Canada lost the Maple Leaf and two stars, and won by four anyway

Canada showed up in Herning without Marie-Philip Poulin, without Sarah Fillier and without the Maple Leaf on its chest, and still beat Sweden 5-1 like none of it mattered. That's the real headline from opening day. The jersey fight is the IIHF's mess. The depth is Canada's answer to it.

Jessie Eldridge got the top-line job with Poulin hurt and Fillier out, and she did the thing you're supposed to do with a promotion. Two goals and an assist, including the one that closed it.

She's 28, she just signed a two-year deal with the PWHL champion Montréal Victoire, and she had two points in seven games the last time she played at a worlds, in 2022. Friday was a different player.

The game

Canada put it away in the first period. Eldridge, Emily Clark and Rebecca Leslie scored before the first break, and Kendall Cooper added a power-play goal midway through the second. Hanna Thuvik got Sweden on the board on a power play in the third, and Eldridge answered to close it.

Ann-Renée Desbiens barely had to work. Ebba Svensson Traff made 33 saves at the other end, which is the only reason this stayed at five.

The sweaters

Both North American teams played in plain, logo-free sweaters made by True Hockey, the supplier the IIHF picked for every national team starting this season.

Hockey Canada has its own deal with Bauer. USA Hockey has one with CCM. The federations went to a Swiss court over who owns the rights to a national team's jersey. They won temporary injunctions in the spring, lost them in September and have appealed.

Hockey Canada said "wearing our Maple Leaf is incredibly important to our national team athletes." That's the whole argument, and it's a winning one.

The IIHF picked a fight with its two best teams, at the women's tournament, in the first year it moved the event to November. Bold timing for a federation that keeps telling everyone it wants this game to grow.

None of that showed up on the ice. Nobody passes worse in a generic sweater.

The other favorite

The U.S. opened in Esbjerg and beat Switzerland 7-0. Hannah Bilka and Laila Edwards scored twice each, Hilary Knight got her first of the tournament, and Aerin Frankel needed eight saves for her seventh career shutout at the worlds.

That win tied her with Jessie Vetter for the most worlds victories by a U.S. goalie, at 16.

By our count, the two favorites outscored Sweden and Switzerland 12-1 on day one, and the Swiss put eight shots on Frankel all game. It's one game each, so nobody's printing the bracket yet. But the gap between the top two and the field looked as wide as ever.

What's next

Canada plays Japan on Sunday. The U.S. gets Germany the same day at 9 a.m. ET. The final is Nov. 16.

The Americans won the 2025 worlds and the Olympic final in February, both in overtime against Canada. That's the bar. Canada without Poulin and Fillier is younger and thinner up front, and Eldridge just showed it isn't helpless.

My call: Canada and the U.S. meet on Nov. 16, and it's a one-goal game again. Eldridge scores in it.

The W read: The IIHF wanted the story to be the sweaters. Eldridge made it about the hockey in one period.