Team USA has a unique overlap of surefire Hockey Hall of Famers nearing the end of their careers and budding stars just getting started. Their games against Canada this year is something special.
Angela Ruggiero said it post-game – this is the best American women's hockey team she's ever seen.
It's an impressive comment from the Hockey Hall of Famer who won Olympic gold as a member of Team USA, added four World Championship gold medals, and played with and against some of the greatest of all-time.
This American roster has set new standards for excellence.
On Tuesday, they shut out Canada 5-0 at the Olympics in Italy. It was the first time in Olympic women's hockey history that the USA shut out Canada. It was also the largest goal differential the USA has ever beaten Canada by at the Olympics… in men's or women's hockey.
The previous mark was a 7-4 preliminary-round win for the USA over Canada at the inaugural 1998 Olympics, but that game sat at 5-4 until the Americans scored two empty-netters to finish it. This time around, Team USA didn't need an empty net goal.
In November and December, the U.S. also swept Canada 4-0 at the Rivalry Series. It was the first time in Rivalry Series history that Canada had been swept. In that series, Team USA outscored Canada 24-7, including yet another ominous record for Canada and another feather in the cap for the Americans.
In the third game of the series, the first on Canadian soil this season, Team USA scored 10 times against Canada. No nation had scored double digits against Canada's women's senior national team ever.
Many have questioned Canada's roster decisions, pointing to GM Gina Kingsbury and coach Troy Ryan's favor toward experience and familiarity.
Hockey Canada didn't even invite some of the top Canadian performers at the PWHL or NCAA level to camp.
But the fact is, Canada's roster is the only one that's 100-percent composed of PWHL players. It has the reigning PWHL MVP and leading goal-scorer, Marie-Philip Poulin; the reigning PWHL goaltender of the year, Ann-Renee Desbiens; the reigning co-leading scorer and PWHL rookie of the year, Sarah Filler; and the reigning PWHL defender of the year, Renata Fast. The other two finalists for defender of the year were also Canadian – Sophie Jaques and Claire Thompson. In fact, Canadians swept every major award at the 2025 PWHL Awards.
It's not that the USA are facing a significantly weaker Team Canada. It's that, as Ruggiero said, this might be the best American Olympic hockey team anyone has ever seen.
There were times in USA Hockey's history when superstars, such as Ruggiero, Cammi Granato, and Natalie Darwitz, carried this program.
The 2026 Olympic roster still includes veteran stars, led by the program's all-time leading scorer, Hilary Knight. They also have Kendall Coyne Schofield, Alex Carpenter, Lee Stecklein and Megan Keller.
Parts of that group are on their way out, such as Knight, who announced this will be her fifth and final Olympic Games. Others are nearing that time.
But the bulk of Team USA's roster is just beginning their own winning era as national team stalwarts. It's a unique overlap of rubber-stamped Hall of Famers and players in the opening chapters of their own potential Hall of Fame careers.
Defender Caroline Harvey leads the Americans' young core.
Harvey is not only arguably the best defender in the world, but she's also in the conversation for best player in the world right now. The 23-year-old senior at the University of Wisconsin is already a two-time World Championship best defender and three-time tournament all-star. The back-to-back WCHA defensive player of the year and first-team all American will soon add 'first overall PWHL pick' to her resume.
Also on Team USA's blueline is Laila Edwards, the 6-foot-1 former World Championship MVP and U-18 World Championship MVP (as a forward). She made history this year as the first-ever Black woman to compete for USA's Olympic hockey team.
The 22-year-old will join Harvey and forwards Abbey Murphy and Tessa Janecke as the projected first four picks to enter the PWHL this year.
Murphy is leading the NCAA in scoring and has broken the internet multiple times this season for ridiculous plays, and Janecke scored the overtime golden goal for the USA at the 2025 World Championship.
Add in Haley Winn, who is leading the PWHL in time on ice this season as a rookie, and USA's players who have established themselves as elite professionals, such as Aerin Frankel, Gwyneth Philips and Taylor Heise, and the star power in this group is evident.
Team USA has seven NCAA players on its roster, and cutting last year's Patty Kazmaier winner, Casey O'Brien, shows the depth of this program and the sky-high talent of this group.
While Knight is at the end of her Olympic career, the youngest player on USA's roster, Joy Dunne, is in her first Olympics at 20 years old. The 2024 NCAA rookie of the year with Ohio State, is eligible for the 2027 PWHL draft and already has two goals and four points in four games at the Olympics.
In 2018, the last time the USA won gold, they lost to Canada in the preliminary round with a plus-6 goal differential in three preliminary games. This season, Team USA outscored its opponents 20-1 for a plus-19 differential in four games.
This team has now won seven straight games against Canada and 15 games overall after winning all seven they played at the 2025 World Championship. They swept Canada in the four-game Rivalry Series and finished first with a perfect 4-0 record in Group A at the Olympics.
The only way for this American roster to truly become the best Team USA ever assembled, however, is to extend that winning streak to 18 games, which would result in a gold medal performance in Milan.
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