The 2018 Olympics are upon us, and you’ve decided to become a women’s hockey fan! Or, it’s been four years since you last really paid attention and you need to brush up. Understandable. Welcome, come in, we have exciting hockey for you and we’re hoping you’ll stick around.

How to Watch

Dates: February 10 - 21
Broadcast: CBC, TSN, TSN2, Sportsnet, NBCSN, USA Network
Streaming: Olympics.CBC.ca, CBC Olympics app, NBCOlympics.com, NBCSCN app

Full Schedule with TV channels (all events will be streamed)

GROUPDATETIMETEAMSTV
BSat 10 Feb2:40 AM ESTJPN  vs  SWE TSN
BSat 10 Feb7:10 AM ESTSUI  vs  COR USA Network
ASun 11 Feb2:40 AM ESTFIN  vs  USA TSN, NBCSN
ASun 11 Feb7:10 AM ESTCAN  vs  OAR USA Network, CBC
BMon 12 Feb2:40 AM ESTSUI  vs  JPN NBCSN, CBC
BMon 12 Feb7:10 AM ESTSWE  vs  COR NBCSN
ATues 13 Feb2:40 AM ESTCAN  vs  FIN NBCSN, CBC
ATues 13 Feb7:10 AM ESTUSA  vs  OAR NBCSN, CBC
BTues 13 Feb10:10 PM ESTSWE  vs  SUI NBCSN
BWed 14 Feb2:40 AM ESTCOR  vs  JPN NBCSN
AWed 14 Feb10:10 PM ESTUSA  vs  CAN NBCSN, CBC
AThurs 15 Feb2:40 AM ESTOAR  vs  FIN USA Network, TSN2
Fri Feb 1610:10 PM ESTQF1USA Network
Sat Feb 172:40 AM ESTQF2USA Network
Sat Feb 1710:10 PM ESTPlacement game
Sun Feb 182:40 AM ESTPlacement game
Sun Feb 1811:10 PM ESTSF1NBCSN, TSN
Mon Feb 197:10 AM ESTSF2NBCSN, CBC
Mon Feb 1910:10 PM EST7TH PLACE
Tues Feb 202:40 AM EST5TH PLACE
Wed Feb 212:40 AM ESTBRONZEUSA Network
Wed Feb 2111:10 PM ESTGOLDNBCSN, Sportsnet

Preview

For a quick primer on the teams involved this year, including how they did in Sochi and at last year’s Worlds,  players you should know, and the big games you need to tune in for, check out our previews for Group A and Group B.

We also joined Arvind and Acting the Fulemin on their Back to Excited podcast this weekend.

Tournament Format

The women’s tournament is divided into two groups of four teams, Group A and Group B.

Group A consists of the top four teams in the IIHF world rankings after the 2016 World Championships (USA, Canada, Finland and er... the Olympic Athletes from Russia). Group B includes the fifth ranked team, the host team, and two teams that qualified via the Olympic Qualification tournaments in 2016-17 (Sweden, Unified Korea, Switzerland and Japan).

Each group will play a round robin tournament. A regulation win is three points, an overtime or shootout win is two points and an overtime or shootout loss is one point.

At the end of the round robin, the top two teams in Group A will receive a bye into the semi-finals.

The two quarter-final games will be the third team in Group A versus the second team in Group B and the fourth team in Group A versus the top team in Group B.

The two semi-final games will be the top team in Group A versus the winner of  the second quarter-final and the second team in Group A versus the winner of the first quarter-final.

The winners of the semi-final games will play each other for Gold, and the losers of the semi-final games will play each other for Bronze.

The losers of the quarter-final games and the bottom two teams in Group B will play a playoff series of four games to determine the fifth through eighth placements.

Changes from 2014

Teams are allowed one extra skater and one extra goalie, for a total of 23 players per roster. Each team can ice 20 skaters and two goalies per game. The Unified Korean team is allowed a total of 23 South Koreans and 12 North Koreans, however they are also restricted to 22 players per game, at least three of whom must be North Koreans.

Overtime in the round robin will be five minutes of 3 on 3. No one in women’s hockey plays 3-on-3 overtime so this could get interesting. (Overtime for most playoff games will be 10 minutes of 4 on 4, and the Gold medal game will be 20 minutes of 4 on 4. Shootouts are minimum 5 shooters, which is IIHF standard)

These times are all really late at night, sleep is more important than hockey...

Blasphemy! But we here at PPP have got you covered. We’ll post short updates about each game every day. Follow the 2018 Winter Olympics group on the main page.