Women's Olympic Ice Hockey
2026 Olympic
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Marie-Philip Poulin left Canada's game against the Czech Republic during the first period. Xavier Laine / Getty Images
MILAN — The sight of Marie-Philip Poulin in agony on the bench — her eyes clamped shut, her face contorted in pain — then hobbling off to the locker room midway through the first period Monday night sent a shockwave through the hockey world.
And through Team Canada.
“Our bench did feel that a little,” Laura Stacey said. “It hit us. We all looked at each other, we all felt it, we all had that feeling.”
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The immediate question of how Canada would respond to the loss of the game’s greatest player was answered with authority — a 5-1 trouncing of the Czech Republic. The more pressing question now becomes will Canada have Poulin for Tuesday’s showdown with the arch-rival United States? The larger question no one wants to even consider is, has the best Olympic hockey player ever played her last Olympic game?
Poulin left the game midway through the first period after Czech forward Kristýna Kaltounková — the PWHL’s leading scorer as a 23-year-old rookie for the New York Sirens — drilled her shoulder into Poulin, sending her crashing into the boards. Poulin lay prone on the ice for a moment before getting to her knees, grimacing in obvious pain as the two teams skirmished up the ice. Poulin got up on her own, wincing as she headed to the bench. She tried to take another shift on the ensuing power play, but headed to the dressing room not long after.
Poulin eventually returned to the bench to a big cheer at the Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena and watched the rest of the first period with her teammates.
“Knowing her, she wanted to be back with us,” said Brianne Jenner. “She wanted to see what she could push through.”
But she did not return to the game in the second period and was ruled out in the third.
It’s the second — and biggest — curveball thrown at the Canadians since their Olympic tournament began. Canada’s first game against Finland was postponed due to a norovirus outbreak.
Canada could have wilted after seeing its captain limp to the locker room, but instead rallied, scoring two goals in 39 seconds to get out to a 3-0 lead. By the end of the first period it was 4-0.
“Obviously you never like to see that, especially to someone like that — our leader, our rock,” said Laura Stacey after the game. “But I think at the end of the day, she’s picked us up so many times, she’s led the way, and it was our turn to pick her up, it was our turn to support her and try to do whatever we could to get that win tonight for her, but also for ourselves as a group.”
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Poulin is the consensus best women’s hockey player on the planet and has made a name for herself coming up clutch in the biggest moments. She’s scored the game-winning goal in three Olympics and she’s the only player (male or female) to score in four consecutive gold medal games at the tournament.
She went into Monday’s game needing just one more goal to tie Hockey Hall of Fame forward Hayley Wickenheiser’s record for most goals in the Olympics.
There’s no replacing Poulin, whose very presence on the roster gives Canada an edge most nights, so if she misses any more time, it’s not as simple as next woman up. That said, with a veteran roster that was heavily scrutinized leading into the tournament, Canada has the benefit of options.
Stacey, who started the game on Poulin’s line, moved back to her reliable checking role beside Blayre Turnbull and Emily Clark — a trio that has been invaluable to Team Canada for years.
“They’re hard to play against, they play solid defensively. They’re the type of line that will score in big games,” said coach Troy Ryan. “It’s almost having an anchor that settles the ship.”
Then there’s Sarah Fillier, who’s been tapped as the future face of Team Canada, who has scored two goals and three points in her second Olympic Games. She’s been turning heads since her debut at the 2021 women’s world championships and has drawn comparisons to Poulin herself.
Fillier has a deep toolkit, with high-end skill and poise with the puck. In Milan, she’s been the most dynamic player for Team Canada and leads all Canadian forwards in ice time. If it sticks — and it should — Fillier’s line with Sarah Nurse (the Olympic record holder for points in a single tournament) and Daryl Watts could lead Canada on offense in Poulin’s absence.
That it was Kaltounková — the precocious 23-year-old New York Sirens rookie, who came into this tournament saying how sick and tired she was of Canada and the United States playing for the gold medal time after time — who knocked out the 34-year-old elder statesman of the sport was almost too on the nose.
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Kaltounková is one of the game’s great young talents, the 2025 No. 1 pick in the PWHL draft who leads the league with 11 goals in 16 games. And she was a menace all night, firing off one-timers from the right circle and chasing down pucks and opponents in the corners. It was a physical affair, with both teams watching two of their players go down the tunnel to the locker room during play.
For Czechia, against the deeper and faster Canadians, that was the game plan all along.
“We knew that’s the way we were going to go,” Kaltounková said. “That’s the way we disrupt those teams.”
Kaltounková led the way, using her size and strength to win battles and deliver rattles. She didn’t just make contact, she sought it out early and often. She doesn’t just welcome the contact, she likes it.
“Oh, yeah, I do,” she said. “It’s a part of my game. And when I don’t play physical, it takes away from my game and I don’t want that. Obviously, there’s a line that I can’t cross, to not put my team at a disadvantage, but it was a physical game.”
On the fateful hit, Poulin and Kaltounková were both chasing down a puck in the Czech defensive zone. Poulin had position, but Kaltounková had momentum, and she drove her right shoulder into Poulin’s left, sending her twisting into the boards. As Poulin slowly got to one knee, Emma Maltais chased after Kaltounková and shoved her between the penalty boxes. Stacey jumped in the skirmish, too.
Nobody on Team Canada found the hit egregious. But that didn’t mean they liked it.
“I think it was a penalty, I don’t know if it’s a major,” Ryan said. “I didn’t review it yet on video, but I think a call was made on the play and I don’t know if more was necessary.”
“Honestly, I don’t really know,” Stacey said. “I was on the ice, I did go after her after. I don’t know. I don’t really have an answer. Everything happens so fast in the game of hockey.”
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Kaltounková, of course, shrugged off the hit. It clearly wasn’t accidental contact, but she saw it as a defensive move, nothing more than a hockey play with an unfortunate result.
“Especially in these games, you want to protect yourself — you don’t want to go head first into the boards, not expecting a hit,” she said. “Especially (because) I know they have it out for me, so I always have to protect myself. So I did kind of tighten up, I got ready for impact and tried to play the puck. But there was no malicious intent or anything. I mean, I think you can see that on the play.”
Kaltounková’s coach, Carla MacLeod, agreed.
“It’s just two teams fighting out there,” she said. “That’s the reality. You never want to see anybody go down. We lost a couple players in that game, too. That’s just what a hard-fought hockey game looks like. I certainly hope Poulin is good to go, best player in the world — one of, if not the. You never want to see anyone go to injury, but again, it unfortunately can be part of the game.”
The worst-case scenario is clear: that Poulin, who is about to turn 35, just seriously injured her knee in what could be the final game of a legendary Olympic career.
The best-case scenario — that this was just an injury scare — is a reminder to appreciate greatness while you can.
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