Coyne Schofield and Hilary Knight. They’ve already been leaders on this team, but their voices in the locker room and play on the ice now carry even more weight. I’m also interested to see Brianna Decker in her first major tournament since undergoing major surgeries in 2019. Teammates I’ve talked to said she’s been tearing it up in the last few Team USA camps, so I’m excited to see her in competition again. With some veteran departures on defence, I’m looking forward to seeing both Cayla Barnes and Megan Keller step into bigger roles. The two young players I’m most excited to watch are Abby Roque and Caroline Harvey. In March, Knight said of the 23-year-old Roque: “I think she’s going to be the best player in the world. Plain and simple.” How would you not want to watch her? Meanwhile, Harvey, a defender, is just 18, and hasn’t even begun her college career yet – she’s committed to Wisconsin. Curious how she’ll factor into this tournament.
Markus Viljanen: It’s interesting to see Finland’s Sanni Vanhanen at this top level. She’s just 16 years old, born in 2005, and was no doubt a big surprise pick for many hockey observers. She made her Naisten Liiga debut last season with Ilves, playing nine games and scoring three goals and three assists. There’s another interesting young forward, Emilia Vesa. Born in 2001, Vesa has already played five seasons in Naisten Liiga. She has played three IIHF U18 Women’s World Championships, and now it’s time to test her skills at the highest level.
Donna Spencer: Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin barely played in the 2019 Women’s Worlds, because she had a knee injury going into it. Whichever Canadian goalie starts the important games in Calgary gets a head start on being the number one goalie at the Olympics in February. Knight has the best hands in the women’s game and Coyne Schofield the most speed. Finland’s Michelle Karvinen is the best European forward in the game.
How has COVID-19 affected women’s hockey in your country?
Viljanen: The pandemic cancelled both the Naisten Liiga finals and the bronze medal game in the 2019/20 season. However, 2020/21 was successfully played in its entirety, and Kiekko-Espoo were crowned as champions. That said, although the season went forward, there were no spectators. Many teams went through quarantines, and health restrictions created hard circumstances. Some of the teams couldn’t practise as a whole group in the fall of 2020, so they had to split players into smaller training groups. There were also no Naisten Liiga games played at all in December 2020.
Spencer: Hosting the Women’s Worlds became a marathon of cancellation, postponement, cancellation again, rescheduling to summertime, and relocation from Nova Scotia to Alberta. Never mind playing games – there were times over the last year and a half when Canadian players couldn’t have a group skate because of provincial restrictions. Most players in the national team pool are aligned with the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association (PWHPA). The three-team, seven-game PWHPA tournament in Calgary in May marked their first real games in 14 months. Canada has played a grand total of five international games — a 2019/20 series against the U.S. — since the 2019 World Championship. The last game of that series was 8 February 2020.
Kaplan: It’s been challenging. While the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) and PWHPA both put on games this season, the pandemic hasn’t made things easy, with the cruel gamut of cancellations, decreased ice time, and decreased visibility. Since there’s still no professional league in North America that pays players a living wage, tournaments like these Women’s Worlds mean everything to the top U.S. players. When the tournament was originally (and abruptly) cancelled in April, I talked to Bellamy. This quote from her has stuck with me: “I feel like women’s hockey has taken step backs due to this pandemic, and I don’t know how much we’re going to take these steps forward in the future. Where we were even before the pandemic, we should have been 10 years ago. But right now, we’re back where we were 10 years ago.”
Besides the pandemic, what are the biggest challenges that Canada’s Troy Ryan, Finland’s Pasi Mustonen, and the U.S.’s Joel Johnson face as head coaches?
Spencer: These Women’s Worlds will be Troy Ryan’s first international tournament as Canada’s head coach, and thus his first real test. He was an assistant for three years before replacing Perry Pearn midway through 2019/20.
Viljanen: For Finland, there haven’t been international exhibition games, which are standard when preparing for Women’s Worlds. And some of the training camps have run into cancellations. So of course, it affects the on-ice cooperation among the players. Before the pandemic, there were a few retirements, including veterans like Riikka Sallinen, Linda Leppanen (nee Valimaki), and Venla Hovi. It’s not so easy to fill those shoes. It will be done, but it takes time with the younger generation of players. The mental side also has a big effect. Players have gone through a lot of disappointments during these “everlasting preparations” for the Worlds, so it’s a challenge to get everyone on the same page. On the other hand, the players know Finland’s game identity well, and the motivation level is not an issue.
Kaplan: The U.S. is incorporating quite a few rookies into its line-up. So the challenge for Joel Johnson is making sure he’s putting his younger players in the right positions to thrive in their first major international tournament. I also think Johnson will have interesting decisions to make with his goalies. The team was originally going to take Maddie Rooney, Nicole Hensley and Alex Cavallini. Rooney got hurt in training camp, so the team brought in Aerin Frankel. The 22-year-old reigning Patty Kazmaier Award winner originally made the Women’s Worlds roster, but then got cut at the rescheduled camp. Cavallini, Hensley, and Frankel are all capable of carrying this team. What does the rotation look like, and who emerges with the most ice time?
This will be the shortest gap ever between a Women’s Worlds and an Olympic tournament. What do you think the impact of that will be?
Kaplan: Players say the Women’s Worlds preceding an Olympic year always carry an extra level of competitiveness. Given that it will be more than 850 days since we’ve had 10 countries under the same roof, I think these Worlds will have a feeling-out period. The playing field has been so uneven during the pandemic, so we’ll get to see which teams emerge from this as the most prepared.
Spencer: Game pace is not practice pace. These women are game-rusty. A major injury in Calgary affecting a player’s ability to be in Beijing is a possibility.
Viljanen: It provides very little time to test out different players. So it is possible that the Finnish team we see in Calgary could be almost the same as what we see in Beijing. A slight difference, perhaps, but nothing dramatic. That said, it’s also possible that the level of play won’t differ that much between the Women’s Worlds and the Olympics.
Is there a dark horse team that could pull off an upset in Calgary?
Kaplan: Not sure they’re a dark horse at this point, but I could see Finland winning gold.
Spencer: Similarly, I don’t call Finland a dark horse. But the Finns, Russians, and Swiss had women’s leagues operating last winter. Those players have game reps the North Americans don’t.
The state of professional women’s hockey has changed considerably since the last Women’s Worlds in 2019. What does the future look like in your country?
Viljanen: Things are developing slowly, but are going the right way. Good foreign players are coming more to Naisten Liiga, which elevates the level of the games. There is still a big gap when you compare the top-three teams in Naisten Liiga with those who are fighting for their positions. But the overall difference between the teams is shrinking. The path to the women’s national team is supported better, and both national team players and talented girls have the opportunity to practice with boys. The national team is also getting more media attention. But there is still a lot of work to do to make women’s hockey more visible when there isn’t a big tournament going on.
Kaplan: The NWHL trudges on and seems to gain more sustainability now that all six teams have secured private ownership. However, the top players in the U.S. – basically all players that you’ll see in Calgary – are not playing in that league, as they’re holding out for one that pays a living wage. Before the pandemic, there was tangible hope that the NHL might step in and help support a league. It’s looking like less of a priority now. So things are really in a stalemate until somebody steps up – whether it be the NHL, a major corporate sponsor, or someone else.
Spencer: The future of women’s professional hockey in Canada is tied to the future of women’s pro hockey in the United States. Whether it’s the PWHPA or the NWHL or a meshing of the two, a North American women’s league featuring star players from both countries is necessary for economic stability and sustainability.
Who will win the medals in Calgary?
Kaplan: The U.S., Canada, and Finland.
Viljanen: I’ll go with the same unsurprising trio. The order is not written in stone, but I see the U.S. as the biggest gold-medal favourite. Finland has a chance to build on what happened in Espoo in 2019, but the chances of that are slightly doubtful due to preparing under unfavourable circumstances. I’d of course be happy to be wrong about this! There are many first-timers and there are also some key players missing from 2019, like Sallinen, Hovi, and top goalie Noora Raty. But there is huge potential in this team and its players.
Spencer: We have little data from the last two years to base projections on. If the U.S., Canada or Finland don’t finish in the medals, however, that indicates to me either the players or their national programs – or both – didn’t handle the pandemic well.
Accordingly, we’ve assembled an exceptional, experienced panel for our traditional pre-tournament media round-table. The participants hail from the countries that won gold (U.S.), silver (Finland), and bronze (Canada) at the 2019 Women’s Worlds in Espoo. The opinions expressed by the writers are their own and do not reflect any official views of the IIHF.
Emily Kaplan (U.S.) is a national NHL reporter at ESPN. She has covered all levels of hockey for ESPN, and appears on shows such as Around the Horn, SportsCenter, and Outside the Lines.
Donna Spencer (Canada) has spent 24 years as a sports reporter for The Canadian Press. She has covered 14 IIHF Women’s World Championships and 13 men’s World Juniors. This summer, she staffed the 10th Olympic Games of her career in Tokyo. Based in Calgary, she writes about the NHL’s Flames and the CFL’s Stampeders, as well as Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
Markus Viljanen (Finland) is a managing editor at Jatkoaika.com, Finland’s biggest private hockey web site. He reported from the Women’s Worlds in 2015, 2016, and 2019. His main employers are Liiga, the top professional ice hockey league in Finland, and the Finnish Ice Hockey Association, where he covers Naisten Liiga.
Who are some players you’ll be watching closely at these Women’s Worlds?
Emily Kaplan: Team USA is experiencing a changing of the guard, with long-time stalwarts Meghan Duggan, Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson, Monique Lamoureux-Morando, and Kacey Bellamy all retiring in the past year. So I’ll definitely be watching Kendall Coyne Schofield and Hilary Knight. They’ve already been leaders on this team, but their voices in the locker room and play on the ice now carry even more weight. I’m also interested to see Brianna Decker in her first major tournament since undergoing major surgeries in 2019. Teammates I’ve talked to said she’s been tearing it up in the last few Team USA camps, so I’m excited to see her in competition again. With some veteran departures on defence, I’m looking forward to seeing both Cayla Barnes and Megan Keller step into bigger roles. The two young players I’m most excited to watch are Abby Roque and Caroline Harvey. In March, Knight said of the 23-year-old Roque: “I think she’s going to be the best player in the world. Plain and simple.” How would you not want to watch her? Meanwhile, Harvey, a defender, is just 18, and hasn’t even begun her college career yet – she’s committed to Wisconsin. Curious how she’ll factor into this tournament.
Markus Viljanen: It’s interesting to see Finland’s Sanni Vanhanen at this top level. She’s just 16 years old, born in 2005, and was no doubt a big surprise pick for many hockey observers. She made her Naisten Liiga debut last season with Ilves, playing nine games and scoring three goals and three assists. There’s another interesting young forward, Emilia Vesa. Born in 2001, Vesa has already played five seasons in Naisten Liiga. She has played three IIHF U18 Women’s World Championships, and now it’s time to test her skills at the highest level.
Donna Spencer: Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin barely played in the 2019 Women’s Worlds, because she had a knee injury going into it. Whichever Canadian goalie starts the important games in Calgary gets a head start on being the number one goalie at the Olympics in February. Knight has the best hands in the women’s game and Coyne Schofield the most speed. Finland’s Michelle Karvinen is the best European forward in the game.
How has COVID-19 affected women’s hockey in your country?
Viljanen: The pandemic cancelled both the Naisten Liiga finals and the bronze medal game in the 2019/20 season. However, 2020/21 was successfully played in its entirety, and Kiekko-Espoo were crowned as champions. That said, although the season went forward, there were no spectators. Many teams went through quarantines, and health restrictions created hard circumstances. Some of the teams couldn’t practise as a whole group in the fall of 2020, so they had to split players into smaller training groups. There were also no Naisten Liiga games played at all in December 2020.
Spencer: Hosting the Women’s Worlds became a marathon of cancellation, postponement, cancellation again, rescheduling to summertime, and relocation from Nova Scotia to Alberta. Never mind playing games – there were times over the last year and a half when Canadian players couldn’t have a group skate because of provincial restrictions. Most players in the national team pool are aligned with the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association (PWHPA). The three-team, seven-game PWHPA tournament in Calgary in May marked their first real games in 14 months. Canada has played a grand total of five international games — a 2019/20 series against the U.S. — since the 2019 World Championship. The last game of that series was 8 February 2020.
Kaplan: It’s been challenging. While the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) and PWHPA both put on games this season, the pandemic hasn’t made things easy, with the cruel gamut of cancellations, decreased ice time, and decreased visibility. Since there’s still no professional league in North America that pays players a living wage, tournaments like these Women’s Worlds mean everything to the top U.S. players. When the tournament was originally (and abruptly) cancelled in April, I talked to Bellamy. This quote from her has stuck with me: “I feel like women’s hockey has taken step backs due to this pandemic, and I don’t know how much we’re going to take these steps forward in the future. Where we were even before the pandemic, we should have been 10 years ago. But right now, we’re back where we were 10 years ago.”
Besides the pandemic, what are the biggest challenges that Canada’s Troy Ryan, Finland’s Pasi Mustonen, and the U.S.’s Joel Johnson face as head coaches?
Spencer: These Women’s Worlds will be Troy Ryan’s first international tournament as Canada’s head coach, and thus his first real test. He was an assistant for three years before replacing Perry Pearn midway through 2019/20.
Viljanen: For Finland, there haven’t been international exhibition games, which are standard when preparing for Women’s Worlds. And some of the training camps have run into cancellations. So of course, it affects the on-ice cooperation among the players. Before the pandemic, there were a few retirements, including veterans like Riikka Sallinen, Linda Leppanen (nee Valimaki), and Venla Hovi. It’s not so easy to fill those shoes. It will be done, but it takes time with the younger generation of players. The mental side also has a big effect. Players have gone through a lot of disappointments during these “everlasting preparations” for the Worlds, so it’s a challenge to get everyone on the same page. On the other hand, the players know Finland’s game identity well, and the motivation level is not an issue.
Kaplan: The U.S. is incorporating quite a few rookies into its line-up. So the challenge for Joel Johnson is making sure he’s putting his younger players in the right positions to thrive in their first major international tournament. I also think Johnson will have interesting decisions to make with his goalies. The team was originally going to take Maddie Rooney, Nicole Hensley and Alex Cavallini. Rooney got hurt in training camp, so the team brought in Aerin Frankel. The 22-year-old reigning Patty Kazmaier Award winner originally made the Women’s Worlds roster, but then got cut at the rescheduled camp. Cavallini, Hensley, and Frankel are all capable of carrying this team. What does the rotation look like, and who emerges with the most ice time?
This will be the shortest gap ever between a Women’s Worlds and an Olympic tournament. What do you think the impact of that will be?
Kaplan: Players say the Women’s Worlds preceding an Olympic year always carry an extra level of competitiveness. Given that it will be more than 850 days since we’ve had 10 countries under the same roof, I think these Worlds will have a feeling-out period. The playing field has been so uneven during the pandemic, so we’ll get to see which teams emerge from this as the most prepared.
Spencer: Game pace is not practice pace. These women are game-rusty. A major injury in Calgary affecting a player’s ability to be in Beijing is a possibility.
Viljanen: It provides very little time to test out different players. So it is possible that the Finnish team we see in Calgary could be almost the same as what we see in Beijing. A slight difference, perhaps, but nothing dramatic. That said, it’s also possible that the level of play won’t differ that much between the Women’s Worlds and the Olympics.
Is there a dark horse team that could pull off an upset in Calgary?
Kaplan: Not sure they’re a dark horse at this point, but I could see Finland winning gold.
Spencer: Similarly, I don’t call Finland a dark horse. But the Finns, Russians, and Swiss had women’s leagues operating last winter. Those players have game reps the North Americans don’t.
The state of professional women’s hockey has changed considerably since the last Women’s Worlds in 2019. What does the future look like in your country?
Viljanen: Things are developing slowly, but are going the right way. Good foreign players are coming more to Naisten Liiga, which elevates the level of the games. There is still a big gap when you compare the top-three teams in Naisten Liiga with those who are fighting for their positions. But the overall difference between the teams is shrinking. The path to the women’s national team is supported better, and both national team players and talented girls have the opportunity to practice with boys. The national team is also getting more media attention. But there is still a lot of work to do to make women’s hockey more visible when there isn’t a big tournament going on.
Kaplan: The NWHL trudges on and seems to gain more sustainability now that all six teams have secured private ownership. However, the top players in the U.S. – basically all players that you’ll see in Calgary – are not playing in that league, as they’re holding out for one that pays a living wage. Before the pandemic, there was tangible hope that the NHL might step in and help support a league. It’s looking like less of a priority now. So things are really in a stalemate until somebody steps up – whether it be the NHL, a major corporate sponsor, or someone else.
Spencer: The future of women’s professional hockey in Canada is tied to the future of women’s pro hockey in the United States. Whether it’s the PWHPA or the NWHL or a meshing of the two, a North American women’s league featuring star players from both countries is necessary for economic stability and sustainability.
Who will win the medals in Calgary?
Kaplan: The U.S., Canada, and Finland.
Viljanen: I’ll go with the same unsurprising trio. The order is not written in stone, but I see the U.S. as the biggest gold-medal favourite. Finland has a chance to build on what happened in Espoo in 2019, but the chances of that are slightly doubtful due to preparing under unfavourable circumstances. I’d of course be happy to be wrong about this! There are many first-timers and there are also some key players missing from 2019, like Sallinen, Hovi, and top goalie Noora Raty. But there is huge potential in this team and its players.
Spencer: We have little data from the last two years to base projections on. If the U.S., Canada or Finland don’t finish in the medals, however, that indicates to me either the players or their national programs – or both – didn’t handle the pandemic well.