 | It's the dog days of summer, so today we're of course talking… hockey! Specifically, the upcoming orientation camps for the Canadian men's and women's Olympic teams. Plus, tennis sensation Victoria Mboko plays her semifinal match in Montreal this evening, the Vancouver Whitecaps sign a big-name player, and a baseball umpire will make history this weekend. | | | Canada's national hockey teams begin their road to the Olympics this month
| | | Yes, it's an odd time of year to be thinking about our most popular winter sport. But hockey is going to be the centrepiece of this winter's Olympic Games in Italy, and late last week Hockey Canada announced the invitees for its three-day orientation camp in Calgary at the end of the month.
Here's a look at both of Canada's Olympic teams:
Men's
Forty-two NHLers were invited to the Aug. 26-28 camp as the world's best players get set to participate in the Olympics for the first time since 2014.
We already know a handful of the guys who will be playing for general manager Doug Armstrong and head coach Jon Cooper in Milan: forwards Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Brayden Point and Sam Reinhart and defenceman Cale Makar were named in June when all 12 teams in the tournament revealed their initial six picks.
Other star forwards headed to the Canadian camp include Conn Smythe Trophy winner Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand of the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, new Vegas signee Mitch Marner and polarizing Washington bruiser Tom Wilson.
2024 Rookie of the Year Connor Bedard of Chicago got an invite despite a disappointing sophomore season for the former No. 1 overall draft pick, while San Jose's Macklin Celebrini (the top choice in last year's draft) will also have a shot at cracking the roster after potting 25 goals as a rookie. Neither made the cut for last February's spectacular 4 Nations Face-Off, where McDavid scored the overtime winner against the U.S. in the championship game in Boston. Every player from the 4 Nations team was invited back.
On defence, Makar, who just earned his second Norris Trophy, will be joined by his Colorado blue-line partner Devon Toews and the likes of Vegas' Shea Theodore, Winnipeg's Josh Morrissey and Edmonton's Evan Bouchard, who's hoping to make it after being left off the 4 Nations squad. Los Angeles Kings veteran Drew Doughty is one of only three camp invitees to have won an Olympic gold, along with Crosby and Toronto forward John Tavares.
The goalies in camp will be St. Louis' Jordan Binnington, Vegas' Adin Hill and Montreal's Sam Montembeault — the same three from the 4 Nations. That means another snub for Washington's Logan Thompson, considered by many to be Canada's best goalie (he reportedly did not get along with some of Cooper's assistant coaches). A non-invite to camp doesn't completely shut the door on a player's chances of making the final Olympic roster, but for now it looks like Thompson will be watching from home again.
There won't be any on-ice activities at the orientation camp in Calgary. Instead, players and staff from Canada's men's, women's and Para teams will take part in "presentations, team-building opportunities, team meetings and media opportunities," according to Hockey Canada. For those men on the fringes of the roster, their performances during the first few months of the NHL season could determine who gets to go to Italy.
Canada's first Olympic game is on Feb. 12 vs. the Czech Republic. The Canadians will also meet Switzerland and France in the group stage. The top team in each of the three groups, along with the best second-place team, advance directly to the quarterfinals while all other teams move into a play-in round. The gold-medal game is on Feb. 22. Here's more on Canada's roster for the orientation camp.
Women's
You can bet your bottom dollar that Canada and the United States will square off again in the Olympic gold-medal game on Feb. 19 in Milan. The rival women's hockey superpowers have met in six of the seven Olympic finals to date, including the last four in a row, along with 23 of the 24 world-championship finals. The Americans took the world title back this year with a 4-3 overtime win over Canada in the Czech Republic, but the Canadians will head to Italy as the reigning Olympic champs after their 3-2 victory over the U.S. in 2022 in Beijing.
While the Canada-U.S. rivalry continues to define women's hockey at the international level, the pros have undergone seismic changes over the past few years. The advent of the Professional Women's Hockey League in 2024 brought much-needed stability to the sport along with better salaries and working conditions for the players, and it'll now impact Olympic preparations as everyone gears up for the first Games of the PWHL era.
In the past, Hockey Canada would gather its Olympic hopefuls in Calgary for months of full-time training together leading up to the Games — a process known as centralization. But that's no longer possible now that most players have full-time jobs in the PWHL.
Instead, following the orientation sessions later this month, three on-ice training camps will be held in Calgary (Aug. 30 to Sept. 12), Toronto (in late September) and Montreal (late October). Then, Canada and the U.S. will play each other on Nov. 6 in Cleveland and Nov. 8 in Buffalo to begin this season's Rivalry Series, which has been shortened to four games from five last year and seven before that (another side effect of the PWHL's rise). The series concludes in December with a pair of Games in Canada, but the dates and locations have yet to be announced.
The 30 players invited to Canada's orientation camp include longtime captain Marie-Philip Poulin, who won the PWHL's MVP award after leading the league with 19 goals in 30 games for the Montreal Victoire. Poulin's Montreal teammate Ann-Renée Desbiens, who was elected the PWHL's Goaltender of the year, will also be in camp along with Defender of the Year Renata Fast of the Toronto Sceptres. They'll be joined by national-team stalwarts such as Natalie Spooner, Brianne Jenner, Sarah Nurse and Sarah Fillier, who tied American Hilary Knight for the PWHL points lead as a rookie for New York. Toronto forward Daryl Watts and star NCAA defender Chloe Primerano are among those trying to make their first Olympic team.
Here's more on the Canadian women's path to the Olympics from CBC Sports' Karissa Donkin. | | |  | Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid helped lift Canada to a dramatic 4 Nations Face-Off title last winter. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
| | | Quickly…
| | | Some other things to know:
1. Victoria Mboko can reach the Canadian Open final this evening.
The 18-year-old Canadian tennis sensation looks to extend her thrilling run at the National Bank Open in Montreal when she faces ninth-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the women's semifinals at 6 p.m. ET. Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, beat Mboko in straight sets two weeks ago in the round of 16 in Washington, D.C.
Mboko entered the year ranked 350th in the world before winning five titles on the lower-tier ITF Tour. After reaching the final of a low-stakes WTA event in Italy in May, she made her Grand Slam main-draw debut at the French Open and advanced to the third round before falling to eighth-seeded Qinwen Zheng. Mboko lost in the final round of qualifying for Wimbledon but got another chance as a "lucky loser" and upset 25th-seeded Magdalena Frech before being eliminated in the second round by American Hailey Baptiste.
As a wild-card entry in Montreal, Mboko defeated 79th-ranked Kimberly Birrell, No. 23 seed Sofia Kenin and 39th-ranked Marie Bouzkova before dominating top-seeded American Coco Gauff 6-1, 6-4 on Saturday to reach the quarterfinals. She then took out 51st-ranked Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain 6-4, 6-2 to become the youngest woman to reach the Canadian Open semis since Belinda Bencic won the tournament in 2015. Win or lose against Rybakina tonight, Mboko will climb into the top 50 in the next rankings update, and if she goes on to win the title she could crack the top 25. Here's more on Mboko's wild ride in Montreal.
Tonight's other women's semifinal matchup pits former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka of Japan against 16th-seeded Clara Tauson of Denmark. At the men's Canadian Open in Toronto, the semifinal matchups tonight are top-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany vs. No. 11 Karen Khachanov of Russia and an all-American tilt between No. 2 Taylor Fritz and No. 4 Ben Shelton.
In other tennis news, Ukraine's Elina Svitolina said she was harassed online by angry gamblers after her quarterfinal loss to Osaka, while the U.S. Open announced a 20 per cent increase in prize money that will result in a record $5-million US cheque to the singles champions this year.
2. German soccer star Thomas Müller signed with the Vancouver Whitecaps.
The Major League Soccer team made its long-rumoured acquisition of the former Bayern Munich star and World Cup champion official today, announcing it has signed Müller for the remainder of the 2025 season with an option for 2026.
The 35-year-old midfielder helped Bayern, Germany's top club, to two UEFA Champions League titles and 13 Bundesliga crowns, including the domestic championship this past season. He scored 250 goals for Bayern along with 45 goals in 131 matches for the German national team, which he helped to a World Cup victory in 2014. Here's more on what Müller brings to Vancouver.
3. Major League Baseball called up its first female umpire.
Jen Pawol is set to make history this weekend when she umps a series between the Marlins and the Braves in Atlanta. She'll work the bases in Saturday's doubleheader and the plate on Sunday, MLB said today.
Pawol, a 48-year-old American, umpired spring-training games over the last couple of years before getting the nod to become the first woman to work regular-season games in the big leagues. Here's more on her callup. | | | That's it for today. Talk to you later.
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