Canada's Women's 2010 Hockey Gold in Jeopardy

The women's Olympic hockey final is a year away but Canada's defence of the gold medal is far from certain.

Canada lost three of its last four games to the U.S., including the world championship final, and fell to Sweden for the first time in history in November.

Canadian head coach Melody Davidson knows there's plenty of work to be done over the next 12 months.

"The bottom line is we hate to lose," said Davidson. "We're going to go at it with everything we can and see what happens in the end.

"The losses we've had, there's lots of learning that comes out of that but we also have to take a step forward with this group."

The women's hockey team is one that can virtually guarantee an Olympic medal for the host country.

But for a team that has won two of three Olympic titles and nine of 11 world championships, anything less than gold on Feb. 25, 2010, is a disappointment.

"We want to win. Anything short of that is not a success," said defenceman Becky Kellar of Hagersville, Ont.

The U.S. remains Canada's main rival for gold in Vancouver, but Sweden and Finland have upset the top two countries recently. The Finns defeated the U.S. for the first time at last year's world championship.

Canada opens defence of its Olympic title Feb. 13 against Slovakia, which was a surprise qualifier for the Olympics. The Canadians then face Switzerland and Sweden in the preliminary round.

The U.S., Finland, Russia and China make up the other group and the top two teams in each pool advance to the semifinals.

Davidson, from Oyen, Alta., had the Canadian women so prepared for the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy, it appeared to be an easy ride to gold.

The stress and hard work, however, came in the weeks leading up to those Games when players were centralized in Calgary trying out for the team and preparing for Turin.

Davidson will again invite between 25 and 27 players to try out for the 2010 squad. Those who don't already live in the Calgary area will move there in early August to embark on an intense journey to Vancouver.

"It's a long year and a great year," said veteran forward Gillian Apps of Unionville, Ont. "I know on TV people see these two weeks where, if everything goes right for us and falls into place, we end up in that gold-medal game. There's so much behind the scenes that goes on that leads us to that very moment.

"There's a lot of fun that happens and a lot of hard times and a lot of times where we have to pull together as a team. I think that's what it's all about and that's what makes us so great.

"Going into Torino, it might sound a bit cocky, but we were so good and so prepared going into those Olympics."

Davidson's vision for her 2006 Olympic team was successful, so in the don't-fix-what-isn't-broke vein, her plans for 2010 are similar. She's not trying to replicate the teams that won the previous two Olympic gold medals, however.

"It's not the 2006 team, it's not the 2002 team and it's not the 1998 team," she said. "This is a whole new group. Some have been there before and some haven't."

Dates and locations have yet to be determined, but Canada and the U.S. will face each other in exhibition games in the months leading up the Olympics.

The women played a regular schedule of games against Alberta men's midget triple-A teams prior to the 2006 Olympics. Those matches were crucial to the Canadian women's success because it had them competition-sharp for Turin.

The Canadian women will again participate in the Alberta Midget Hockey League in 2009-10, but Davidson is upping the ante. She's an assistant coach of the Junior A Calgary Canucks and plans two or three games against men bigger, older and stronger than the midget teams.

"In the last centralization year and we were playing midget boys and we really didn't know going into it how we would do against them," Apps said. "I think it turned out to be a great experience.

"We could only play a certain number of games against the United States and we're always looking for good competition to push ourselves."

Canada, the U.S., Finland and Sweden will play an Olympic test tournament this summer at the University of British Columbia and GM Place, which will be known as Canada Hockey Place during the Olympics.

The annual Four Nations Cup in November, featuring the same countries, will be in Finland. Canada will attempt to reclaim the title it lost in a shootout to the U.S. in Lake Placid, N.Y., last year.

But even before the Olympic campaign begins, Canada wants to reclaim the world championship it relinquished to the U.S. last year in Harbin, China.

The players Davidson names to her roster for the 2009 world championship April 4-12 in Hameenlinna, Finland, will probably be invited to try out for the Olympic team. The Canadians want to re-establish themselves as No. 1 in the world in Hameenlinna.

"I think it's really important, especially with the Olympics being in Canada and there being so much talk about it, for us to stay grounded and remember we have a huge tournament in about a month," Apps said. "It's very important to perform well there."

SOURCE: TSN.CA