The United States and Canada have dominated women’s hockey on the international stage for over 15 years.

But the gap between the ‘best’ and the ‘rest’ has never been smaller and is closing fast.

As recently as 5 years ago, the North American teams were considered to be so far ahead of the European and Asian squads that the lack of player development on a world-wide scale was a serious concern.

But if the results from the 2008 World Championships in China are any indication, there has been a shift in the growth of the female game and the development its players overseas.

FInland beat the United States and Switzerland pulled off a huge upset against Sweden.

The European teams have focused a great deal of effort on developing players from a young age and this has made a huge difference to their teams’ performance and results on the international stage over the last few years.

Our North American teams are taking a long hard look at our own player development systems, from the most grassroot to elite levels, in order to try to maintain what is beginning to look like a slim lead over the rest of the competition.

We can no longer rely on the ‘numbers’ effect. Sure, we have over 140,000 female hockey players in North America - which is far more than the rest of the world combined.

And this sheer volume of players has led to the emergence of many great players over time.

But our development of female hockey’s next great players cannot be left up to chance.

As the gap continues to close, we must open our eyes to the fact that as the rest of the female hockey world develops and changes, so must we.

Until next time,

Kim