Goldeneyes Olympians Prepping For A Playoff Push After A Magnificent Month In Milan

After an exciting month of best-on-best Olympic hockey, the PWHL is set to resume their 2025–26 season. Now that Canada’s Goldeneyes have landed back in Vancouver, they’ve got their gaze dead-set on the second-half of the season ahead of them. On the hunt for a playoff spot, the Goldeneyes have been given a significant advantage exiting the break — the fact that their next five games take place on home-ice. 

“I think in January, we spent a lot of time on the road. We were in and out the door, felt like [we were] just living out of a suitcase for the entire month,” Jenn Gardiner said on the shifts in schedule, also elaborating on Canada’s training camp in Switzerland and eventual travel to Italy. “It’s really a blessing that we get to be here for all of March and play some home games. We have the best building in the entire league, no question about it. We’re excited to get to be in this space to welcome other teams, not with open arms, but for a fight, just to get started here on Sunday. A lot of people have been missing Goldeneyes hockey, so we’re pretty excited to have them back in the [Pacific] Coliseum cheering us on.” 

That’s not to say that players like Gardiner and her Canadian teammates will be completely putting their experience in the rearview. It’s not every day a player gets to compete in a tournament showcasing the best talent across the world, with their fans following them there to boot. 

“I think there was a ton of buzz around our tournament, but I think that it was just really special to be in a place where we had so many family and friends,” Sarah Nurse said of the country’s representation overseas. “We were at the men’s hockey game, the gold medal game, and it felt like we were in Canada — the amount of Canadian flags, red and white. Canadians travel well, and they really showed up in Milan.” 

The Goldeneyes had an array of different Olympic experience levels representing Canada in Italy. Gardiner and Sophie Jaques took part in their first Olympic Games, Claire Thompson and Emerance Maschmeyer their second, while Nurse donned the maple leaf for her third-straight Winter Olympics. The significance of representing the country in best-on-best play isn’t lost on anyone, regardless of their experience level. 

“Photo day was the first time we put on their jerseys," Gardiner elaborated on the experience of representing Canada. "You kind of look over, you see the Olympic rings on your arm, and you’re like, ‘Wow, it’s really here.' [...] Any moment you see the Olympic rings, you’re like, ‘This is it. This isn’t just a World Championship. This is the Olympic Games.’ To get to see those rings and know that you’re representing Canada means so much. But I think there’s a mindset switch. It’s, ‘yes, I made it, but now how are we getting a gold medal?’ I think our whole team leaves with a bit of a bittersweet taste in our mouth with the ending, but we’re so proud of how we played and the performance that we put out in that last game.” 

“I think that I had a lot of fun, especially that gold-medal game,” Nurse added. “I don’t know if I’ve had that much fun in a game in a really long time, and obviously it wasn’t the result that we wanted, but I think that, you look at our team in that game, we played with a ton of pride, and so I’m very proud of our group. That last game was just so much fun.” 

Of course, Canada’s gold-medal game was a heartbreaker — a 2–1 overtime loss that some are still probably reeling about to this day — though it’s times like these when players will find the need to flip the page and move on while retaining the lessons learned.

“I think definitely just building off of those games,” Goldeneyes defender Jaques explained. “It was just such a fun, fast, competitive environment over there, and just kind of bringing those skill sets and learning what worked back to the play here. I think there’s just so much season left here, and with any team being able to win on any given night, I think that we have a really good shot here to make a push.”

“I think just kind of just being ready to handle whatever’s thrown your way,” Gardiner added. “We obviously saw, a couple hours before puck drop of our first game there, our game was postponed. So it just kind of goes to show that the excitement, everything, you just never really know what’s going to happen. So I think just kind of taking that with a grain of salt, and it’s out of our control, just knowing that stuff can happen, things are going to go wrong, things are going to go right, and just kind of not getting too high or too low,” Gardiner added.  

The Canadian Olympian Goldeneyes are returning to Vancouver with a silver medal, which is undoubtedly an impressive feat. But Nurse knows that, as proud as Canada is of their effort in Italy, that gold-medal loss only adds fuel to the fire of pursuing a championship back in the PWHL. 

And that's exactly what the Goldeneyes will look to do. 

“As a competitor, when you play a sport, obviously you want to have a lot of fun, you want to be courageous, you want to do your thing — but at the end of the day, you want to win. You’re a competitor. There’s not an opportunity to win another Olympic gold medal for a couple of years. The thing that is right in front of me is the Walter Cup. So that’s definitely my goal.”