Jocelyne Larocque (#3) and Sarah Nurse (#20) are two of the Canadian stars making early bids for the tournament all-star team at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.
photo: Matt Zambonin / HHOF-IIHF Images
In Olympic women’s hockey history, there has never been a media-voted tournament all-star team that consisted solely of players from one nation. However, if the 2022 Olympics all-star team was selected after the preliminary round, it’d be hard to argue with naming six Canadians.
Posting a 33-5 goal difference through four straight Group A wins, coach Troy Ryan’s team – which powered to the World Championship gold medal for the first time since 2012 in August in Calgary – is redefining standards of excellence for the sport in Beijing. As an 11-1 opening romp over Finland showed, Canada has widened a gap that appeared to be narrowing when the Finns stunningly knocked them off in the 2019 Women’s Worlds semi-finals in Espoo.
Here, even when the Canadians haven’t fully lived up to their potential, such as during the first and third periods of their 4-2 round-robin win over the defending Olympic champion U.S., they still find ways to impress. The Americans have been very good, but the Canadians have been great. Their passion and physical dominance is equalled by their skill and smart positional play.
Of course, it’s early days yet. The playoffs are a different game. Nobody’s entitled to a medal. But with those caveats aside, let’s go position by position and assess the argument for an all-Canadian all-star squad – so far.
Goalie: Ann-Renee Desbiens (CAN)
Ann-Renee Desbiens is living up to the words of teammate and current Olympic scoring leader Natalie Spooner: “I think she’s the best goalie in the world.” And the 2021 Women’s Worlds gold-medal starter hasn’t had much competition. Desbiens separated herself from the pack with her winning 51-save performance against the U.S. on Tuesday. It was the highest total ever by a Canadian netminder, female or male, in Olympic competition.
For three of the five previous Olympic all-star teams (there was no all-star team at the inaugural 1998 women’s tournament), a European goalie whose heroics enabled her side to medal was selected: Sweden’s Kim Martin (2006), Switzerland’s Florence Schelling (2014), and Finland’s Noora Raty (2018). But Beijing – due to big-time blowouts including Switzerland’s 12-1 loss to Canada and 8-0 loss to the Americans – hasn’t been kind to Group A European goalie statistics.
Even after closing out the group stage with a 5-0 shutout over the ROC team, Finland’s Anni Keisala appears unlikely to repeat her Best Goalie and all-star honours from Calgary. Unless the Finns get past Japan and she performs miracles against a North American powerhouse, it’s hard to bounce back from the 3.63 GAA and 88.8 save percentage Keisala currently sports.
As for the Americans? Coach Joel Johnson has rotated his trio of Nicole Hensley, Alex Cavallini, and Maddie Rooney, and none has played enough or faced enough rubber to merit all-star consideration.
Defence: Renata Fast, Jocelyne Larocque (CAN)
Canada’s top pairing plays the hardest minutes and gives up the fewest chances. At these Games, Renata Fast has not been on for a single even-strength goal. Jocelyne Larocque, a shot-blocking machine and ever-present menace along the wall and in front of the net, has been on for one. These veterans find ways to punish you even in a sport ostensibly without bodychecking.
Prior to the showdown with the U.S., Ryan spread out the minutes among his blueliners. But in the crunch, he shortens his bench because he knows who he can count on. Fast jumped from 17:15 of ice time in the 6-1 win over the ROC team to a game-high 29:19 versus the Americans. During those two games, Larocque went from 18:13 to 26:01.
U.S. superstar Brianna Decker – whose tournament-ending injury against Finland was a major blow to her team’s hopes of repeating – recently touted Megan Keller as the world’s top defender. Yet while Keller’s combo of size, strength, speed, and smarts is tough to top, her pairing with Savannah Harmon just hasn’t been as game-changing as what Fast and Larocque have delivered thus far.
Forward: Brianne Jenner, Sarah Nurse, Natalie Spooner (CAN)
The numbers tell a compelling story about this potent trio. Brianne Jenner now has 12 points in her last 11 games against the U.S. in Olympic and Women’s Worlds play, including her two goals against the U.S. at the Wukesong Sports Centre. You couldn’t ask for someone to step up at a bigger time. Jenner embodies the best of the straight-ahead Canadian game. She’s also gone 71.8 percent on draws, the highest success rate among players who have taken more than 20 faceoffs.
Like Jenner, Sarah Nurse scored a hat trick in the opener against Finland, and she’s continued to play with pace and power all over the ice since seamlessly replacing Emily Clark on the Jenner line alongside captain Marie-Philip Poulin. As she’s shown a couple of times in Beijing, Nurse can zing a bar-down beauty quicker than you can blink. Like Jenner (again), she’s already up to eight points.
Meanwhile, Natalie Spooner is putting together a star turn that outshines her reality TV stints on The Amazing Race and Battle of the Blades. The big-bodied 31-year-old veteran is doing it all: dominating on the cycle, taking away goalies’ eyes, and finding her teammates with one sweet pass after another.
Leading the tournament with 11 points, Spooner’s nine assists exceed every other Olympic skater’s total points. Wild but true: Spooner has more points through four games here than she had in her two previous Olympics or eight Women’s Worlds.
The funny thing is that, when this is all over, Poulin – the only player ever to score in three Olympic finals (2010, 2014, 2018) – or Sarah Fillier, her 21-year-old heir apparent, could easily wind up on the all-star team in lieu of the women we’ve just praised. Or as MVP.
Fillier – the tenacious, talented Princeton captain – had the hockey world buzzing when she scored the opening goals against Finland and Switzerland just over a minute in. Her five goals are tied with Jenner for tops in Beijing.
And to think all of this is happening in the absence of Melodie Daoust, who not only was named MVP in the 2018 Olympic silver medal run but was also MVP when she led the 2021 Women’s Worlds in scoring with 12 points. Daoust went down with an upper-body injury after getting hit by Switzerland’s Sarah Forster on Day One.
It speaks to Canada’s depth. Remember how the Swiss struggled at the 2021 Women’s Worlds without Alina Muller or imagine how the Finnish blue line would fare without Jenni Hiirikoski.
The U.S. has great depth too. And American aces like Hilary Knight (3+2=5), Amanda Kessel (2+4=6), and Alex Carpenter (4+1=5) are producing, but just not at the same level as their Canadian rivals.
Still, there’s no leeway to get cocky if you’re wearing the red Maple Leaf. “Tonight showed some lapses and little things we’ve got to tighten up,” Ryan admitted after beating the Americans courtesy of Desbiens’ greatness.
Yet if his team takes its dominance to new extremes in the playoffs, starting against underdog Sweden in the quarter-finals, his players will get recognized and maybe achieve a clean sweep when the media votes on all-stars. Stay tuned.
There is one parallel example from the men’s game. At the 1983 Worlds in West Germany, the Soviet Union had goalie Vladislav Tretiak, defencemen Vyacheslav Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov, and forwards Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov, and Sergei Makarov on the all-star team.
Posting a 33-5 goal difference through four straight Group A wins, coach Troy Ryan’s team – which powered to the World Championship gold medal for the first time since 2012 in August in Calgary – is redefining standards of excellence for the sport in Beijing. As an 11-1 opening romp over Finland showed, Canada has widened a gap that appeared to be narrowing when the Finns stunningly knocked them off in the 2019 Women’s Worlds semi-finals in Espoo.
Here, even when the Canadians haven’t fully lived up to their potential, such as during the first and third periods of their 4-2 round-robin win over the defending Olympic champion U.S., they still find ways to impress. The Americans have been very good, but the Canadians have been great. Their passion and physical dominance is equalled by their skill and smart positional play.
Of course, it’s early days yet. The playoffs are a different game. Nobody’s entitled to a medal. But with those caveats aside, let’s go position by position and assess the argument for an all-Canadian all-star squad – so far.
Goalie: Ann-Renee Desbiens (CAN)
Ann-Renee Desbiens is living up to the words of teammate and current Olympic scoring leader Natalie Spooner: “I think she’s the best goalie in the world.” And the 2021 Women’s Worlds gold-medal starter hasn’t had much competition. Desbiens separated herself from the pack with her winning 51-save performance against the U.S. on Tuesday. It was the highest total ever by a Canadian netminder, female or male, in Olympic competition.
For three of the five previous Olympic all-star teams (there was no all-star team at the inaugural 1998 women’s tournament), a European goalie whose heroics enabled her side to medal was selected: Sweden’s Kim Martin (2006), Switzerland’s Florence Schelling (2014), and Finland’s Noora Raty (2018). But Beijing – due to big-time blowouts including Switzerland’s 12-1 loss to Canada and 8-0 loss to the Americans – hasn’t been kind to Group A European goalie statistics.
Even after closing out the group stage with a 5-0 shutout over the ROC team, Finland’s Anni Keisala appears unlikely to repeat her Best Goalie and all-star honours from Calgary. Unless the Finns get past Japan and she performs miracles against a North American powerhouse, it’s hard to bounce back from the 3.63 GAA and 88.8 save percentage Keisala currently sports.
As for the Americans? Coach Joel Johnson has rotated his trio of Nicole Hensley, Alex Cavallini, and Maddie Rooney, and none has played enough or faced enough rubber to merit all-star consideration.
Defence: Renata Fast, Jocelyne Larocque (CAN)
Canada’s top pairing plays the hardest minutes and gives up the fewest chances. At these Games, Renata Fast has not been on for a single even-strength goal. Jocelyne Larocque, a shot-blocking machine and ever-present menace along the wall and in front of the net, has been on for one. These veterans find ways to punish you even in a sport ostensibly without bodychecking.
Prior to the showdown with the U.S., Ryan spread out the minutes among his blueliners. But in the crunch, he shortens his bench because he knows who he can count on. Fast jumped from 17:15 of ice time in the 6-1 win over the ROC team to a game-high 29:19 versus the Americans. During those two games, Larocque went from 18:13 to 26:01.
U.S. superstar Brianna Decker – whose tournament-ending injury against Finland was a major blow to her team’s hopes of repeating – recently touted Megan Keller as the world’s top defender. Yet while Keller’s combo of size, strength, speed, and smarts is tough to top, her pairing with Savannah Harmon just hasn’t been as game-changing as what Fast and Larocque have delivered thus far.
Forward: Brianne Jenner, Sarah Nurse, Natalie Spooner (CAN)
The numbers tell a compelling story about this potent trio. Brianne Jenner now has 12 points in her last 11 games against the U.S. in Olympic and Women’s Worlds play, including her two goals against the U.S. at the Wukesong Sports Centre. You couldn’t ask for someone to step up at a bigger time. Jenner embodies the best of the straight-ahead Canadian game. She’s also gone 71.8 percent on draws, the highest success rate among players who have taken more than 20 faceoffs.
Like Jenner, Sarah Nurse scored a hat trick in the opener against Finland, and she’s continued to play with pace and power all over the ice since seamlessly replacing Emily Clark on the Jenner line alongside captain Marie-Philip Poulin. As she’s shown a couple of times in Beijing, Nurse can zing a bar-down beauty quicker than you can blink. Like Jenner (again), she’s already up to eight points.
Meanwhile, Natalie Spooner is putting together a star turn that outshines her reality TV stints on The Amazing Race and Battle of the Blades. The big-bodied 31-year-old veteran is doing it all: dominating on the cycle, taking away goalies’ eyes, and finding her teammates with one sweet pass after another.
Leading the tournament with 11 points, Spooner’s nine assists exceed every other Olympic skater’s total points. Wild but true: Spooner has more points through four games here than she had in her two previous Olympics or eight Women’s Worlds.
The funny thing is that, when this is all over, Poulin – the only player ever to score in three Olympic finals (2010, 2014, 2018) – or Sarah Fillier, her 21-year-old heir apparent, could easily wind up on the all-star team in lieu of the women we’ve just praised. Or as MVP.
Fillier – the tenacious, talented Princeton captain – had the hockey world buzzing when she scored the opening goals against Finland and Switzerland just over a minute in. Her five goals are tied with Jenner for tops in Beijing.
And to think all of this is happening in the absence of Melodie Daoust, who not only was named MVP in the 2018 Olympic silver medal run but was also MVP when she led the 2021 Women’s Worlds in scoring with 12 points. Daoust went down with an upper-body injury after getting hit by Switzerland’s Sarah Forster on Day One.
It speaks to Canada’s depth. Remember how the Swiss struggled at the 2021 Women’s Worlds without Alina Muller or imagine how the Finnish blue line would fare without Jenni Hiirikoski.
The U.S. has great depth too. And American aces like Hilary Knight (3+2=5), Amanda Kessel (2+4=6), and Alex Carpenter (4+1=5) are producing, but just not at the same level as their Canadian rivals.
Still, there’s no leeway to get cocky if you’re wearing the red Maple Leaf. “Tonight showed some lapses and little things we’ve got to tighten up,” Ryan admitted after beating the Americans courtesy of Desbiens’ greatness.
Yet if his team takes its dominance to new extremes in the playoffs, starting against underdog Sweden in the quarter-finals, his players will get recognized and maybe achieve a clean sweep when the media votes on all-stars. Stay tuned.
There is one parallel example from the men’s game. At the 1983 Worlds in West Germany, the Soviet Union had goalie Vladislav Tretiak, defencemen Vyacheslav Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov, and forwards Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov, and Sergei Makarov on the all-star team.