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Anyone Else Notice Huge Strides In The Women's Game?

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OttawaRoughRiderFan*

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An American friend was in Canada during the 2010 Olympics. He, myself and a few friends were talking about the women's Olympic games. While we were all fully invested in our country's women's team winning, we confessed that women's hockey was NOT entertaining. At times, it was struggle to watch and downright boring.

What a difference 5 years makes. Between the 2014 Olympics and yesterday's tournament in BC, I am shocked at the strides women's hockey has made. The speed, the skill, the back and forth action, it is a treat to watch. Add the fact that Finland and Sweden's teams are now strong and capable of beating the Big 2...

I have no idea what the women have done during the last 4 years but... :handclap:
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I didnt watch any of the 4N but I have to question, why do you think just now the Swedes and Finns can compete? Sweden who hasnt picked up a single medal since 2007, with their best finish being 4th, twice. Sweden has been more in decline in recent years. Their U-18 side struggled, their senior program finished 7th before the Olympics which is why they were not in the A Group. They did however have a good showing there.
Finland on the other hand, ok, they have been up there for years but lets be honest, how will they do without Räty in real tournaments.

Outside that, yes, womens ice hockey has progressed and its great to see Russia coming along, the Czechs look like they have some good talent coming through, Japan has played well, Poland program started off amazing and has sort of settled for the moment but they have great youth. Hungary is looking like they might be able to make that push soon, Denmark and Norway have good talent, just cant make that extra step at the moment.

The womens game is looking to become more competitive all around. However, I still refuse to watch Canada/USA v. anybody but will watch anybody v. anybody and US v. Canada.

China and Kazakhstan on the other hand.....:shakehead
 
Purple hippo said:
I didnt watch any of the 4N but I have to question, why do you think just now the Swedes and Finns can compete? Sweden who hasnt picked up a single medal since 2007, with their best finish being 4th, twice. Sweden has been more in decline in recent years. Their U-18 side struggled, their senior program finished 7th before the Olympics which is why they were not in the A Group. They did however have a good showing there.
Finland on the other hand, ok, they have been up there for years but lets be honest, how will they do without Räty in real tournaments.
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I found they were far more competitive.

Purple hippo said:
Outside that, yes, womens ice hockey has progressed and its great to see Russia coming along, the Czechs look like they have some good talent coming through, Japan has played well, Poland program started off amazing and has sort of settled for the moment but they have great youth. Hungary is looking like they might be able to make that push soon, Denmark and Norway have good talent, just cant make that extra step at the moment.

The womens game is looking to become more competitive all around. However, I still refuse to watch Canada/USA v. anybody but will watch anybody v. anybody and US v. Canada.

China and Kazakhstan on the other hand.....:shakehead
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I agree with the rest of the post.
 
haven't watched any games this year, but I never miss the important games later in the year; and every year there's a noticeable improvement in the skill level of the girls and I love watching them play.
 
The main reason it has taken so long for other teams to catch up to Canada/US is that women's hockey was in its infancy even in N.A. The Canadian and U.S. teams have improved a great deal in the last 15 years themselves, but may have finally plateaued a little bit, allowing others to close the gap. The current incarnations of the 3rd through 8th best teams in the world would absolutely destroy the Canada/U.S. teams from 1998 and likely still beat 2002/2006.
 
JiveTurkey said:
The current incarnations of the 3rd through 8th best teams in the world would absolutely destroy the Canada/U.S. teams from 1998 and likely still beat 2002/2006.
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That's a BOLD statement.
 
I'm always glad to see that there is progression in hockey, whether women's or men's. As much as I love seeing Canada win it is good to see there there are improvements being made by other nations as well.
Watching the B Pool during the Olympics was just as entertaining for me as the other games.
 
Purple hippo said:
I didnt watch any of the 4N but I have to question, why do you think just now the Swedes and Finns can compete? Sweden who hasnt picked up a single medal since 2007, with their best finish being 4th, twice. Sweden has been more in decline in recent years. Their U-18 side struggled, their senior program finished 7th before the Olympics which is why they were not in the A Group. They did however have a good showing there.
Finland on the other hand, ok, they have been up there for years but lets be honest, how will they do without Räty in real tournaments.
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Räty didn't retire from national team.

http://www.iltasanomat.fi/jaakiekko/art-1288757097479.html
 
Sweden has improved a lot under Leif Boork I would say. He was only an assistant at the Olympics, now the head coach, and he's gotten the team on the same page. First thing he did was to sort out the "stars" and make sure that if you play for my team, you're buying in 110%. It was a team with issues between players and coaches before and that's not good enough. But it's still mostly a structural improvement, not a huge influx of new talent.

Boork is one of the most controversial but also one of the most, if not the most influential hockey person in Sweden. The media exposure for women's hockey has sky rocketed under him(although it was starting from 0). They'll bite on everything he says or tweets and he creates an interest that way. He knows this and uses his power.

Right now there are some SHL teams starting up elite teams for women(some have had for a long time too). The biggest issue with women's hockey is the (lack of) interest and economy. The highest division has attendances less than 100, and I dare say most of them are family. So it's charity really to put money into women's hockey at this point.
 
I definitely think the Canadian and American women have plateaued a bit at least on offense. Losing Hayley Wickenheiser is going to show. She is the definition of a female generational hockey player. I am jealous that the American's have Hilary Knight. She's a monster out there with a great shot. Keeping her contained is a very hard task.
 
Wait......when did women start playing hockey??


:sarcasm:



Ok I have a 2 1/2 year old daughter and am looking forward to watching her play hockey or ringette some day.
 
Gigantor The Goalie said:
I definitely think the Canadian and American women have plateaued a bit at least on offense. Losing Hayley Wickenheiser is going to show. She is the definition of a female generational hockey player. I am jealous that the American's have Hilary Knight. She's a monster out there with a great shot. Keeping her contained is a very hard task.
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I disagree. I don't think they have plateaued. I just think the improvement of Russia, Finland and Sweden is at a higher level and it appears like less improvement at the top.

Re : "Hilary Knight"

She's a babe.
 
The progress hasn't been that great, actually. As stated earlier, Sweden has taken some steps back - which more of a reason why countries like Switzerland and Russia appear closer now.

And while Finland may have the skill to be clear #3 in the world, they have for the last three years essentially trained for nothing but how to ride Räty and keep the score close against Canada and USA, perhaps eking out a win every now and then. So much in fact, that in the process they sort of forgot to practice how to beat the opponents on their own level. They were so focused in their defensive game that they had no idea how to play when they were supposed to be dominant team, as the games vs. Switzerland and Sweden displayed in Sochi.

That 5th place was kind of embarrassing. It showed that they were trying to extend the reach of their ladder by cutting stuff off the bottom and adding it on the top, leading to a reality where they were better prepped against the Big 2, but regressed versus the rest. What one really needs to do first is figure out how to comfortably run up the score against the closest competitors before trying to work out how to go for the stars.
 
joe89 said:
Sweden has improved a lot under Leif Boork I would say. He was only an assistant at the Olympics, now the head coach, and he's gotten the team on the same page. First thing he did was to sort out the "stars" and make sure that if you play for my team, you're buying in 110%. It was a team with issues between players and coaches before and that's not good enough. But it's still mostly a structural improvement, not a huge influx of new talent.

Boork is one of the most controversial but also one of the most, if not the most influential hockey person in Sweden. The media exposure for women's hockey has sky rocketed under him(although it was starting from 0). They'll bite on everything he says or tweets and he creates an interest that way. He knows this and uses his power.

Right now there are some SHL teams starting up elite teams for women(some have had for a long time too). The biggest issue with women's hockey is the (lack of) interest and economy. The highest division has attendances less than 100, and I dare say most of them are family. So it's charity really to put money into women's hockey at this point.
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These days you actually have to pay to attend the games so that probably brings down the numbers somewhat.

Looking back at past 10 years there have been hugh improvements to the domestic leagues for women in Sweden. Back then Sweden's best players were still spending half the season playing against teams which frequently had to dress children under the age of 10 to have a "full" roster.

Things like that doesn't happen at the highest level these days luckely. The league is however still extremly uneven in terms of quality. I we look at goal differential there are 100 goals separating the league leaders from the team at the bottom.... and we're only 9 games into the season.
 
joe89 said:
Sweden has improved a lot under Leif Boork I would say. He was only an assistant at the Olympics, now the head coach, and he's gotten the team on the same page. First thing he did was to sort out the "stars" and make sure that if you play for my team, you're buying in 110%. It was a team with issues between players and coaches before and that's not good enough. But it's still mostly a structural improvement, not a huge influx of new talent.

Boork is one of the most controversial but also one of the most, if not the most influential hockey person in Sweden. The media exposure for women's hockey has sky rocketed under him(although it was starting from 0). They'll bite on everything he says or tweets and he creates an interest that way. He knows this and uses his power.

Right now there are some SHL teams starting up elite teams for women(some have had for a long time too). The biggest issue with women's hockey is the (lack of) interest and economy. The highest division has attendances less than 100, and I dare say most of them are family. So it's charity really to put money into women's hockey at this point.
Click to expand...

Boork is the right man for the job. For you NA guys, he coached Sweden in the Canada cup final 1984 (which Sweden lost against Canada), still a huge success at the time.
 
I wouldn't say there have been "huge strides" in the women's game.

Even after all these years the only teams capable of so much as making it close now and then against the north Americans are the Finns and Swedes.

Barring the odd miracle (from Sweden at 2006 Olympics, and Finland at 2013 4 nations cup), it's still Canada-USA in every single final.

And even when the Scandanavians manage to make it close the shots still tend to be horribly one-sided.

It's not the forgone conclusion that it was 10 years ago, but it still makes for agonizingly slow progress.
 
Canuckistani said:
I wouldn't say there have been "huge strides" in the women's game.

Even after all these years the only teams capable of so much as making it close now and then against the north Americans are the Finns and Swedes.
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If all nations are making similar strides, then wouldn't it still be North Americans largely dominating (even if the overall tide has increased significantly)? Agreed that I'd prefer to see more nations competitive from a medal perspective, but the North American game has improved just as much as the rest of the world has improved.

I've been coaching college women's hockey off and on since 1998, and the level has improved by miles.
 
OttawaRoughRiderFan said:
That's a BOLD statement.
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I stand by it, I recently watched a good bit of the 98 gold medal game and the difference in play was striking. The biggest jump came from 98-02 when the extra funding from being in the Olympics started kicking in.

There were also plenty of instances on both the Canadian and U.S. teams of players who had been stalwarts in their early 20s being pushed out by younger players when they were still in their "prime". It didn't happen because those players got worse.
 
Gigantor The Goalie said:
I definitely think the Canadian and American women have plateaued a bit at least on offense. Losing Hayley Wickenheiser is going to show. She is the definition of a female generational hockey player. I am jealous that the American's have Hilary Knight. She's a monster out there with a great shot. Keeping her contained is a very hard task.
Click to expand...

Canada has Megan Agosta to replace Wickenheiser, though she's given up her pro career with the Montreal Stars of the Canadian Women's Hockey League to become a police officer because she couldn't make a living playing - which is a real shame.
 
ForsbergForever said:
Canada has Megan Agosta to replace Wickenheiser, though she's given up her pro career with the Montreal Stars of the Canadian Women's Hockey League to become a police officer because she couldn't make a living playing - which is a real shame.
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I love Agosta's goal scoring ability but she isn't on the same level as Hayley. Lucky for us though Agosta will be playing again next year. I'm happy for her. The closest player we have to Wickenheiser now is Marie-Philip Poulin.
 
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