A lot of tears were shed by Team Canada players after a devastating end to a dramatic Olympic gold medal game in women’s hockey.
It’s a tough way to lose for any player, but it seemed to hit just a little bit harder for veteran players who don’t know if they’ll get another chance to play for Olympic gold.
Marie-Philip Poulin, 34, said she wasn’t sure if this would be her last Olympics. You have to wonder about some of her longtime teammates too. Brianne Jenner is 34. Natalie Spooner is 35.
Who knows where they’ll be in four years’ time.
As the players waited to received their silver medals, it was Poulin who went through the line, one-by-one, giving each of her teammates a hug and a message.
“[I was] just letting them know that that does not define them, that I’m proud of them that they showed up. Sadly we lost in overtime, but again, they can hold their heads high, because it’s truly an honour to be along their side,” Poulin said in the post-game press conference.
“Those are the teammates, your friends that you lean on through good and hard moments. And this group, it’s been a four-year process and we went through ups and downs. We’re a close group.”
“She’s the best captain possible,” said Canadian defender Renata Fast, who saw 31:22 of ice time in the loss. “Everyone just loves the person that she is because she makes an effort to get to have a relationship with every player. Really special to have a captain like that leads us both with her play, but also with the type of person she is. [It was] nice to be able to have that moment with her.”
On Poulin playing through pain
Poulin played through pain after injuring her knee earlier in the tournament, and it’s clear she has the respect and admiration of all of her teammates.
Naturally that’s especially true with her teammate and wife, Laura Stacey, who had an assist on Canada’s only goal of the game.
Stacey fought back tears when asked about Poulin.
“It hurts. She’s our leader. She’s a warrior,” said Stacey. “Sucks to see her in pain, but man, you would never know. She battled hard. She’s our rock. She’s our leader. She showed it, she did everything possible she could, and our team followed her every single step of the way. And I think every single one of us can be really proud of her and this entire team.”
Poulin didn’t want to use the injury as an excuse when speaking with reporters, and it seems that was the case when speaking with teammates.
“She wouldn’t let any of her teammates know the type of pain that she’s in,” Fast explained. “We’re not aware of anything because she puts her head down and she goes to work. That’s just the type of player that she is. She’s always been that way, and there’s no doubt she was fighting through things, but she never let her teammates know.”
“It’s heartbreaking”
While this tournament ended in familiar fashion, a one-goal game between Canada and the United States in the final, it was different in one major way.
Canada struggled mightily against their American rivals coming into this game, and they were big underdogs going in. That’s not something Canada is used to in hockey.
Credit to Team Canada though. They played a relatively even game throughout 60 minutes and were just over two minutes away from being crowned Olympic champions.
While many of the players were able to see the loss in context, it doesn’t make losing any easier.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Stacey. “I think obviously you see the tears, you feel the emotions. We were minutes away from having gold medals around our necks. And I think the reason it hurts so bad is because of how much pride we have.”
“What I’m most proud of is this group and the heart and the pride and the passion we played with after a lot of adversity throughout the year and a lot of noise in the background,” added Fast. “I think this group showed up tonight and made our country proud.”
“I think there’s going to be a lot of girls that are going to use this as motivation,” Spooner said. “I know in 2018 it was a huge motivation for me… you don’t want to be there hearing [another country’s anthem] on that line. So you go back to work and you make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
The last word goes to Poulin.
“This one hurts,” she said. “We wanted to bring it back to Canada, and we came up short. But again, I’m truly proud of how we showed up today… People did not believe in us, and we truly believed in ourselves.”