'Not good enough': After MVP season, Marie-Philip Poulin has sights set on Olympic gold, Walter Cup

At the end of last season, Marie-Philip Poulin left the PWHL's awards banquet in Ottawa with her arms full of trophies.

The Billie Jean King Most Valuable Player award. Forward of the year. Leader in goals scored, having potted 19 over 30 regular-season games.

But Poulin emerged from an MVP season without the two trophies she wanted the most. Her Montreal Victoire team was eliminated in the first round of the PWHL playoffs for the second year in a row, about a month after the Canadian team lost the world championship in overtime to the Americans.

"The year was good, but not good enough," Poulin said in an interview with CBC Sports in August, before she left for the national team's first training block of the year. She was doing press for a new partnership with the Canadian Olympic Committee and a premium pet food company, Nulo, which included a photo shoot with her golden retriever, Arlo — the dog who shows her unconditional love, no matter the result of the game she just played.

Going into the next season, Poulin has the chance to win her fourth Olympic gold medal at her fifth Games. The only other hockey players to win four Olympic gold medals are in the Hockey Hall of Fame: Jayna Hefford, Hayley Wickenheiser, and one of Poulin's idols, Caroline Ouellette.

"Hopefully I'll be there," the always humble Poulin said about the prospect of competing at her fifth Olympics. "It's crazy how quick it goes, now to be going to my fifth. It would be quite special."

It'll also be her third season in the PWHL, with another shot at the Walter Cup. But this time around, eight teams are vying for the championship instead of six.

Poulin tries to keep herself in the present, enjoying every moment and not taking anything for granted.

Don't mistake that for being satisfied.

"This is what gets me hungry, day in and day out," she said. "I want it. But again, there's a lot of effort that goes behind it. There's a lot of work that needs to be done before getting there."

Knight has said Milan-Cortina will be her final Olympics, though that doesn't mean she plans to hang up her skates any time soon.

"My plans professionally as of now are to continue to play," Knight, who will play this upcoming season with expansion PWHL Seattle, said in June.

Asked about her plans after the Olympics, Poulin said she hasn't thought that far ahead yet.

"I'm still enjoying the sport quite a bit," Poulin said. "I'm still loving what I'm doing. I'll stay in the present. I'll enjoy it as much as I can. Not sure how long or whatnot. I don't have a timeline right now, but I just want to enjoy it to the fullest."

The Olympic season will look a bit different than the last four Poulin has experienced. Instead of training and competing together in one central location throughout the season, the players hoping to wear the maple leaf will take part in three "training blocks" around the country leading up to the Olympics in February.

They'll also play four Rivalry Series games against the United States, beginning with games in Cleveland on Nov. 6 and Buffalo on Nov. 8. The last two games will be held in Canada in December, though the exact dates and locations haven't been announced yet.

The Canadian team's first training block is underway in Calgary now. They'll be back together in Toronto at the end of September, followed by a final training block in Montreal in October. PWHL training camps will begin in November.

It'll be a packed season of hockey, and a road to the Olympics that the Canadian staff has been carefully planning since the PWHL launched two years ago.

"With the PWHL starting as late as it starts, we want to make sure that we're kind of training with our athletes leading into their season as well, so they're not overwhelmed or exhausted come February," Team Canada general manager Gina Kingsbury told CBC Sports earlier this summer. "That's super important for us."

For Poulin, the structure of this year means more time at home in Montreal, and more time with Arlo.

"I'm getting older but just to see what this team is all about, knowing that the product on the ice is getting better and better year after year," she said.

"The talent, you get new kids coming up on the team, it's just unbelievable to see that. I'm very thankful. It's going to be one day at a time, one camp at a time."