I've thought that the US women passed us some years ago. I think they have been superior for at least a half dozen years. Sometimes the best team doesn't win in a one shot deal take all.
The US woman will continue to get stronger and produce better players. We have no system in Canada that can equal the womens NCAA program.
With all due respect to the Canadain women it's like a group of rink rats taking on a well oiled machine. The Canadian women are off the scale in the compete department however.
Probably considerable truth to what ur saying. However, in an Olympic year , when our women's team assembles in Calgary, for an extended period, for rigorous training + a series of games against Midget Aged AAA Boyz teams, the presumed gap btwn USA women's team & ours seems to lessen considerably. Indeed the proof is in the pudding.
Canada's women haven't just won the last 4 OG Gold's, they're also unbeaten in 20 straight OG games. Beating their US counterparts , for example, both times they played them in Sochi
Tessa Bonne Homme intimated smthg similar during the TSN broadcast of The WC GMG. Namely, that our gals have been forced to play catch-up, but that they do in fact catch-up with their arch rivals prior to OG competitions.
Again 4 straight Golds + 6 straight head to head victories vs Yanks in OG contests , or whatever it is, doesn't seem like dumb luck/ a statistical aberration, much less a one off.
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If memory serves ( and correct me if I'm wrong ), as recently as 1998 , TC's women's coaches weren't even being paid by HC. They were volunteers taking an unpaid leave of absence, in some instances, from their day jobs as it were. And when their American counterparts heard about this, they couldn't believe it.
Stateside even high school coaches can earn a good living
The point is that , year in year out, USA's women's hockey program also seems to have been better funded