Ahead of the game against Team Sweden, head coach Jon Cooper discussed final preparations for the first game of the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Can you share what the conversation was like when you called Drew Doughty and told him he was going to be a part of this team?
Cooper: Basically, he is the only guy I called to say he made the team. Management made calls to everybody.
We just played Detroit, and we were on the bus going through the security check. It was snowing outside. I talked to Drew, we got security checked, and it was snowing outside on the walk to the plane.
It was someone who you would never know is the age that he is or that he has the experience he has through Team Canada. He accepted it like he had won the lottery. You want that. You want that passion — not someone sitting there saying, “Been there, done that.” He was definitely not like that.
When we talked about it, we talked about potential roles and where he fits into the group. Basically, he was like, “You don’t need to do that. You just tell me where and when. If it is never, so be it.”
He was great. That is what is great about the group: There is a lot of passion about being here.
What is it like for the coach to walk into a room with so much talent? What will the message be to the team tonight?
Cooper: In the end, as a coach, there is so much preparation that has gone into this. I can’t believe it is here now. It seems like it has taken forever to get to this international event.
Your job as a coach is not to get in the way. Put the players in the best position to succeed. Give them the information that is needed, but don’t get in their way, and don’t cloud the minds of the best players in the world. That is it.
When decisions have to be made, be assertive and do it. Ultimately, you have to let the guys play.
As you are walking into the locker room, it is kind of the best part of it. You are sitting around, and there are three or four guys sitting there. You are kind of hot-stoving it with them. You leave, and then there is another group. It has been a ton of fun.
They are all really focused on the common goal. That is to win tonight and for me not to get in the way.
What is your expectation for how this game will start in terms of the pace? Do you expect there to be some feeling out, or are you expecting it to be breakneck right off the start?
Cooper: Hard to say. Because this is an entirely NHL event, all of the players know each other. Yesterday, it was a picture day, and teams were walking through the same hallways. Everybody is stopping each other and chatting. It is not an All-Star game feel, but everybody is talking to each other.
Behind closed doors, I don’t think that is what is going on. I expect it to be as competitive as any international tournament. The difference is that we are all together right now. Teams are sharing hotels, so you are running into different situations like that.
It is exactly how the bubble was. Everybody was together and having fun and conversing, but when those games started, it was a war. The only thing that was crazy was that there were no fans. After one period, you never noticed it anyway because of the competitiveness on the ice. I think this will be the same way.
When it comes to the line deployments with a tournament this short, do you expect it to be experimental and fluid? Can you make yourself crazy by doing that? Do you have to seek stability and keep the guys together as they are now?
Cooper: I hope we got it right, and that is it. But I anticipate that will probably not be the case. Even with your own NHL teams, sometimes, you change lines just because the momentum of the game needs to be swung or you feel something in your gut telling you to do it.
In the short term, you also have to give them some leash. You can’t cut them off at the knees two shifts in. There is going to be a balance to see how the game is going.
We like the group we have assembled. We like the lines we have put together. The players seem to like the lines. That is half the battle there.
For many years, Team Canada’s goaltending was stellar. You had Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo, and Carey Price. Now, it seems most experts would say that netminding is not what it used to be. How do you feel about that? Do you feel you can still win with the group you have in net?
Cooper: We get asked questions about forwards, defense, and goaltending. Everybody plays their positions. Ultimately, it is a team sport. That is it.
When a goal is scored, for the most part, it is usually not the goalie’s fault, but he always gets the rap because he is the last one who sees it. He is the one who has to dig it out of the net when it is in there.
Usually, there has been a progression of a blown backcheck, a missed hit, or some system breakdown all the way to the end. The goaltender, for 65 shot attempts and 30 shots at him a game, has to make the save.
I don’t get into [that]. I look at the guys and say, “Well, that guy has won a Cup, and that guy has won a Cup.” I look over somewhere else and say, “He hasn’t won a Cup, and he hasn’t won a Cup.” You put guys in big-time situations, and it is about how they perform.
On our team, we feel that we have a whole bunch of guys who have performed in pressure situations all the way through our lineup, but this is a team sport, man. You win and lose as a team.
I feel that we are sold in every single position. I sleep well at night, thinking that I have this team to stand behind the bench with. I am excited about it.
What are your earliest impressions of Travis Konecny? You worked with him in 2017. How has he grown and developed since then?
Cooper: Funny that you asked. We talked about that.
If you know Travis, he is a character, but he also has character. He is a great kid to be around. Some of the benefits for me were being around that under-23 team in 2016 and then coaching the Worlds in 2017. I have been inundated with a lot of these kids. I knew them.
Anyway, we got around to talking about that, and I was shocked. They are married with kids, a house, and a family. When I met them, they were just young, fighting their way into the league and trying to make a name for themselves.
Maybe it is a sign of my age, but it has been interesting to have the evolution of conversations of where they live. They’ll say, “Oh, the young guys are living here in Philadelphia. Guys like myself, who are older and married, are living in Jersey.” It was funny to hear him say he was one of those (older) guys.
It is just the way it has been. It’s great.
You’ve talked about not clouding your players’ minds, but you are also trying to teach them a system in a couple of days. How do you try to give them as much information as possible without overwhelming them? They’re the best players in the world, but it is still new to a lot of them.
Cooper: It is. We were talking as coaches about how our two-week training camp has been put into two days. I think simple is better.
It can be different because even [Bruce Cassidy] plays a different system. Vegas plays differently than Tampa. Tampa plays a little closer to Dallas but still different. It is the same thing for the players.
I feel like we made it as conducive for the players as possible to comprehend. What happens on faceoffs? Well, those are set pieces. You have to learn that. But what happens in certain situations? We give it to them, but in the end, the message is that you’re hockey players, you’re the best in the world, and we will put you in situations to succeed where you will have your outs. In the end, go with your gut, make your instinct, and everybody else will adapt from that.
I don’t want to take the hockey player out of the guys. Go be yourself. If something needs to be tweaked, we will do it.
