Is Canada now the underdog in women's hockey?

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The Games have begun.

Competition at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics opened today with four games in mixed doubles curling, including Canada vs. Czechia. Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant, the married couple hoping to return Canada to the podium after Rachel Homan and John Morris missed the playoffs in 2022, scored a convincing 10-5 win to start the round-robin stage.

In alpine skiing, Canadian Jeff Read clocked the 10th-fastest time in the first practice run for the men's downhill. Cam Alexander and Jack Crawford, considered Canada's top two medal hopes on Bormio's intimidating Stelvio course, placed 20th and 28th, respectively. More training runs are slated for Thursday and Friday ahead of Saturday's race.

The schedule for tomorrow remains pretty light as things build up toward the opening ceremony on Friday and the first medal events on Saturday. But it does include more mixed doubles curling, the start of snowboarding competition and the Canadian women's hockey team's first game.

We'll start our daily viewing guide with hockey, then cover the other Canadians to watch on Thursday. Plus, a scary crash for Canadian snowboard star Mark McMorris, the latest on Lindsey Vonn, and how a Canadian ice maker saved the day for hockey.

Over the last decade and a half, it would have been a bit silly to declare a clear favourite in any major international women's hockey event. Everyone knows that these almost always come down to Canada vs. the United States in the final, but your odds of picking the winner of that game were no better than a coin flip. Dating back to 2011,