LOS ANGELES — Hope sounded like high-pitched shrieks.
Dreams looked like the awestruck smiles of the kids wearing hockey jerseys and shirts and holding encouraging signs at Crypto.com Arena on Monday while the U.S. women's hockey team faced Canada in the latest edition of one of the fiercest rivalries in sports. Not in women's sports — in all sports.
The Americans and Canadians are the class of women's hockey, which pops into public consciousness only during the Winter Olympics. They never disappoint. Their great goaltending acrobatics and clutch scoring produce exhaustingly dramatic matchups at the Olympics and world championships. They shine because of their talent and competitiveness and their persistence despite having been told as kids they shouldn't play hockey, they were an annoyance, that coaching them would waste time better spent on guiding boys.
