Canada's Para Hockey Veterans Lead Charge for Paralympic Redemption in Milan
If Canada's Paralympic Games hockey team required any external focus or additional motivation, which seems highly improbable, it arrived as they assembled collectively in Milan to witness the Olympic men's gold-medal clash against the United States. Many of the seventeen para hockey athletes have personally experienced the immediate shock and subsequent emptiness that accompanies such a heartbreaking defeat to a heated rival on one of sport's grandest stages.
The fact that the Canadian women's team suffered a similar fate at Milano Cortina just days prior only deepened the collective psychological wound. The United States has essentially dominated Canada at the Winter Paralympic Games, albeit with a relatively small sample size. The two nations have contested the Paralympic gold medal on only two occasions, in 2018 and 2022, with the U.S. emerging victorious both times—5-0 in 2022 and 2-1 in overtime in 2018.
A History of Rivalry and Resilience
The U.S. also secured a 3-0 semifinal win over Canada in 2014, along with a 5-1 preliminary round victory in 2002. Canada's sole achievement against the U.S. was a 1-1 preliminary round tie in 1998, long before any current players were part of the squad. Conversely, there are ten holdovers from the 2022 Paralympic Games team who certainly do not need a reminder of what those silver medals felt like, hanging from their necks as the Star-Spangled Banner echoed through the Beijing stadium.
"I've been on that side of the coin when you lose in overtime in a gold-medal game, and it's devastating, it's heartbreaking," said Greg Westlake, a seasoned veteran competing in his sixth Paralympics. "We had a great three-team camp in August with a lot of the men's team and the women's team, so we got to know many of the players on both those teams. When you see people who are so supportive of your program not reach their goal, you just feel disappointment for them. But ultimately, our team is our team, and we're on our own journey here."
Focus on the Present, Not Predictions
While numerous observers might examine the two competition pools for Milano Cortina 2026 and predict another Canada-U.S. gold medal final at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, Westlake remains cautious. Having removed his assistant coaching hat to rejoin the player pool for one final pursuit of the podium's top step, he is too experienced and astute to leap to any conclusions.
"I've played a long time, and before Vancouver 2010 I could have said, 'hey, it's going to be us and the U.S. in the final.' We lost in the semis, we didn't even medal. Sochi 2014, there was an upset on the other side, and we ended up having to play the U.S. in the semifinal, and we didn't get to the final. I've been around long enough to know that so many wonky things can happen in a short-term, one-game elimination tournament," Westlake emphasized.
Game Seven Mentality and Team Preparation
Team Canada commenced its Paralympic Games tournament against Slovakia on Saturday and will face Japan and Czechia before the elimination phase officially begins. Head coach Boris Rybalka stated that the team has adopted a clear mindset for every contest.
"We've tried to just focus on ourselves, and what I mean by that is we know every game we play as we're going into it is a game seven, and it doesn't matter who it is because we don't want to look ahead to another opponent. As you know, when you cover sports, when you look ahead, that's sometimes when trouble comes. So game seven to us is against Slovakia, and game seven then is against Japan, and then game seven is against the Czechs, and then game seven will be the playoff round. So that's our focus right now as a team, and they've done great, and we're going into the Paralympic Games with that focus," Rybalka explained.
Preparing this team is unlike anything Rybalka has encountered throughout his extensive and successful career in junior hockey in Alberta. The seventeen players initially convened on August 24 at the national teams camp in Calgary, spending approximately two weeks together each month, with the remaining two weeks at their respective homes across Canada. As the Games approach, they reunited on February 5 and will not disperse until after the Games conclude on March 16.
Intense Practices and Veteran Leadership
The competition schedule is notably light between tournaments. Prior to a couple of pre-Paralympics exhibition games in Milan at the end of February, the team last competed in early December in Dawson Creek, B.C., during the Para Cup, with six games in October preceding that.
"So the only other way for us to get better is to play against each other in practice," said Adam Dixon. "So in terms of getting intense, it definitely does. It's kind of your job to play as hard as you can to make the guy beside you better. And that results in some temper sometimes. It's kind of funny. We're all doing it for the betterment of each other, but in the moment you forget that. Some guys flip out, which is always enjoyable. We've had a couple of practice fights this year. Nothing too crazy, just getting some steam out. Just being in a hotel for two weeks alone would do that. But putting yourselves on the road for two weeks and then asking yourselves to compete as hard as possible for a couple of hours a day, that's going to bring stuff out."
The advantage of such extensive practice time, from a coaching perspective, is the ability to concentrate on systems.
"What we as a staff learned is we're starting to become a well-tuned machine, and what I mean by that is from defensive zone to neutral zone, the forecheck, the power play, the penalty kill, that is something that put a smile on our faces as a coaching staff," Rybalka remarked at the end of February.
Heart, Drive, and Speed as Key Weapons
Beyond tactical preparations, Rybalka believes the team's most significant assets are heart, drive, and speed.
"We have a never-quit attitude, and that's something that we worked on all year. We're on the puck," he affirmed.
The squad will be guided by veterans such as Westlake, captain Tyler McGregor, Dixon, Dom Cozzolino, James Dunn, and Liam Hickey. They will assist rookies Shawn Burnett, Vincent Boily, Auren Halbert, Mathieu Lelievre, and Micah Kovacevich in navigating the pressure-packed debut at the Games.
"They have talked to these young guys and said 'yes, it's gonna be exciting, there's gonna be nervousness, but make sure you enjoy the time because it goes by quick and remember why we're here," said Rybalka. "We're here to win a gold for Canada, and that's our number one goal."
In all likelihood, the United States will obstruct their path at some juncture—whether in the semifinals or the final remains uncertain.
"No matter what, we're going to have to go through each other to get to a gold medal," Dixon concluded. "Our ultimate goal is being Paralympic gold medalists, so we're going to have to attempt to break their hearts and destroy their goal. We've definitely been on the other side of it. Whenever we've come up successful, it's been a world championship event. We've not been able to have the right game at the right time at the Paralympics, but I think Boris has done a really good job of getting us to that point. We are coming in with a ton of confidence and belief that we can get it done."
