2026 Olympics: Team Canada women’s hockey captain Marie-Philip Poulin ruled out vs. United States

Canada’s women’s Olympic hockey team will be missing a huge piece when they face Team USA on Tuesday as captain Marie-Philip Poulin has been ruled out with a lower-body injury.

Here’s what you need to know.

You can also see our full game preview and score prediction for Canada vs. USA and don’t forget check out Sports Interaction’s complete list of Olympic game odds, Olympic futures and Olympic specials and props.

Marie-Philip Poulin

Poulin suffered the injury in the first period of Canada’s 5-1 win over Czechia on Monday.

Czechia’s Kristyna Kaltounkova hit Poulin midway through the opening period and appeared to make contact with her head. Poulin briefly returned for a shift on the ensuing power play, but quickly went back to the bench and seemed to be struggling with her right leg.

She went back to the locker room before returning to the bench for the rest of the first period. Poulin was ruled out of the rest of the game in the second period.

Hockey Canada described the injury as lower-body on Tuesday and listed Poulin as day-to-day.

Canada vs. U.S.

Poulin recorded an assist in Canada’s tournament-opening 4-0 win against Switzerland. Known as Captain Clutch, she scored the game-winning goal in the gold medal game of the 2010, 2014 and 2022 Olympics, all against the United States. Overall in her career, she has three Olympic gold medals and one silver.

The 34-year-old from Beauceville, Quebec has 17 career Olympic goals, one short of tying Hayley Wickenheiser for the team record. She is also Canada’s active scoring leader against the Americans, recording 74 points (42G, 32A) in 104 games against Team USA.

At 2-0 in the tournament, Canada enters Tuesday as a +160 underdog against the 3-0 Americans, who are -210 favourites.

Canada closes out the preliminary-round on Thursday against Finland. That is a rescheduled game from Feb. 5 after the Finns had multiple cases of norovirus.

It is unclear if Poulin will be available on Saturday for Canada’s quarterfinal matchup against an opponent not yet determined.