The Canada-U.S. women's hockey rivalry enters a new era

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Habs-Leafs. Yankees-Red Sox. Celtics-Lakers… Of all the great rivalries in North American sports, few could match the sheer intensity — even downright hatred — that fuelled the many gold-medal showdowns between the Canadian and U.S. women's hockey teams over the past few decades.

Think of Hayley Wickenheiser's enraged allegation that American players trampled a Canadian flag before the 2002 Olympic final in Salt Lake City. Or the Canadian players gleefully smoking cigars and chugging beer on the ice after capturing the gold in 2010 in Vancouver. Or the raw ecstasy and agony following Canada's incredible comeback to win the classic 2014 Olympic title game in Sochi.

Since the inception of the women's hockey world championship in 1990, Canada and the United States have met in 21 of the 22 finals. The rival superpowers have duopolized the Olympics too, squaring off in six of the seven gold-medal games since women's hockey joined the program in 1998.

For the longest time, nothing mattered more to these teams than those once-a-year chances to beat their archrivals for gold on their sport's biggest stages. But now, something else matters too.

As the Canadian and U.S. women prepare for tonight's opener of the 2023-24 Rivalry Series — a seven-game barnstorming tour designed to showcase the teams between world championships and Olympics — it feels like the old hostilities have thawed just a bit as their business relationship continues to grow.

Their efforts finally paid off this summer when a group led by billionaire Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter bought out and folded the