On a night where Canada for the first time allowed 10 goals in a game, it's a gut-check moment for a team running out of time to sort out mistakes before the Olympics.
To say that the leaders of Team Canada were upset with Wednesday night's 10-4 loss to the US, which clinched the Rivalry Series win for the Americans, might be one of the biggest understatements of the year.
On a night that saw Canada for the first time in the history of the women's program give up double-digit goals in a game, there was plenty of bluntness from the leadership core on how this team performed starting with the captain Marie-Phillip Poulin. Poulin reiterated the need to capitalize on key chances, especially after entering the third period on a power play and not converting after chopping down a US lead that swelled to 6-2 mid game to to 6-4 after 40 minutes.
"The power play was key, the special teams is huge in those games, especially against the U.S., we had that momentum at the beginning of the third," Poulin said. "The power play didn't show up tonight, we played soft, we were not great, and let that momentum go and right away, they happened to score that seventh goal. That power play, we gotta be more of a threat there."
The bright spots in a game where you surrender 10 goals and lose by six are almost impossible to find but one of them came via the play of Sophie Jaques, who led Canada in scoring with two goals and helped to give back some of the momentum to Canada at the end of the second period. While the end result wasn't something that anyone in red and white wanted, her impact wasn't lost on Poulin post-game.
"Sophie's been great for us, she has a strong stick, strong shots and again she showed it tonight," said Poulin. "She has a way to find that puck to that net through a lot of pads, through a lot of sticks, and she showed it for us and almost got that third goal in that third period, hitting that post."
Jocelyne Larocque let it be known it wasn't exactly the happiest locker room post game and that the effort displayed cannot be repeated, as she stressed that this team has to figure out a way to be more consistent going forward.
"There were a lot of words said after the game, it's one of those things where right now we have a choice to learn to get better, to compete harder, to just playing Canadian hockey and that wasn't Canadian hockey today," said Larocque. "There was moments, but the consistency just wasn't there."
An opportunistic U.S. side took advantage of what seemed like every Canadian turnover and mistake, as eight different American players scored, with Abbey Murphy recording a four point night in the victory. As Canada learned once again, with the execution not where it needed to be, a team like the U.S. found ways to capitalize all game long, as the need to stay engaged for all 60 minutes was something that Larocque pointed out.
"When you give a skilled team grade A chances like that, they're going to put the puck in the net, and we know that. It was down to the consistency of battles, of owning the net front, that was the big thing. There were moments where we did well, but it can't just be moments; it needs to be every shift," said Larocque.
While the U.S. will leave Edmonton as 2025-26 Rivalry Series champions this weekend, Canada has one more chance to sort out what has been going wrong on Saturday night before the task at hand turns to the Olympics, as they'll look to erase a showing on the scoreboard we may never see again from the Canadian program.