World tournament bleeds into Olympic prep

On the heels of the women’s world hockey championship, Canada will immediately begin workomg toward getting the gold at next year’s Winter Olympics.

The country’s top female hockey talent will find out within the next two weeks whether they’re among the 28 invited to try out for a team that has won four straight Olympic gold medals.

The 23 chosen will be decided over months of games and training.

The invited players will participate in a June boot camp to give them a taste of the physical and mental grind that’s to come before reporting Aug. 1 to Calgary for what’s known as “centralization.”

“What do I love about centralization?” mused two-time Olympian Rebecca Johnston.

“It’s a pretty cool experience because we’re playing full time together. We’re with each other every day trying to prepare for the Olympics over five or six months.

“We get to play a lot of games, which we’re not used to, against midget triple-A guys, which is a lot of fun. We get so close and I feel like it’s my second family.”

The Olympic women’s hockey tournament is Feb. 10-22, 2018. The U.S., Finland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan and host South Korea round out of the field.

Hockey Canada has yet to announce the Olympic women’s coaching staff. Toronto’s Laura Schuler, who played in the 1998 Winter Olympics, has been head coach for two years.

The woman overseeing centralization has been involved in the last four.

Melody Davidson, general manager of national women’s teams programs, was Canada’s assistant coach in 2002, a head coach in 2006 and 2010, and GM in 2014.

Centralization has been a winning formula, so many elements remain the same. Training and playing together for six months separates the women into those who make the cut and those who don’t.

Playing a regular schedule of games against midget triple-A boys has been one of the key components of centralization since 2005-06, as the pace of those games mimic playing the U.S. women.

The Alberta Midget Hockey League is on board again, Davidson said.

On Friday, Hilary Knight scored at 10:17 of overtime to give the U.S. a 3-2 victory over Canada in the world championship final.