Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - OLYMPICS SQUAD: HISTORIC: USA Women DOMINATE Canada 5-0, Marie-Philip Poulin Absence Exposed in Olympic ROUT

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

Team USA Women shock Team Canada with a dominant 5-0 victory—has the balance of power shifted in Olympic hockey? Gil Martin leads the debate with David Morassutti and Glenn Dreyfuss, spotlighting the Americans’ airtight defense, standout performances from Hannah Bilka and Laila Edwards, and the historic inclusion of three Black players in a single Olympic game. The crew questions if Team Canada can recover from this lopsided loss, debating what adjustments Marie-Philip Poulin’s return might spark and whether the U.S. could be overconfident heading toward a likely gold medal rematch. Turning to the men’s tournament, the panel analyzes Canada’s stacked roster with Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid, USA’s goaltending strengths, and dark horse threats like Finland, Czechia, and Germany’s Leon Draisaitl. Insightful previews of opening matchups and tactical lineup strategies add extra heat. Can any squad disrupt North American dominance on the Olympic ice? Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!QuoMake this the year where no opportunity — and no customer — slips away. Try Quo for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to http://Quo.com/lockedonnhl.FactorHead to http://factormeals.com/lockedonnhl50off and use code lockedonnhl50off to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year.  IndeedNow, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to https://indeed.com/lockedon right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelThe Winter Games are on. And there’s no better way to follow them than with a bet on FanDuel. FanDuel - Play your game.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The American women's stun team Canada in the preliminary realm, while the men are ready to go to battle. We've got all that and more coming up on today's NHL Olympic squad. You are talking puck with the NHL squad show. From the Oilers to the stars, Golden Knights and the Panthers, the Rangers, avalanche, and yes, even the Maple Leafs. The Locked-on podcast network brings together all its local experts to provide the scoops, breakdowns, and comprehensive look. at all the NHL with plenty of trash talk to go with it. Don't miss the hard hits and glove dropping hot takes on the Locked-on NHL Squad Show. It's time to drop the puck.

Gilmartin here and welcome everybody to another episode of the Locked-on NHL Squad Show Olympic edition. We've got lots to get to on today's show. We first want to welcome in David Morrisuti from Lockedon Leaves and Glenn Dreyfus from Locked on Cracken as we talk Pucks right here. And I want to thank everyone for making the Locked on NHL Squad show your first listen every day. Don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe so you never miss an episode. And thank you all for helping to make Locked on the number one sports podcast network. We are your team every day.

And gentlemen, let's start with the women's game that took place earlier this afternoon. or at least earlier this afternoon, North America time. The United States beating Canada 5 to nothing. Canada, obviously, without their captain. And David, let's start with you. Were you stunned by this outcome? And how much do you think it actually means

in the big scheme of things? I wouldn't say stunned. I probably disappointed just because these are two teams over the years. it's always been close battles, but you're starting to see, you know, the U.S. where they've really picked up, taking strides kind of in their game. Like Canada hasn't had a win over the U.S.

and I think over a year in competition. Like the U.S. have had Canada's number. And like you look at this game and you say, okay, it's just a preliminary round. It's not the go, you know, win and go home game. But it's a message sending one. And in a lot of ways, it's going to really test the mental resolve of the whole, you know, entire team Canada,

who have never really felt like this at the Olympics before. They've obviously done it at World Championships where they've lost pretty tough games to the U.S. But at the Olympics, this is new territory for them. And so it's really going to test how Canada is going to be able to bounce back in a lot of ways. Glenn, what was your impression of this game and did it surprise you? This was a tushed whipping. Can you say tush on YouTube, or did we just set off alarm bells at locked on headquarters? This was a tush whoopin.

The Americans have beaten the Canadians now seven straight times in women's hockey. It's the first time they ever had a four-goal lead in the Olympics, Team USA over Team Canada. And then it became a five-goal lead. So, yeah, if Poulin had played, you know, maybe it would have been four to one. Now, I like Canada. Sometimes I like it better than the U.S., okay? But this is the biggest crisis in Canada since they ran out of Timbits on Youngstreet. So they may have to call a special parliament meeting to discuss this.

if the U.S. plays Canada again in the final, I mean, which they will if Canada shows up, if they don't just pack up and go home. I'm not sure it's going to be a whole lot different. Normally, the team that loses, you know, has the motivation to come back and show they can do better. But what can they do? I mean, yeah, all right, I'm surprised at the margin.

I'm even surprised that team USA won, even without the Canadian captain. But for it to be this lopsided, the Canadians got some splaining to do. Yeah, I would say Canada looked disconnected right from the start. I mean, they only have four shots on goal. It gives a lot of credit to the U.S. and how they played defensively in this game. Canada did not have a lot. they couldn't get anything really to the net. There was no room to breathe.

And the U.S. were really good at the counterattack forcing turnover. So Canada, in a lot of ways, with their own worst enemy at times, but give credit to the U.S. because they played a very tight defensive game, and I'm sure that's something that doesn't happen very often in women's hockey where a team is able to just play airtight defense, especially at the Olympics. Usually, you know, this early on,

teams are still kind of trying to figure it out but the u.s looks pretty locked in on their game plan so if you're canada how do you respond to this what what changes if any do you make to prevent this from happening again yeah it's tough because i mean the one thing that you're hoping for is that the next time these two teams play against each other you have marie p p plan they're a best player in line up like that one player i know it doesn't always make a difference when a result is this lopsided, but she is Captain Clutch for a reason. She wills a team to victory quite often.

But I think there's just, it might be one of those things where you have to make, you know, as many adjustments as you can. I don't know how much you can really change the lineup, right? Like the players you got or the players you got, right? And so the one thing the U.S. are also going to be able to do is they can look at anything that they might have seen that they can approve. we want. So if the U.S. are even going to be improving themselves, that's going to make things even tougher for Canada.

And so I do think that Canada's got to find a way to play with a little more intensity, a little more, a little more urgency, speed, because that was not something they had. They were behind, they were a step behind quite often in this game. And those are things that are hard to, hard to fix, you know, when you're midway through a tournament. Glenn, do you think there's a danger that it was a little, too easy for the Americans that maybe they get a little overconfident after a five-nothing outcome? Yeah, I was thinking about that, and I don't think so. But first, I have a genuine recommendation for Team Canada. I'm going to use a visual aid. Here's what you do with that game. You want it in a ball, and you flush it. This isn't one of those games where you go, well, let's look at the video, let's see what we can tweak. No.

You have a short memory and you flush it because the two teams start zero, zero for the next game. For the Americans, no, I think they want this too much to let themselves be overconfident. But they have reason to be because in this tournament so far, they've outscored their opponents 20 to 1. They created a new line for this game, moving Hannah Bilka with the Abby Murphy-Taylor Heist line. And that worked out okay. Hannah Bilka had two goals. And Abby Murphy had a goal, I think, and two assists. She had a three-point night.

Carolyn Harvey also had a three-point night. I know Harvey had a goal. So whatever the U.S. is doing right now, it's working. So, you know, they just want to keep it going. But I didn't even get the sense that the team USA had to work that hard for the shutout. Just something wasn't right with Team Canada. It's absolutely fixable. but something has to change.

And David made a great point about the defense. When it's 5-0-0, you think about all the goals scoring. But, you know, Hannah Bilka, hockey player, she didn't want to talk about herself. She talked about the USA penalty kill. Canada had been 5 for 9 on power plays coming into this game. And what do they get in this game? Squad douche.

Yeah. And Bilka said about her. penalty killers, they're dogs out there. They change the momentum and tilt the ice. So special teams, especially the penalty kill, also big for USA. It's going to be interesting to see how Team Canada responds. Now, they still have one more game in the preliminary round because of one game being postponed due to illness and the virus that was going around.

How important is it for Canada to play well and bounce back? in this last preliminary game. Yeah, I mean, look, if you're Canada, you've got a, you just have to think about, in a lot of ways, what Glenn said, you got to flesh this game a little bit. But I also just think you got to, you got to find a way to play with a bit more urgency. You've got to find a way to just say to yourself that, you know, you're going to lose games like this once in a while. We just have to find a way to not let it ruin the chemistry that's been built up, right,

throughout the years. And I don't think that's going to be too much probably. Canada was also playing on the back, on a back to back. So was the U.S. Like this is, there is going to be a bit of a grind through this tournament. So I just think you can't let, and they're not going to let one game throw them off too much. But I'm sure that's going to be the one thing is Canada's going to have to find a way to not let this loss skew over too much. Gil, there's one more thing that I wanted to point out about this game that isn't related to the result. result. Layla Edwards out of the University of Wisconsin plays for Team USA. She had USA's fifth goal on a laser in the third period. And in a few minutes earlier in the period, she made a key

block, which is really impressive when you're six one. That's a long way to go down to make a block. But the bigger point is Edwards is also the first black woman to play in the Olympics for Team USA. And did you know there were three black players in this game, Sarah Nurse and Sophie Jakes, members of Team Canada? So a landmark in diversity in this game with three black players. and that deserves to be noted and in a way is more important than who won and who lost. No doubt a milestone and always great to see more diversity in the sport of hockey. We're going to see how Team Canada responds to all of this. We'll turn our attention to the men's side as the tournament is about to begin.

We'll talk about that next on the squad show. Today's episode is brought to by Indeed, if you ever hired someone who looked good on paper but wasn't the right fit, you know how important that is. When you want candidates who truly match what you're looking for, trust indeed sponsored jobs. Hiring, Indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job posts seen on other sites. Indeed, sponsored jobs puts your post at the top of the page and helps you reach the right candidates faster. Sponsored jobs boost your post to the people who are the best match for your role.

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on this podcast. terms and conditions apply hiring, do it the right way with indeed. So the men's tournament about to begin, and it should be a very interesting tournament. Guys, before we get into Canada and the United States, is there another team or two teams that you view as contenders in this tournament? Because for better or for worse, the men's tournament is deeper in competition than the women's tournament. I do.

I think Sweden, you know, I know they've had some injuries and things like that, but that's a team that's always in the mix every year. And they can, you know, they're exceptional at the European style game, right? When we think about the changes to NHL officiant to Olympic, AAHF and fished, that's going to be something that some teams are going to have to have to figure out. Sweden's not going to be one of those teams. A lot of these guys are used to playing in these tournaments.

and these guys have great chemistry. I think that's something that can't be this, you know, can't be overlooked when you're going into a tournament like this. I know there's a lot of attention being played on Canada and U.S. and for good reason. And the other one for me is Finland. You know, that's a team that's got some really good players. Like you got Miko Ransom, you got Sebastianahou, you got Miro Heiskenen.

Goaltending will be one of the things. Can UC Saros be really good in Neckon? can he be the UC Saras that was a Vesnaworthy goaltender rather than the UCSaurus that struggled the last little bit here with the predators? But I think those are two teams that are going to get overlooked a little bit. I think Sweden obviously has the depth of talent that Finland maybe just doesn't have. But Finland's got some star players that can step up. We've seen them step up in the playoffs many times in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Glenn? Oh, give me some Finland. I mean, David is right on. but to me, this is a loaded lineup, even once you get past Rantanin and Ah, and there's, it's just everywhere you look, it's NHL stars, Armia of the Kings and Holla of the Predators, Rupae Hints of the Stars.

I mean, they are, to me, this is a terrific lineup with Heiskenen on the, back end and, you know, they're good. Now, I agree they don't have the goaltending depth. Corpusalo and Lankan would not inspire the same level of confidence in the depth. But if Soros is on, we know he can be the best goalie in the world. And so I think Finland would be my dark horse if you want to call it that going into the tournament. How about a bigger dark horse, maybe a team that very few people are expecting to contend that could maybe not win a medal,

but who could pull off an upset or two and upset the Apple card a little bit? Glenn, why don't we start this one with you? Okay, I'm going to go with Team Germany because Philip Gruber from my cracking, he's top 10 in the NHL in both saved percentage and goals against average. And if you told me you'd predicted that at the beginning of the season, I would tell you you're a liar. because there was a better chance he was going to be bought out than he was going to be top 10. But he's playing lights out right now and he's going to keep Team Germany in games.

Then they have this forward you might have heard of Leon Drysidl. And they have Tim Stutzel also. Now, I don't think they can get Drysidal and Stutzler to play all 60 minutes or for that matter, Mo Cider from the Red Wings on defense. but if you're looking for a team that could give other teams some trouble and that have done okay in international competition, you know, there's my team out of nowhere. David, how about you?

Give me Chequia. Chequia is, you know, you look at the lineup. It's a good lineup, right? I know you got hurdle. You have Pashtonach. Pasnach is probably one of the more underrated star players. given his production, you know, year after year. Yeah, the blue line has got a mix of, you know, decent.

Like Philip Ronick is a good defenseman, right? They don't have like an elite top end blue liner, but, you know, I think they got a pretty good depth of talent. Now, Lucas Dostow and Carol Vamalka, that's not a terrible goaltending tandem. Chequia is a team that can definitely, you know, pull off a few surprises. They did last, in the last World Championship.

right nobody expected them to go far like a guy like david camp former leaf who his uh you know when he's played for check yeah he's had some really good games they got some good players it's just do they have enough to go toe to toe with some of the star caliber teams we'll see but i mean they're a team that can that can make some make life difficult for some of these top contenders looking now at the united states and canada let let's start with the u.s Are you guys concerned about the goal tending on Team USA? As someone who's Canadian, no. When you can say you got a Vezna Trophy Goldtender and Connor Hullabuck,

Ah, Hullabuck is struggling. Who are we going to go to next? Oh, you got Jake Odinger? Gee, that's such a tough life you live. But I mean, like, yeah, some of these guys haven't had great performances this season. kind of up and down odd and you i have a lot of faith in but i know that the um i know that a lot has been made of the fact that they hadn't really they weren't ready to name a starter yet that's just them being a little that's a little bit of gamesmanship there like it's going to be

hell buck to start the guy is going to be playing in front up a way better team and we know what he did last year at the four nations like he gave them every chance to win that four nations final. I think the U.S. are going to be totally fine. They've got the depth of gold time. They got enough there, I think, to, you know, be comfortable in that position. I think of out of the all the position, I think

Goldang is probably one I'm not too concerned with the yes, just because of the depth of talent that they have there. And well, since Go ahead, Gil. No, no, go ahead, Glenn. Go ahead. Well, since David talked Team USA,

I'll talk Team Canada. And, boy, is this a loaded lineup. Oh, baby. You look at, on paper, the Team USA lineup and the Team Canada lineup, I don't think it's close. I think Team Canada, top to bottom, is superior. Sam Bennett, Macklin Celebrini, Sidney, Sidney, McKinnon, Marshan, Marner, McDavid.

I mean, they're going to need more than one puck. If they can, I mean, their fourth line is going to be scary. Now, again, they don't have a clear cut number one in goal. I'm not completely sold on Jordan Bennington. So if they have a week, not a week, but a weaker spot, that may be it. But heck, other teams may not get more than 10 or 12 shots on goal, so it may not matter. Yeah, I mean, like 20, when the last time of the NHL is at the Olympics, when Kerry Price was in that, it was as if he was on vacation.

I don't even think he broke a sweat in that tournament. They were just that good. And I think that's going to be a big part of it for Canada. I mean, glad you said it, Glenn, because, you know, I'm trying to act impartial here. But, yeah, I mean, Canada has Sidney Crosby as their third line center right now. Yeah, I mean. Well, that's because of how far he's falling off, David. Yeah.

All right. I'm going to save this next question for after the break. But we've got some specific games to preview as well. We'll get to that right after this on the Lockdown NHL Squad show. Today's episode is brought to you by Factor. Cold days, pack schedules, and big goals. That's winter. And when there's not a lot of time to cook, eating well can feel like another thing on the to-do list. That's where Factor comes in. Factor makes healthy eating easy with fully prepared meals designed by dieticians and crafted by chefs so you can eat well without the planning, prepping, or cooking. Factor meals are always fresh, never frozen, and they're ready in about two minutes. The ingredients stand out, lean protein. colorful veggies, whole foods, and healthy fats, and you have great options like high protein, calorie smart, Mediterranean diet, GLP1 support, and even the new muscle pro collection for strength and recovery. Head to factormeals.com slash locked on NHL 50 off and use code locked on

NHL 50 off to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year. Eat like a pro this month with factor new subscribers only varies by plan one free breakfast per item per box for one year while subscription is active. Here's the question I was saving. Gil, before you get to that, I haven't had a chance to talk to David before. I want to ask him one question. All right. In the show open, it says, we'll even talk about the Leafs.

We'll even talk about the Leafs. You shouldn't have to put up with that. I appreciate that. usually it's the other way wrong. Usually why are we even including the Leafs? They get talked about enough. You got to include the Leafs. I appreciate that, Gled.

All right. I think I know why that's there, and I'm not going to say because I don't know for sure, but I think I know who's responsible for putting that in. Anyway, as we move on, one thing that is always interesting when it comes to these Olympic tournaments, and I think this is especially true for Team Canada and Team USA. Do you want to just put, you know, the 23 or 25 best players out there?

Or are you trying to build a team where guys are going to play specific roles like being a penalty killer or a checking forward? Which of the two teams here in North America do you think did a better job of constructing a team rather than just a list of talented players? I think Canada did a bit more of that just because, you left the guy like Connor Bred off the team. Mark Shifley was not added. Like people were saying you got this guy who puts up all these goals, he's got all these points. And it was no.

Like we were more focused on having guys like Seth Jarvis, Sam Bennett, you know, Nick Suzuki, guys who, I mean, Nick Suzuki's put up a good amount of points. Even Bo Horvath.

Like guys who are more known for being two-way players than for being, you know, goal scores, talented players. players. It's just the way it kind of is with Canada. I mean, Canada has quite a few players that are willing to do

that. And I think that makes, you know, you can have a Nathan McKinnon, you can have a Sydney Crosby, and you know that they're not going to, you know, take shortcuts in a tournament like this. They're taking the business-like approach. You saw it at the Four Nations, too. Those were not, Canada didn't just

go out and try to outscore their problems. They were very responsible. I think Team USA in a lot of ways did that too. I just feel like Canada already had a lot of those guys ingrained, but you look at the injury replacements, the guys that were brought in to replace the injured players, and replaced them with the next best talented player.

They went with the guy who suits what the team really needed. Glenn, any thoughts? My first thought is that is a brilliant question, Gil. Take an extra 20 out of petty cash. Because teams have made a mistake in the past by loading up on all the players with gaudy statistics and not having the players who will do the unglomerous, dirty,

the players who will play the 200-foot game, the players who will take the face-offs and get off the ice and play on the penalty kill and accept their roles. That's been a big mistake because these are all players, who were stars on their teams. So, you know, you got to have to have a, we are the world philosophy, you know, leave your ego at the door, right?

Yeah. And we won't know till the actual games are played, who actually did the best job of that because even the players who on their own teams are stars may be asked, to play reduced minutes. We know that. It may be asked to play shorter shifts or not get the ice time they're used to. The team that's going to be okay with that is the team that's going to have the most success.

But I can't tell you right now who that is. Well, we're going to find out over the next week or so. So something to keep an eye on. The men's tournament gets underway. Let's talk a little bit about the first couple of games. Slovakia and Finland. Any thoughts on that one? That's a good rival.

I know Finland, Sweden, usually a big rally, but so is Finland, Slovakia. I think that's going to be quite a chippy game. I think Finland has a bit of the edge just because of the talent

that's on their team. But I mean, Slovakia, they're going in with this chip on our shoulder underdog mentality. And so I think it's going to be a well-spirited game. It's the,

I believe it's the first. game or I don't know if Italy and Sweden's the first game. I can't remember which one, which based off the timing. I think it might be swimming, it might be the Italy one first. But I just think that this is going to be a pretty, I think there's going to be a bit of, you know, feeling out for both teams, but I like Finland's feeling a little bit more in this game. When the name you recognize from Team Slovakia is Martin Pospicil, then you're

you know, Team Slovakia is in trouble. And as far as Team Italy, well, they got the home ice advantage. So beyond that, I'm going to, as an Italian, as an Italian, my Italians, I might have to divert my eyes

because that's going to be, that's going to be tough. Now look, the Italians have been very impressive. You see all these athletes doing really well in the Olympics. But when it comes to this sport, when it comes to this competition

Sweden, I don't think it's going to be messing around very much. Now, I know Sweden's got a bit of, there's a little bit of question about William Neelander and if he's going to play. I mean, this is, if you're going to hold him out from a game, this is probably going to be the game to do it.

But I think, yeah, like, the Italians only have one player who is ever affiliated with an NHL team. That was Damien Clara who played like a couple of games in the HL last year. Everyone else plays in the ICEHL for those who may not even know that it was a hockey league.

So like Sweden is just so good that I think the spread for that game is like five and a half. And I think that's a generous five and a half. So the poor Italians. Yeah, that's the afternoon game. It might be one of those where I might just have to say a prayer, hoping a prayer that it's not too much of a buttwop in there. Well, we'll see how it all plays out. Should be a very interesting opening couple of games and lots to look forward to in the men's tournament.

If you haven't already, it's time to go check out our new Everydayer Club. You'll get access to an ad-free audio for your favorite team, compatible with Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and every other major podcast app. And you'll get an invite to the members only locked on Everydayer Club. Discord server, which includes a group chat just for listeners of your favorite team show. So check out the link in the show notes to get more information. I'm Gil Martin. Thanks so much, everybody.

Thank you to David Morrisuti of Locked On Leaves Glenn Dreyfus of Locked on Cracken for joining us today. We will be back with more squad shows throughout the Olympics. So stay with us here. Hit the like button and subscribe so you never miss an episode. Thanks so much for watching and listening to our Locked On. HL Squad Show Olympic edition. Have a great day, everybody.