After Poulin injury and physical tilt with U.S., Canadians struggling to find ‘the line’ at Olympics

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United States forward Abbey Murphy runs into Canada goalkeeper Emerance Maschmeyer during Tuesday’s preliminary round match in Milan.Petr David Josek/The Associated Press

A few games into the Olympics, Canada’s women’s hockey players are scratching their collective heads, trying to determine exactly where the line is between a clean, hard play and a trip to the penalty box.

They’re not alone. Across the board, the women’s tournament has seen a more physical brand of play emerge in Milan than some players thought would be tolerated at the Winter Games.

Physical is exactly how Canada wants to play. But after captain Marie-Philip Poulin went down with a suspected knee injury Monday after being taken hard into the boards against Czechia, and a similarly rough game against the U.S. on Tuesday, some players are wondering just how physical they’re allowed to be.

“Unfortunately we don’t know the line yet because some things are let go and some things aren’t,” forward Julia Gosling said after the Poulin injury, a game in which she suggested some of the Czech hits were “a little dirtier.”

Czech forward Kristyna Kaltounkova, who plays with Team Canada members Sarah Fillier and Kristin O’Neill on the New York Sirens of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, was given two-minute penalty for an illegal hit on the play.

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Kaltounkova said there was no malice and believed it was a clean hit. Canada’s players thought it might have been over the line – though no one seems to know exactly where that line might be.

In the first period against the U.S. on Tuesday, Canadian forward Blayre Turnbull was called for an illegal hit after she collided with Abbey Murphy while the American was getting up from her knees on a play. With the referee’s arm in the air, Murphy then drove to the net and collided with Canadian goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens, but was not penalized.

Team Canada coach Troy Ryan summoned the referee to the bench for an explanation. Asked about it after the game, Ryan said he understood the penalty to Canada, but couldn’t figure out why the second hit on the Canadian goalie also wasn’t a punishable offence.

“On that call, Blayre kind of made contact with [Murphy] while she was kind of down, so I understand the call,” Ryan said. “But I think [Murphy] tried to go into the goalie on the play … I expected that one to be evened up for sure.”

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Julia Gosling is Team Canada’s leading scorer thus far at the Olympics. She said the team is trying to ‘find that line’ with how far to take physical play.Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

No one’s arguing against physical play. It’s how many of the players want to play, and the direction the women’s game is going with the advent of the PWHL.

It’s just that players like Gosling, who leads Canada with three goals in as many games, aren’t sure how far they can go in Milan, while things seem clearer in the PWHL. And in high-stakes games like the Olympics, the existence of a grey area is risky, since it could leave teams shorthanded.

“I think that’s hard for our team because I find we’re a more physical team than the U.S., so we’re trying to find that line and be physical,” Gosling said.

“That’s what our game is like in the PWHL. But it seems they don’t allow certain calls here and it’s hard to know what they’re going to call. So when you’re giving up five or six penalties, they’re probably going to score on a couple.”

Despite a 5-0 loss to the Americans, Canada is in no danger of missing the playoff round. But there’s less margin for error when the games start to matter a lot more, Gosling said.

“We’ve got to learn that line soon. It will matter in those playoff rounds.”

Overt physicality has historically resulted in whistles at the Olympics, while the PWHL is building a reputation for being a more hit-friendly league.

With so many players from the PWHL at the Olympics – more than 80 per cent of the rosters in the Canada-U.S. game are part of the league − players and coaches have noticed the games in Milan are more physical than expected, but with mixed results when it comes to how penalties are called.

After the U.S. opened the tournament with a 5-1 win over Czechia, American head coach John Wroblewski said the team noticed a distinct uptick in rough stuff.

“The hitting, the hooking. I was telling the referees that they could have used any part of the rule book,” Wroblewski said. “If that is the standard, we will be ready for it in the next couple of games.”

American forward Hayley Scamurra agreed.

“We weren’t sure how much hitting they would allow. But it felt like full-on hitting, for sure,” Scamurra said after the U.S. game against Czechia. “I personally embrace that part of the game, our whole team does.”

Carla MacLeod, who won gold twice for Canada as a player, in Turin in 2006 and again in Vancouver in 2010, now coaches the Czech team. She said it’s important not to stifle physicality in the game with too many borderline calls.

“These girls train so hard, the last thing you want is to take away the physical side of the game,” MacLeod said. “It’s an innate part of the game.”