The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Cassie Campbell-Pascall on Poulin Returning to Practice, the Canadians Chances Against the US, and more

Episode Date: February 13, 2026

Cassie Campbell-Pascall stops by to analyze Sweden’s tough loss to Finland and what’s gone wrong for Tre Kronor, Slovakia tightening its grip on the group with a 3-2 win over Italy, and early impressions of Canada and the United States in their tournament openers. The conversation shifts to the women’s side as Marie-Philip Poulin returns to practice, a massive boost for Canada heading into the knockout stage.Leave a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheSheetEmail us: [e-mail] TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/caReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Okay, from Jamaica to Milan, we go. Last time she was getting her feathers done. No idea what Cassie Campbell Pousel is getting done right now, if anything. What's up, Cass, you're at the rink. I'm at the rink. My feathers have been done, I think. Nice. Very good.

I'm going for the librarian look tonight. Cheryl Pounder told me I needed a gala dress with the look of my hair. I leave it to the wonderful hair and makeup people because I very very, really know how to brush my hair. So what you do is what you get? No, I get it to. It's like it looks like I'm, you know, dragging a squirrel or a pork chop through my hair. And my wife is always like, do you have a mirror, Jeff? Um, hey, speaking of, speaking of, speaking of shit. You guys are so lucky though. You guys are lucky. It takes 10 minutes because it takes 10 minutes. Oh, no, I know. Trust me. I know. I know. I know. Like, well, I don't know if you know this. Like, our, our industry has an

open door policy on ugly guys. Like, women have to, like, look perfect and sound perfect. But, like, it's open door policy for guys to be as ugly as they want to. It really is unfair, but I've been the beneficiary of it for a number of years. Hey, I want to get a quick thought from you on Cheryl Pounder, who, we all know Cheryl as a player. I want to ask you as a broadcaster because when you look at like her assent, and I can remember when she first started and some of the first few shows on TSN, from then to now, holy smokes.

Like, did you know, did you ever think like that one day Pounder had it? her to be like that great on television? She's awesome. I did. I did. You know why? Because she works and she watches. And, you know, her and I, you know, obviously have been teammates and friends for a long time.

And when she first started out, you know, she would reach out. She was picking my brain. How do we do this? What's this? What's that? And yeah, I had no doubt in my mind. I'm so proud of her and what she's been able to accomplish. Love being on this panel with her.

And honestly, we've been having a great time. time. The two of us are doing men's and women's hockey, as you know, and not that we want anyone to feel sorry for us because we're very grateful for where we are, but it's been a grind and just going back and forth and, you know, flipping your brain. But yeah, I'm really, you know what, I'm absolutely honored that there's two women on this panel, and I'm honored that it's me and her because, you know, she was a great teammate. She's a good friend, and it's been special for me. I'm not going to lie to go back to my roots. It seems CBC and then to go back to my roots with her, too.

So it's fun. Nothing but fun memories. You and me both about CBC. So quickly, your thoughts on a 29 sighting today. Marie-Philippe-Pillan on the ice, as an entire country can finally exhale a little bit. Correct me if I'm wrong. She was on with Daryl Watts and Sirophilié.

Sounds like that. Could be the line here. How much should we get excited about Marie-Philippe? based on what you saw today with her? Well, I think even her at 50% is pretty phenomenal. Obviously, I think as you go through the quarterfinal against Germany, I think you play her as usual, and then you hope to get up early, and then maybe you can rest her a little bit and see how it goes.

I think she practiced today, and obviously a game situation will be much different, but she's the fittest of the fit, the strongest of the strongest. If anyone can play through an injury, it's her. Obviously, it's a big boost for the team to see her on the ice. It's important. And I love that line of Sarah Filier and Daryl Watts on her flanks. I watched them play arguably their best game against Finland, and it wasn't even just about points for me for them.

I love that they're showing some tenacity. They're in people's faces. They're checking people well. And that's the element of their game that I think is going to take them to the next level. We know how offensively gifted they are, but when they start to figure out, you know, you watch Mary Philippe Palin on the back check, you watch her on the

core check, you watch her win battles, and they're really starting to figure it out here, and that's good news for Canada here going down the stretch. I was going to say, what kind of game were you looking for from Canada against Finland, given what happened against the United States. We're going to get there in a couple of moments, but what did you

need to see from Team Canada against Finland yesterday? Well, I think some balanced scoring, get some confidence going again. You know, honestly, I can tell you as an athlete how quickly you do forget about that U.S. game. However,

however, it still sits in your heart. The disappointment still sits in there. It still motivates you. But I think it was important to get Jennifer Gardner on the score sheet. Get her going. She was so great at the world championships and, you know,

get her going. Kristen O'Neill to me has been lights out. and not just the offensive side of things, but, you know, she's really provided a lot of energy. And, you know, that game just, I think, brought some confidence back. And now, honestly, Jeffrey, it's a new tournament. You know, the quarterfinal start, anything that has happened this year or, you know, at this Olympics, it really doesn't mean anything.

It's like you get to start fresh. And if you're not feeling confident as far as not getting the points that you thought maybe you'd get, it doesn't matter. Nothing matters. It's team first mentality from here, on in and I got a better glimpse of that against Finland than I thought I saw versus USA

where I thought their bench looked really depleted so it's good just to get some confidence back for sure You know one of the things, let's get to that U.S. game and I want to get to Abby Murphy in a second but one of the things that, and you can talk to me as a hockey player about this I mean I'm an expert from my couch

Cassie as you understand but you know every time you're pretty good. Any time I fake the fun so I am anytime I see a team go offside as much as I saw Canada go offside against the U.S., I say to myself, they are completely out of their comfort zone. Whether it was Natalie Spooner with that one little extra move

or some really selfish entries, ignoring what's around you, it just seemed like, it just seemed like Canada was just like off. And you saw it on the entries. How much do you as an athlete read into, this team can't stay on side? They're really uncomfortable right now where they're, how deep the water is where they're playing, you know what I mean?

You know, I think I can say this and know 99.9% that during that game, the U.S. were in the Canadian's heads. Now, you know, they have time to kind of refresh and regroup, but during that game, hey, I think you've got to tip your hat to the Americans. They were unbelievable. I mean, they were sharp. They finished. were relentless.

You know, that to me was, that was the best game that I've seen them play all year. And yet, you know, they were still dominant against Canada in the rivalry series. For Canada, though, that wasn't very good. You know you have another level individually as a group. So you draw from the positive of that. And you really just got to wash your hands from that game. You know, your coaches are going to dissect it and they're going to tell you the things that you need to know. But I think mentally and physically, we just weren't there.

And I don't know if it was, you know, the whole norovirus thing to start the tournament, and then you lose your best player and your captain and the emotion of that. There just seemed to be a lot of other things going on in the heads of the athletes rather than just that game. So you just park it, you just wash it away, you learn from it, and you move on. And that's the thing. We saw the USA's best and we saw Canada's worst. And that gives me hope. I'm not going to lie as a veteran.

But you've got to get through the quarterback. finals and everything else first. So, Abby Murphy, I want to frame something one very specific way. Super highly skilled. And just miserable to play against. Like, the Lammaroos were, like, awful. There's no other way to put it. They were just miserable to play against.

If you want to add any other American names here, feel free. But, like, there is a sort of consistency here. I mean, the Lammaroos and Abby Murphy, just like, just nasty and miserable, like, players to play against. Now, I say that with full respect to all three of the players that I'm talking about here. And specifically, Abby Murphy, who's just loaded with scale. She's going to go first overall to PWHL draft. I would be shocked if she didn't.

I think we all would. And as you pointed out a couple of times in a couple of places, you know, not shy about drawing penalties. Not shy about, I think. And maybe she will have perhaps a bathing suit under the uniform. I don't know. But nonetheless, your thoughts on Abby Murphy. And would you like to add any more names of miserable Americans to play against Canadian Cassie Campbell, Pascal? You know, first of all, let me say, Jeffrey, that I have so much respect for Abby Murphy.

And I would love her on my team at any time. Obviously, not a Canadian team because she's American. But you get what I mean. And I love her skill. I love everything. about her game. And she's allowed to embellish. She's allowed to embellish. So she's choosing to embellish at times. Is it frustrating to play against? 100%. Do you want to, like, knock her out sometimes? 100%. But you can play that game by not even acknowledging her. You can play

that game that you don't have to give that extra shove in the corner like Blair Turnbull did. You don't have to give that cross check like Kristen O'Neill did. She wants you to play that game. I personally, I ignore her, except for the fact that I need to check her and cover in the D zone and those types of things. And that's hard to do because she does it so well. And she's gifted like Brad Marchand did it, you know, and sometimes still does it to a certain degree. But don't lose the fact that I respect this player very much because she's, She is so skilled and she can finish.

But I think for Canada moving forward, if Ken in the U.S. meet in that final, you just have to ignore her. She is just waiting to bait you in. And to be honest with you, this has been going on for quite some time. Other nations have complained about it. It's time that the officials, and we saw it early in the men's tournament where I think it was Nemitz that fell, and they didn't call the penalty. And they didn't call the embellishment. I would love to see the embellishment called, you know. And even in the NHEL sometimes, I'm like, so you're going to call the penalty and the embellishment?

Like, why not just call the embellishment? So it has to get called. It has to get noticed at some time, at some point, because it has been a few years now. And the officials have been told about it by many of the countries. It's not just Canada. Don't think it's just Canada because it's not. But, hey, she's effective and she's a great player. So you've got to figure out how to channel your energy when you're playing against her.

You know, there's so many great young players. on this team. And I wonder about, you know, turnover for Canada as well, and the Chloe Prunanos on the horizon, etc. But on this USA squad right now, I haven't even mentioned,

you know, Layla Edwards, and that shot, just over Aaron Ambrose, over Anne-Marie and René Debian, like, what a shot. And just such a powerful young defender. Here's the thing. I was not going to test it,

but I'm about this yesterday. Okay, so the forwards are super speedy. Defense is outstanding. If you get by both, then you've got Aaron Frankel Like, where's the weak spot? Where's the weak spot here, Cassie? Like, I'm trying to think like strategically, if you're Canada here, how do you beat this team?

How? It's called Hart. You know, they're skilled. They are the mighty Americans right now. There's no question about it. It's incredible to watch the talent on their team. And you didn't even mention Carolyn Harvey. So, like, I mean, she's pretty.

silly too. Don't let her walk down Main Street. Don't let her walk down Main Street. Yeah, and be connected. You know, the thing with the Canadians is, you know, and again, I don't want to jump too far ahead, but you have to play connected, you have to win your one-on-one battles, you have to play smart. Like, I look

at a couple of the goals that they got. You know, one where we had two defenders go into the corner. That's a mistake. One where we had a miscue off a face-off where two forwards didn't switch. One forward switch, the other one didn't. That's on us as Canadians, you know? So if you fix your mistakes, you get great goaltending, you get some finish, you play with heart, you play with character.

And I think for this group, in order for them to play with pace, they've got to be connected. They can't match the U.S. pace just mano and mano. And I think I'm allowed to say that. You have to be connected and you have to go up the ice together and back down the ice together. But listen, they're good. The Americans in 2002 were good, Jeff. They were the dream team. They'd been centralized for four years.

And we found a way to win. And it's just about finding a way. And it's funny, my husband was in Chicago at the H.L. All-Star game, and he was saying he was watching NBC. Or wherever he was. I'm not even sure exactly where the H.L. All-Star game was. But he was saying he was watching NBC, and Angela Ruggiero was on the panel. And she said, hey, I don't know. After that game, she was saying, hey, I think we beat them, you know, our record was 31 to 1.

She goes, I can't even remember that year. She goes, but all I can tell you is I have a silver medal to show for it. And so nothing is done here. No one's won, no one's lost, no one's lost medals, and there's still a lot of hockey left to play. It's going to be one. If it gets there, and we all expect it will, some games in between, obviously. But Canada, U.S., it's funny, too, you know, we keep saying, like, oh, finally, you know, the world is realized, like, on the men's side, that Canada, U.S. is the best rivalry at hockey.

Women have been there forever. Like this is not a new rivalry. The women have been having this war for a number of years. Let me transition to the men's side here quickly. I know you've got things to do this afternoon, but a couple of quick thoughts on, not that you can pull everything out of one game, but what stood out to you from the Canada-Cechia game on the men's side?

We had shutouts, we had goal scoring, we had great play. Canada flips the puck and keeps it in safe zones better than any team I've ever seen, at least in game one. What did you take away from that game? I think that your first two hits of the game came from your stars, you know, Connor McDavid and Nathan McKinnon.

I think the Stone goal was a second effort board battle by Sidney Crosby. I think your stars led in ways, obviously offensively, and the points were there, but they led in other ways that makes the other guys appreciate the other roles. And, you know, watching in commercial breaks, Brad Marchand would step over, skating around and he'd be patting drew out his pads and you know nathan mckinan who you know geoffrey is one of the most intense guys and often not warm and fuzzy while playing he was like fist pumping guys on the bench i i saw a togetherness that i think was really important when you have that many stars on the team there was a real togetherness having said that they haven't done

anything like tonight if they put a stinker against uh the swiss um you know like if they haven't done anything. They got to continue to build. You watch John Cooper on the bench. He's like a professor. He's looking down. All the combinations. Who should I put out? Who hasn't had ice him? You know, you can see his mind just like rolling and rolling.

They, you know, they haven't done anything yet and they've got to continue to get better. It looks like Travis Sandheim's going to come in for the injured Josh Morsi. And good news is that he played, I think, with Dowdy, Taves, and Pereco at one point during Four Nations, played both sides. So that's why you bring a guy like that, because he's versatile

and he'll play with anybody. You know, we'll see how much ice time that he gets. And Shay Theodore is going to be elevated, of course. Yep. I just loved the vibe of it. And that, to me, when you have so many talented superstar guys in a team, I just like the vibe. I like that everyone was willing to kind of play any role,

which I think is important to start this tournament off. And just some elite level plays as well. And I want to ask you about one goals, one goal specifically, which it's very, very rare where everybody's surprised, but the Nick Suzuki goal, I don't think that Dostal thought he was going to tip it. I don't think Suzuki thought he was going to tip it. I don't think anybody in the arena thought that he was going to tip it. It was a mistake, but it went over Dostal and it counted. Nick Suzuki finds the back of the net for his first career Olympic goal.

Celebrini scores as well. This is basically the Four Nations team with a couple of guys, you know, sprinkled in. Tom Wilson, who was effective physically as well. along with Macklin Celebrini and Nick Suzuki. And I thought all three of them, the new additions, did something that stood out. And I know Tom Wilson was physical cast. I'm going to get your thoughts on this one. There was a play, I think it was in the first period,

where Wilson had someone lined up from behind. And once upon a time, Tom Wilson would fill his boots. And what did he do? He kind of like a little bear hug and guided him into the boards. And I'm like, anyone who thought Tom Wilson? You were all up in the booth. And you thought, oh, here it comes, right? Yeah, we were all like, don't do it, don't do it.

And then he didn't do it. Do you want to hear a funny thing that I learned post-game is Maclin Celebrini in his 53 career goals has had one deflected or tipped in goal. Yet he worked on it all the time with Joe Thornton. All the time with Joe Thornton and, you know, obviously the San Jose Sharks organization, Joe Pavellski, you know, but he lived with Joe Thornton. They would work on it and practice. And he's had one. And isn't it ironic the work that he's put into it,

the little amount of goals that he's had to do that way in the NHL, but then you're playing in your first ever Olympic game, and the work pays off. And that's the stuff that people kind of don't see behind the scenes, is the work that these guys put in at their craft. And even Nick Suzuki, I debate whether he was trying to bring it to the other side and put it in Far Side,

or if he read that the goaltender came off the post at the last second and he put it upstairs. Like, that's how smart these guys are and how ahead of the play they're thinking. And, yeah, it, it, honestly, this is the fastest hockey game. It was faster than four nations. And it's incredible. Yeah, I thought so. And I know Kevin BX, I don't want to put words in his mouth, but he did mention that to us.

He felt the same way, and he was actually there in person. So it was lights out. it was an incredible thing to be at. Fun to watch. I can only imagine what it's like being there. Cass, great to have you on again today. Great to catch up once again. Look forward to catching up next week.

Enjoy the game today, and we will chat next week. You'll be well. Okay. Thanks, Jeffrey. Take care.