The Athletic Hockey Show - USA wins gold in OT thriller: Women’s Olympic recap

Episode Date: February 19, 2026

After Team USA Women’s hockey team beat Canada for gold, Sean Gentille and Shayna Goldman were joined by Hailey Salvian on the scene in Milan to discuss the thrilling finish, OT hero Megan Keller, Hilary Knight ending her Hall of Fame career as a champion, the goaltending of Aerin Frankle, and what Marie-Philip Poulin and the Canadians need to do moving forward. Plus, thoughts on Switzerland’s bronze medal victory over Sweden earlier in the day and a quick update on injured Canadian Men’s captain Sidney Crosby, with the semifinals set to begin on Friday.This episode was recorded live at 5:05p ET on Thursday, February 19Hosts: Sean Gentille and Shayna GoldmanWith: Hailey SalvianExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff DometWatch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What up, what up? It's the Athletic Hockey Show February 19th. I am Sean Tintilly. I am joined by Shana Goldman. We will shortly be joined by Haley Salvin from Milan. Shana, the U.S. women are gold medal champions in Milan. There were three easy narrative routes to this game.

Tell me if you disagree with this. I feel like at the start of this, there were three doors to walk through. One, sheer American dominance, right? Because that's what we'd seen in the tournament before this. It's what we'd seen at Worlds. It's what we'd seen in a rivalry series. Two, Marie-Philippe-Puland, legend-building, goat status, craziness. That felt like it was absolutely on the table.

Gold Medal Games. It's what she does. Option C, which is what we ended up getting, another incredible game with a new hero. and that's the one that's one we walked through. USB Canada 2-1 in OT on a goal by Megan Keller completes a seven in-o tournament for the Americans. This is after undefeated gold at Worlds

four lopsided rivalry series games against Canada and also in their last 18 games against top competition, the U.S. has dismantled opponents, 84 to 15, including 33 to 2 if the Olympic Games. Wasn't a dominant win, controlled it for long stretches, but the results, the result. Megan Keller is the hero. And it's just another all-timer to add to what's the best rivalry in the sport, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah. And the narratives you said very easily could have gone that way, right? Like, changing of the guard, USA takes over and what's the plan for Canada? We could have gone there. And it felt like... Oh, we will. We're going there. We still will go there.

I'm going there just differently now, right? And if not for that, it was like, okay, briefly plan, fourth golden goal crushes the soul of all Americans once again. And yep, I was prepared for that 100%. I was like, if it's not playing, it's going to be Laura Stacey. Laura Stacey has three overtime game winners in the PWHL and who was having an excellent game. But we get set up the first candidate goal on a shorty that Chris and O'Neill, who we're going to talk about it in a minute. It was Laura Stacey making the play and putting O'Neill in the right spot there too.

So she had already made an impact on this one. Yeah. But I feel like we got the sweet spot of like it was a bangor of a game. We were talking about literally every part of the narrative, right? We talked about it's Taylor Heisey setting up the game winning goal. It's Layla Edwards setting up Hillary Knight. It is the veterans that we know. We love.

Some of us love thriving, excelling in these moments. And on the other hand, you have it where it's, you know, the tension of this game, which you felt from puck. I think the second the puck dropped, it was like, okay, we're not getting USA dominance. Narrative one out the door. And it's like, we are stuck between two. And we still are, right? Because we still have to talk about Poulin, even though she didn't score.

And we will. Let's talk about Hillary Knight first. Because I think this game, in a lot of ways, turned into, I, it's crazy to me that I, I missed the tip. I missed the tip on the game time goal there on the point shot from Lail Edwards. Of course it was Knight in front of the net. it was the U.S. Olympic setting or the U.S. career setting record in Olympic

in Olympic Games. It was the 15th goal for her, which was a record that I forgot that she was chasing at some point over the last couple days. I, it had been an uneven tournament for her. She's playing through something. I think that was clear.

But what a just remarkable capstone on one of the best careers in the history of American hockey. It wasn't just a thing. they won, it's that it's that they won almost literally because of her. Because without that little ramp up tip in, we're talking about a completely

different result. Yeah, it feels like as close to a storybook ending as you could have gotten, right? Like the only way it would have been storybook would have been had she actually scored the game winner. But her impact, I think you felt it all over the tournament in the beginning. And I kind of feel like they weakened her line a little bit putting her to curl there.

So I think changing that up today helped. But it just felt like as right as it could be. We do have Haley. Haley's in Milan taking a couple minutes to talk to us. Hello, hello. You're in there with audio only. We don't have video.

That's okay. Yeah, I thought I could stand in front of the most nondescript wall possible, but apparently that's also not allowed. Too exclusive. Who knows where the wall is too? This could be a white wall in my hotel room. You don't know. Could be on the street somewhere.

It could have a very, very specific type of paint on that wall. It's Alabaster White. Yes, it's, it's Sherman Williams finest. It's agreeable gray. Yeah. Bailey, what was the scene like in there? I know we were talking throughout the game. I know you had plans that went in the trash basket two or three or five, five different times.

Yeah. What was What was the vibe there Once you knew that the result was Was locked up? Well, I mean, I'll say I knew this was going to be like a two one overtime game When I wrote a 1,000 word story about the Americans Dominating and then a 700 word story about Canada

Like beating Goliath. So I knew this was going to be somewhere in the middle. The vibe was pretty crazy here. This was my first Olympic gold medal game in person. And I've obviously covered this in 2022, covered women's world championships. This is just different, you know, the celebrations by the Americans, the fact that it was Hillary Knight who ties it. You guys were just talking about it. It's Megan Keller who scores the winner.

Like I talked to Megan Keller before this tournament. And she said, you know, they don't need more, any more motivation to win something like this. they wanted to go out and do it for Hillary Knight. Knight and Keller have been so close for such a long time. I think the fact that it was those two was incredible. And like for everything that was made about the young players on Team USA, it was like two vets who got it done for Team USA. I mean, a 26-year-old Aaron Frankel too.

And the young players played well as well. But this was the fact that it was in her final Olympics, Hillary Knight got her crowning moment was unbelievably cool. I really can't put the atmosphere into words because I think it was just like utter chaos and madness. And I think I blacked out on national television because we had to talk about it right away. So I didn't answer your question because I don't know what the vibe was. I love that it was Megan Keller scoring that goal. She's a player who we've talked about.

I think the three of us, Haley, just you and I, I think she popped up in some of the pre-tournament coverage. you know, when we were kind of going back and forth with predictions over this one. Yeah. She's been such a good player for so long. And I think she's been overshadowed. And in some respects by a player is a little bit older than her in Knight. And now in this next generation, the KK Harvey's and the Layla Edwards of the world. I think Keller, to some people, unfairly, has gotten lost in the shuffle.

She's a remarkable player. She's a great player for the Boston Fleet. Yeah. But just the steadying element that she brings to that team when she's on the ice is really something. And we saw that on Hillary Knight's goal, by the way. It was a great job by Layla Edwards putting it on net and whatever. But Megan Keller settled things down and ends up getting the puck to Layla to set that up. So I thought it was fitting in a lot of ways in terms of how the game went,

but also how Megan Keller's career went, that she was the person making the play at the end. It was fun to see. Yeah, I mean, I think the fact that Team USA has put Megan Keller beside Layla Edwards, the player who's switched from forward to defense speaks to the steadying presence that Megan Keller brings, the way that she can balance out a deep hair, she can lock it down, she can, you know, be the player to let Layla play free. So yeah, I agree with all that, Sean. Like Megan Keller's got a bomb of a shot.

I asked Abby Murphy earlier in the tournament when Keller got, I think, her first of the Olympics. and I said, like, could Megan Keller win a hard-a-shot contest? And she said something to the likes of expletive, yeah, absolutely she can. So, yeah, I mean, Dom and I had Megan Keller as the second best defender heading into this tournament behind Caroline Harvey. I still think Caroline Harvey is like a more dynamic offensive defender because of the skating and the speed. But in terms of an overall package, Megan Keller is up there as one of the true, like, two-way forces in the game. and there's a reason she got the sea in Boston when Hillary Knight left. It's an important, important leader for Boston and for Team USA.

I don't know. It was very cool. Kelly Panic just walked through the mix zone with a banner that says in Keller, we trust. That's great. I don't know where she got that from, but someone's like after ready has a cricket like hiding in the stands, right? Shana, I almost tweeted that of just like, this was either incredible foresight or quick

cricket work, but then I was like, I don't know anyone's going to get that. Like, I know, like, does everyone know what a cricket is? That might be a deep cut for us to appreciate. So your work in the game for the CBC, obviously. We need to talk about Marie-Filippe Poulin. I think that was some of the most compelling visuals post-game where, you know, at one point she scooped up some ice and she's going to each player individually, you know, thanking them and whatever, whatever individual conversations were taking place.

it wasn't she gets a molligan right if anybody's ever deserted it's her she's injured earlier in the tournament i don't think she was i don't think she was at her best but like what's it also like it can't it can't always be her like i'm not even giving her a molligan she doesn't need i know i know that's what you're saying and this is the thing is like yes it would be a storybook if mary philippe Poulin scored another golden goal, but like quite, this is a player who's playing on one leg. It would be completely unfair for Canada to sit here and be like, go do something again. Like, it was time for someone else to step up. Chris and O'Neill did, like a P.K. specialist, their fourth line center.

I give her a ton of credit. I thought the Stacey Turnbull Clark line was incredible as always. I thought Sarah Hurts looked better than usual. But like, yeah, I wouldn't even say Poulent. gets a mulligan, I would say, like, I don't care, leave her alone. It can't always be her, especially not when she's not playing 100%. But yeah, like those, the visuals, like, that's her leadership. You know, I think Cassie Campbell, Pascal said it on the show. Like, that's an area where Poulin has really grown as, you know, I think early in her career, she maybe wasn't the most vocal

captain. She was like a leads by example type player. But now we're seeing her like really be with her team and be in the moment and support the young players going down the line, like you said, Sean. So I don't know, Canada wouldn't even be in the gold medal game without her. So it was time for someone else to step up. And honestly, that's like unfair too. I think Canada came into this with a game plan that they executed for 57 minutes. And it was Hillary Knight and her final Olympics who got it done and sent them to overtime. So I don't know.

I went into this thinking it was either, yeah, like, Like I said, it was either going to be a blowout because the Americans were that good or Canada shocking them. So I shouldn't have been surprised that it was 2-1-0-T. Could have been 3-2, right? Like, that's the one I was expecting every time I'm boring and I'm like, we'll get 3-2. 100%. So, Haley, also let us know if you need to go or anything at any point. I probably have to go.

Okay. But go ahead, Shane. If Sean's been asking all the questions, so if it was Sean asking one more, I would say no. That's fair. Naturally. Do you think that Canada adjusted enough for her injury? Because it did feel like their first game without her against USA, they didn't have any time to practice and just had to throw out a lineup without her

and figure out what they look like without her. But do you think it did feel like in the semifinal they were over-reliant on her a little bit? Like, do they have a succession plan? Do you feel like for future tournaments as she ages out? Or just in general that they can adjust on the fly better for this? Like in case of emergency, here's our backup plan? I mean, I'm not writing her off for 2030. I said this on air.

Poulin's going to be Sydney Crosby's age by the time the Olympics are in niece. And I mean, Sydney Crosby just had that injury too. Still not for what's going on there, but like. There's off putting, off putting similarities between them continue. Yeah. So like I am not putting a timeline on Mary Filippe Poulin

because she has shown us time and time again that she can sustain just an unbelievable level of hockey and the fact that she was able to come back from the injury, like, just going back, it was like 10 days ago that were all writing columns saying like, oh shit,

I think this is it. Like, that's how bad it looked. Clearly in pain, like she took the golf card into the game on the semifinals. I think there was like uphill on the bench at one point, you know,

like she was 100%. And like I would take, Mary Philippe Poulin at 70% in a gold medal game any day. But to your question, Chena, like, did they adjust enough? I think putting her with two elite wingers was a fair adjustment. Like, you let those two kind of play with the pace if Poulin can't. And they gave her some rest. Like, Turnbull took shifts up there.

Or, like, Kristen O'Neill, it was mostly Kristen O'Neill taking ships up there. Brienne, excuse me, not Turnbull, taking shifts up there. So, like, I think they made the adjustments to save her. for the moment. But like that American team just came in waves. And honestly, like, Canada failed to capitalize on a power play when they were up one-nothing with five minutes to go. So that'll be kind of a big one for me is not taking advantage when Britta Curl Solemi was in the box. Do you need to go? And now I have to go. Goodbye. Bye.

Shea, we kind of started talking about this with Haley. I think you alluded to it. And your question, to her, what are your thoughts now that we've seen? however many games worth of this Canadian team at this tournament. Look, the makeup of it, the roster making decisions, you know, met some criticism early on. I think to some degree they were, it was, it was, it was born out here. What are your thoughts on, on some of the calls that they made, you know, going older and what have you? And then now that we've seen them, you know, with the benefit of hindsight now. It's wild to me that it feels like in 2022, we are having this conversation about Team USA.

They went too old. They're not trusting the young players. The bench is too short. The power play is bad. This, that, and the other thing. And Canada was like on the ups. Here's an infusion of new talent. Here is the next wave of Canadian hockey.

You have nothing to worry about. And the fact that the conversation is flipped only four years later, to me, is kind of unexpected, like heading into this year, I should say. Because we kind of got a sample of it at the rivalry series. And I don't take a ton of stock in the rivalry series. At the end of the day, it's for pride, it's not for a medal, it's totally different. And even the preliminary game, I'm like, I'm still not super worried about Canada in the gold medal game. That being said, you're seeing where all these holes develop.

And it was not just that the roster had flaws, but then the coaching decisions only expose those flaws. Like playing Jocelyn LaRocke 24 minutes at this point, I get it. Heron Renata Fass had been amazing forever. but it's time to adapt. She wasn't handling those minutes as well as you would have liked. I don't want to make excuses for the Canadian coaching staff or the Canadian front office. But I don't entirely know who the players, like, Chloe Premarano could have been there, Gosson could have been there on defense.

that would have changed the look of things for that team. I think that's where they were deficient in a lot of ways. It was having offensive talent on the blue line to help connect with the forwards. That was the ongoing issue, I think, for them. That, to me, is the nitpick because I think Canada suffers by comparison right now, because they don't have, and we'll see what happens with Chloe Pramaran. She's a teenager, and she's playing her first NCAA. double a season. So she's got work to do. She's not Caroline Harvey yet.

Right. Caroline Harvey is the franchise at this point. There isn't a Leila Edwards. There isn't, you know, there isn't a player like Casey O'Brien who didn't even make, who didn't even make the final, the final roster. Like that's how, that's how, that's how deep we're talking here. Like all these, all these players through up and down the lineup, a player like Joy Dunn. She's 21 years old. She's playing bottom, bottom six minutes and doing, doing a hell of a lot with them. There's not really any analog in the Canadian system right there. So, like, yes, this team was old. Yes, there were decisions that are completely fair to second

guess. But I also, you know, I'm not willing to blame Troy Ryan and Gina Kingsbury for not, for leaving players home that don't exist. And I think that's a larger question. That's a, that's a 20,000 feet like zoom out question about the way they're developing, you know, elite women's talent in Canada, but I also don't think there are any plug and play, you know, plug and play options that they screwed up. Yeah, I would have liked to see Chloe there start the changing of the guard. Let her learn with Poulin for a minute and with Lerock and with that experience.

But my bigger issue is with the deployment because like you said, like you look at Team USA's roster and there's multiple players who go top five in the PWHL draft. And then you go a little bit lower in the lineup. And like you said, it's Joy done. It's Tessigenicke. It's Kirsten Sims. Like you have the depth and the big guns are both young. It's totally different.

And that was always going to be USA's advantage. But if you're Canada, you should have adjusted accordingly beforehand, right? Like that game in the prelims, you see Blair Turnbull taking extra minutes when you could lean on Sarah Philea more. Like, that's where it falls short. And then you look at that fourth line. Jennifer Gardner is not playing that much. Julia Gosling's not playing that much. Gosling was playing really.

well in the PWHL heading into the tournament. Like she could have had more of a scoring impact had you played her more. And then on the back end, it's leaning on Jakes and Ambrose more. I'm sorry, Jakes and Thompson more. And they played them together and it didn't really work out well. We saw it against USA like Claire Thompson getting beat. I think it was by Abby Murphy in the game and it just wasn't working. And they found a better balance of it by splitting up Shelton and Ambrose and

splitting them between Jakes and Thompson and that worked. But the insistence of it having to be Lurac Renata Foss, I think, was like mistake number one. And yes, they adjusted her minutes. Like since the USA game and heading into today, she was sixth than average ice time after being top two. So good adjustment there. But it just felt like they could have just balanced things a little bit better and a little bit sooner. And it felt like they were so stuck in like, this is what's worked in the past instead of trying to blend the new that they had with them. It's also a tough, it's a tough tournament for Serena.

She goes from 18 points four years ago to no, no goals at all in this one. I know she's coming back from injury that, you know, basically robbed her of the entirety of the PWHL schedule so far. So she has a completely legit excuse. It's tough to, it's tough to go from not playing to, you know, playing on the Olympics team. But she's a really important player. And I think, I think the lack of production from her, lack of production from, from Brian Jenner, like those, those players who act as like necessary connective tissue between Poulin and Daryl Watts and like the, the producers on, on this roster, I think their, I think their issues were, we're pretty serious. And I think that in a lot of ways, too, is what is what is what the Canadian women were, were, we're missing. here, you know, in this tournament is that second layer of production. And I think Nurse is kind of the face of that problem. Yeah, like USA had numerous lines clicking. And it was very obvious. Like,

and even when the Knight Carpenter line slowed down and, you know, maybe the tweaks that they made contributed to that, you still have the fourth line going. You still have a third line that could produce with Kendall Coyne and you still had that Heidi Bilka Murphy line. Like, there were so many different options when Canada didn't have it. And like, this Sarah Nurse thing is really interesting to me because I feel like we don't have this as much in the women's game. I think we're going to get to this point now. In the men's game, we see it all the time with world juniors and with the Olympics of how much a quick tournament can boost someone's stock versus what an 82 game season does. It meets Slavkovsky jump up to the number one overall pick and while Montreal

looks good now. It was questioned then. It's, you know, it's happened so many different times on the men's side of it. We're going to start having that conversation now. That so many of the best players are in one place, right? It's going to be like, okay, now we see them across a full PWHL season with more consistency than we've seen in the past when it was the NWHL, the CWHL, the PWHI, they're all here, mostly, if they're not in Europe. And we're going to get a better idea of what this player looks like across a full season and not just in a tournament setting because it is the easiest way to get enamored by a player and to boost their stock. And I'm not saying that people shouldn't be enamored with Sarah Nurse

and that she wasn't amazing last time around. But I think it's set the bar in such a high way that now if she didn't come close to it this time, we're having this conversation. Well, we have more data points now, don't we? Like, we can say that Daryl Watts is a great example. You know, she's at her first Olympic. She'd been, you know, an afterthought with the, with the national program for a huge chunk of his chunk of her career. She played her way on this roster over the last three PWHL season. It was, it was undeniable. There was, there was no way to leave her off because she had more points than every than every PWHL player of the last three seasons except for one, I believe. I think she's second in career PWHL scoring. Good luck leaving

that player off a national team roster, right? She made it undeniable. Someone like, you know, Julia Gosling is another one. Plays her way onto the roster just by just by being a productive PWHL player. Katie Taven on and on. Like there's there's a list of Canadian players, in particular, who forced the hand of management and the coaching staff, you know, just by virtue of how good they were in the in the P-dub setting. And I think we're going to get more of that. I think we're going to get more of that on the North American teams. And I think it's going to benefit to the Switzerland's of the world and the Finland's of

the world and the Sweden's of the world because those players are in turn going to be able to improve by playing, you know, 40 or 45 games against, against the lead competition. that the other ways wouldn't get. Yep. And it's going to be interesting, the more the league expands and the more space there is for players to play those big roles.

It's going to be a chance for them that maybe they wouldn't have had before, right? Like, you start out with six teams. You start out so small, it's a little bit more difficult to get everyone top six minutes, but say, you know, we just had expansion here with Seattle

and with Vancouver. Obviously, they're very, very, very talented teams and the expansion rules played into that, but it still now opens the door to other players stepping up into these meaningful minutes and getting that chance to be like, hey, I'm actually sick as a first-line player, which on an Olympic squad, you might be a third-liner.

Like, who's to say? We know, you know, that's how it works, but it's just a good opportunity to show what you do on a regular basis. And also, you know, it's more coaches looking at you and figuring out how best you use you. We've seen that at the Olympics before where it's like, this player generally doesn't kill penalties, but in the Olympics they've had to, and now they're going to bring it back to their PWHL team. Like, there's going to be all different elements of this that's only going to get better from here, especially with multiple European teams and programs improving the way Sweden has and the way Switzerland has and Czechia, you're going to have even more talent to go around across the world.

Who's your MVP for the U.S. in this tournament outside? That's probably not the best way to phrase it. Who's the under the radar MVP for you? We know everyone rightfully is going to talk about Hillary. Everyone's rightfully going to talk about Megan Keller and Caroline Harvey. But who's someone who you've seen. over the last couple weeks that's, you know, that the play is kind of an outside role in this for you. I mean, listen, you can go Aaron Frankel, but I think she's one of the bigger names. So to stick to the under the radar and play by the rules. Aaron Franklin, by the way, 26 years old. Fun fact, I think people treat her like she's 31 or something

or that she's like the season vets in Gwenith Phillips's, you know, whatever, green, like, like some, they're like 18 months apart. So Aaron, Franklin's a staple. She ain't going anywhere. I feel like people have like learned so much about her like NCAA days and now. Like her incredible start with the fleet that it's like, oh yeah, I know her. I've heard about it. Like this is our first Olympics. We were talking about how she should have

been here last time and she wasn't. But okay, under the radar, I'm going to say Hanabalca. Love it. I feel like this was the Hannah Bilka coming out party because I think we also, she was very good coming up the ranks at World Championships before. And it was like, oh, look, Hannah Bilka with Hillary Knight. Like, look how good she can be. She adds a lot of speed to this line. She has a spark. And we saw it with Boston and then we get to see it with Seattle now. And then they start the tournament with the all Seattle line. And it's Carpenter and Knight getting a lot of hype. Rightfully so. They're scoring the big goals. But Hannah Boak was playing such an important role.

They flip her to that second line with Heise and Murphy, which Murphy to me, I thought she was going to dunk on the lesser teams. She didn't. And Heise has all these chances, but wasn't, you know, it was like missing that extra in that early going. they put Bilka there and she's the spark that now that line, we can't stop talking about it. And it's like Murphy now looks so much better and Heise. I think she elevated them, but I think she was like low key driving what happened with that line.

And you see how that top line was not scoring as much once Hanabilca left. And they, you know, they put Briticirl and it didn't work as well there. And I think Joy Dunn was a better choice in today's game and gave them a little bit more jump, which they were missing. But to me, Bilka is like becoming more of a household name.

And I'm very excited about that because it does feel like Billka and Heise are, you know, along with Murphy, along with Edwards are like the future of this team. I think. Bilka compliments Heisey, I think. Because He's an interesting player. She says it herself. She's like she's not passed first. She's past all the time, right? Like that's just that's just who she is. Like she's a set up guy in a very, in a very profound and very productive way. But I think it seemed like what you saw her taking more. shots and in creating more, you know, around the net because of the stuff that Bilka was doing, too. So I think, I think that's an important thing for the future of this program is having Heisey take that next step, good of a player as she is, she is already, obviously taking nothing from her, but adding, you know, more, like, just more pure goal scoring to her, to, to her game, because that's, that's, that's, that's what's next for her. If we're talking about Taylor Heise is like, you know, an all-timer, four or five or seven years for now, it's going to be because

she added, added a little bit more. And I think a player like, like, Bilka seems like she's, you know, she can bring it out of her. Yeah. Like put her with the two playmakers. Because Harvey's a great passer. Like, yes, she can score highlight real goals, but like she also, and we got to see that with, you know, she had a couple highlight real assists here, like, put her with some playmakers, which I get it. On paper, you're like, why would you do that? Why would you stack your best playmakers together? Like that. could be a problem for the frost. No,

no, no. Like, let her become the best version of herself because sometimes I think players get comfortable in their roles and then they don't want to, you know, straight from it,

that's your bread and butter. And it's good to have that. But if you want to be a franchise cornerstone center, and I think she has the traps to be that. Like, that's how she levels up. Totally. Before I move on to the men,

we should notice, or we should note, uh, 2-1 Swiss win over Sweden in the bronze medal game. Another, another great game for Malina Mueller. She scores another metal clinching goal, which she did. She did in 2022 as well.

We knew that she's an elite player, right? We didn't need this tournament to cement that. But it is cool, you know, seeing her. You know, she's established Switzerland, honest. We need to treat them consistently as the third best team on Earth right now. I think a lot of that has to do with, you know, yes, the play of Andrea Brandley, who is fantastic in that, but also, also Mueller is, she's a barraiser. She's like, she's a tone setter and she's the kind of talent where, you know,

if you're a country like Sweden, if you have her at the top of the food chain, you know, everything else makes a lot more sense. Yeah, absolutely. Like, she's a superstar. There's a reason why she went so highly in the PWHL draft. We already knew, you know, what she brought to the table from her time. Switzerland from Northeastern. she scores big time goals, big moments,

and it doesn't get enough hype. She's fourth all time in Olympic scoring. She's 27 years old. She's probably going to own a couple records. I think she's 10 points off Marie-Filippe Poulin, who's in second place all time at the Olympic scoring too. And she has, I would assume, two minimum Olympics left.

So, yeah, I feel like she is spearheading Switzerland's rise. And Switzerland, listen, men and women's side, I think we're one of the biggest surprises for how good they were. Switzerland upsetting Czechia early. in the tournament to me. I was completely shocked. And now to see them go up against Sweden,

another great story. Like there's multiple players from Sweden on that roster that was on their UA team that upset USA. And you can see that next way finally coming in and it was a long road to get to this point, but they're finally here. And that's why some say it's just USA and Canada. It is.

But the gap is getting smaller and smaller and it's because teams like this are finally growing and developing. And now we can have a conversation too where it's not just group, Group A and group B with, you know, U.S. and Canada in whatever tournament group they're in and then everyone else, you know, can fight it out. I think now there's a pretty legit argument to be made because of the rise of Sweden, frankly, who was stuck in that second group,

has been stuck in that second group at various points over the last bunch of years. If they can sustain this, I think the overall health of the women's game is on the rise up. Because something, something is going to need to change with the way the tournament breakdowns take place. And it makes it a lot easier if you can rely on Sweden to, you know, pop in tournaments like this. So yeah, that's a big development, I think. Yeah, it's exciting. It really is. It's like it's all getting better.

It's all up from here, it feels like, for a change. For sure. All right. We do want to touch on the men's semifinals, which are tomorrow. We got Canada, Finland, at 1040. And then U.S. Slovakia at 310. we're on Sydney Crosby watch here, Shea. He's not being ruled out of the Olympics by Team Canada.

We heard all that today. Pierre LeBron obviously was all over that, our colleague. John Cooper says he's obviously not ruled out. We've got the best of the best looking at him. We're taking this day by day, and we're not going to put anyone in harm's way. But if he can play, he's definitely going to. We'll know more again in 24 hours.

So I think that's, you know, qualified optimism. I think it probably speaks better to his, Fusier with the Pittsburgh Penguins and in their in their plans for the next couple months, then it does, then it does Team Canada. Underwent testing to see the severity of the lower body injury again. No, no firm answers,

but a league source told LeBron the crowd was doing all he can in an attempt to play again in this tournament, but it's not clear if that'll be possible. So if it were slam dunk, worst case scenario, you know, bad news confirmed. I feel like the news coming out of today would be different. Also,

pretty decent, recent update from Ryan Rashog. Sounds like he's going to maybe go for a quick skate tomorrow morning. That's Friday morning to see where things are at, but he's unlikely to play against Finland, which that's fair. He shouldn't, honestly. Yeah.

If he can't, Shane of Goldman, what do your team Canada lines look like? Do you load up with, with the mock three line from the jump or do or do you, you know, at least at least give someone like, you know, Nick Suzuki or someone of that ilk a chance to center the second line. Okay. I don't know why it's not called the MVP line.

You have three MVP candidates. I feel like we're getting too key. Okay. I need to start with it. It's all, like here's my, here's my issue with the nickname. I like, I like mock three to some extent, but it also kind of only works if you use the Canadian pronunciation and call it Mac 3. Yep. Because it's Mac Kinan and Mac David and Macklin-Cellibrini. Um, Mach kind of, kind of ruins it. Yep, it should be the MEP line. Simple.

One, two, three in the heart voting. Like, let's go. I can't bring myself to say Mac, just like I can't bring myself to say pasta or Mazda or anything like that. Oh, God. Please don't. The various, the various Sean McIndoe do pronunciations that I've, that I'm trying to keep out of my life. No, too Canadian. Who's your T's, who's your T's your T's tomorrow. That's the question. Okay. So, Tusi, for me, is still Nathan McKinnon. I am keeping that in my back pocket. The thing is, I am tweaking, I'm keeping Nick Suzuki where he ended the game the other day, which is between Marner and Stone. I thought he was excellent there. I think it was exactly what he needed to get going, because I just don't think it was working as well

before that. And it kind of... He's a center. He's a center. We can't just, we can't just assume that every center can shift to wing, no problem. Nick Suzuki's a center. Let him, let him play center. Yep. And listen, we wrote about this last year at Four Nations. How many people shift to center and have to change their role and responsibilities. I feel like for him, the way he plays the game on full time. Yeah, me and you wrote that, didn't we? Didn't the, the two of us specifically wrote that? Because I remember, I remember talking to Stamco's about it specifically. I feel like we, I'm going to try to find that and I'll tweet it out because

I feel like that's an important one to remember. Not every center can play wing. we talk about with Jack Hughes and everyone uses it as like such a knock on him. But like with Nick Suzuki, he's, he's just best at center. And I think that line, you can trust to play them in any situation. They're a shutdown force. And with Crosby there like that line was unbelievable. So I think Suzuki stays there. I think it's the key is figuring out who to play with McKinnon.

I would like to see Sam Ryanhart get a go with McKinnon. I feel like Ryanhart is not getting used enough. I wouldn't mind some Jarvis get a look. But if you go Hagle McKinnon, Ryanhart, I feel like, that line has enough juice and also like enough of that peskiness that work. I like Hegel. I like Hegel, McKin and Reinhardt.

Yeah, he goes so well with like a lecuninin or a Nitchiechkin. So maybe go for those similar skill sets of these really good two-way wingers who can do a little bit of everything. These utility guys who are very disruptive and let McKinnon cook. And I also think the fact that Brian Hart's someone capable of scoring 30, 40 goals in an NHL regular season. 30, 40, 50. I'm going to say 50. 50 is an unattainable one to keep.

do I'm going to say 40 is my recalibrated look for him and hyman. But like I feel like that takes a little bit off McKinnon. And also Hegel is one of the best scoring chance generators in the league. So I think that leaves you with options that then your fourth line isn't too bare. I like it. I like it. And that is, that's Canada Finland. And again, that's what the hell?

What the hell time is this game? It's a 10.40 a. 40 a.m. 10.40 a.m. Eastern. and then it is U.S. Slovakia at 310. Are you watching anything in particular? Give us something to look for in U.S.

Slovakia. Okay. I'm putting you on the spot here. Okay. I'm looking for the top six to get going again for Team USA because I think the last game. Let's go back. Germany.

It was the Matthews line. It was Matthews Boldie Gensel and they were outstanding. I'd like to see a little bit more from them because I think they had two really great games and then it was a little quieter last game. You go back to last game, Jack Eichol was cooking, but here's the issue with it.

Brady Kachuk is someone that gets that net front, can score pesky goals, and he's electric in these settings. Like there's, you know, there's a reason there's always a gap between expected and reality for him because he doesn't have the hands.

I don't think Matthew Kichuk is playing well enough, and I think he needs to move down the lineup in favor of a Clayton Keller. That is my hot take that I'm looking for. Matthew Kachuk to step up. And then for Slovakia, I'm looking for the next wave to add some support because it's been all Slavkovsky, Dvorsky, Nemich. They've been great. Last game, we finally saw Rigenja and that second line of Pospicil pick up the pace a little bit and give them, you know, a better one-two punch.

If they can now get going together, I think that's going to be huge. Love it. I agree with all that. I think I think that's the biggest thing to come out of the Slavik. You know, you're sitting the second wave of Slovakian players. That's true. But I think it's big that they got more from Dvorsky and that they got more from regenda. So, like, you have that established, right?

Like, you can't, you can't completely rely on, on Slavkovsky. You need to have that continued, that continued production. I don't know, I don't care if I'm Slovakia. I don't care who's coming from. We'll take it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Also, I think, I think international hockey, Dylan Larkin is one of my favorite hockey players,

Walt. Oh, yeah. He that it's the little things too, right? Like four nations, he had the clutch goals, but it's the little things. The little plays he, he's so good with his stick and just knocking the puck out of the way or making smart moves. Like he is just this all around threat. Like to me, on an Olympic roster, perfect 3C. It was during the, during the Toronto All-Star festivities, he was playing so hard.

And I remember watching him and just thinking like, it's a disgrace that we haven't gotten to watch this guy play, play up playing in the Olympics. And he's making everyone look smart for that. Yeah. All right, Chena. Thank you. Do you have more work to do tonight? No, I'm done. You've done enough today, haven't you?

I'm, well, I finished rules court, so I am done. Oh, boy. See you later. No, thank you, thank you, Shane. Thank you to Haley somewhere, again, undisclosed location in Milan. In front of potentially a white wall. It would be anywhere. Standing in an alleyway, you never know.

Thank you fine folks for watching and listening to this episode, The Athletic Cocky Show. Jesse and Myrtle have the next show. That's after the U.S. game on Friday afternoon. I'm back Saturday with McIndoo after the bronze medal games. Enjoy it. We'll talk to you real soon.