With Canada's bid to defend its women's world hockey title a work in progress, players and coaches got down to the work of making progress Wednesday ahead of their quarter-final against Sweden.
A 5-2 loss the previous night to archrival United States to cap the world championship's preliminary round exposed cracks in the armour of the reigning world and Olympic women's hockey champions.
Generating more offence below the faceoff circles, stouter defence of that same area in their own end, setting up to win puck races and more efficient power-play puck movement were among Canada's practice drills at Kvik Hockey Arena, which presents its own wrinkle for players to iron out. "I think we had a really good bounce-back practice today," defender Renata Fast said from Herning, Denmark. "The energy was high.
You could tell the girls were dialled in on the small details that we know we needed to improve. 'I don't think we're letting the result of a preliminary game affect what the future holds.