Welcome To The Sarah Fillier Show

BEIJING, CHINA – Sarah Fillier isn’t the next big thing. She isn’t the future of Canadian hockey. She isn’t going to be a star. She’s the big thing right now. She’s the national team’s thrilling present. She is so transparently the star of her squad in Beijing that many of sports media’s forward-looking pronouncements in the last week—the “next generation” and “poised for breakout” reads of her career—already feel quaint and belated. The great-skating 21-year-old, on leave from her team at Princeton to make her Olympic debut, centered Canada’s electric, productive second line at the world championships in Calgary in August, and shined in just about every one of the hard-fought rivalry series games the U.S. and Canadian national teams played to prepare for the Olympics throughout the fall. It’s not so much that Sarah Fillier has arrived, but that you have.