Jon Cooper, Team Canada head coach, 4 Nations Face-Off
Jon Cooper, Team Canada head coach, 4 Nations Face-Off

After Team Canada’s practice on Friday, head coach Jon Cooper discussed preparation for USA vs. Canada, the history of the rivalry, the Canadian crowd’s reaction to the American anthem, Sam Bennett entering the lineup, and Cale Makar’s status for the game.

Practice Lines – February 14

Is the game against the Americans going to be the good guys vs. the villains?

Cooper: Yeah, I guess. I think it is going to be really, really, really good hockey players against really, really, really good hockey players.

As you’ve gone through the history of international hockey, a couple of decades ago, USA-Canada probably wasn’t a big deal. Because of the progression of USA Hockey in the last 20 years, it has really propelled them to the forefront of hockey.

Much like Sweden and Finland will be earlier in the day, this is pretty much the same thing, except it is on our turf. It is going to be a ton of fun. That day, for so many reasons, with both of those games going on, will be, to quote Bob Johnson, “A great day for hockey.”

What are your thoughts on the Canadian fans booing the American anthem, which they will probably do again before Canada vs. the USA on Saturday?

Cooper: We can’t say for sure. We hope it doesn’t happen.

People have their personal feelings. Sometimes, it gets mushed together when you bring politics into sports.

For me, the NHL is great because there are so many players from so many different countries. When they are wearing the home jersey, it is okay. Everybody cheers for them. When they put on the away jersey, they are booing them.

I am okay with… Like, William Nylander got booed in the Sweden game. He wasn’t getting booed because he was a Swede. He was getting booed because he was a Leaf. And I am okay with that. That is where the interaction happens.

When you start bringing the anthem and the politics into that… The players are representing their country, and it is great in that aspect, but to me, you are clouding two issues.

Everybody should come here, cheer for the great game, and leave that part out of it. I would like the same for us when we go to other countries as well. These countries have been around way before us, and I think we should respect that.

Do you have any personal memories or connections to the USA-Canada rivalry?

Cooper: I will give you a quick funny story.

I am born in Prince George. My later mother — I miss her every day — passed in 2020. She was born in San Francisco. When she met my father, they moved to Prince George, and she lived there her whole life, but she never changed her citizenship.

Every time there was a USA-Canada game, she was staunch USA. The rest of us were staunch Canada.

The 1980 Olympics happened, and I don’t know where I found it — my dad hated me for it– but there was this rock. There was a picture of the USA Olympic team. Every time you walked by it, if you hit the button, it would be Al Michaels’ “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!” I bought it for her for Christmas.

I thought my dad was going to kill me. For the rest of time, she would just press it any time they were in an argument. It would just drive him nuts.

Even though it wasn’t against Canada, that is my USA Hockey memory that drove my dad nuts.

What is the impact of the home crowd on your team on the ice? Is there any, especially in a game like Saturday night?

Cooper: Oh my God. Let’s just talk about the first couple of minutes of the Sweden game. Mario Lemieux never played for the Montreal Canadiens, but how they treated one of their own, with the energy and the ovation they gave him, and what they did for Sid was defeating. Everybody talked about the chills they had.

I truly believe we scored that (1-0) goal the way we did because of the energy the Montreal crowd gave us.

Having watched Team USA’s win over Finland, do you have any thoughts on their style of play and what you expect? 

Cooper: I have coached against their coach for a decade. I pretty much know how that goes. I have coached against pretty much every player in every situation and in playoff rounds. They have an exceptional team.

When you are plucking players off of all of these NHL teams and pitting best against best, you are going to get a highly intense, highly physical, great-effort, in-your-face game. I can’t imagine it being anything else.

For most of these kids—and I call them kids because, besides Sid (Crosby) and Drew (Doughty), they didn’t play in 2014 —this is new. Because it is new and because it has been so long, the boys will be amped up on both sides.

This will be a unique game. The Canada-Sweden and USA-Finland games were the first games, but this, for the prelim, will probably be the game.

We saw what the Tkachuks did for Team USA against Finland. What are you hoping Sam Bennett can bring to the lineup alongside Brad Marchand? Those two have had some meetings in the playoffs before.

Cooper: It will be interesting if Sam and Matthew (Tkachuk) meet in a corner at some point.

I hope nobody is sitting here thinking that Sam was just brought here to play against the USA. He was brought here to play for Team Canada and play his game.

That kid has been nothing but an awesome soldier in this whole group this whole time. As he said to me, “Coop, if you asked me to play for this team, and you told me I wasn’t going to play any of the games, I still would’ve come.”

You are cheering for someone with that type of attitude, but our goal was to make sure everybody got into at least one game. It is just unfortunate that [Sanheim] is getting in because of an injury.

Sam has proven, as he has shown over the last couple of playoffs, that he can rise to the occasion in these big moments, especially when the physicality and the game is at its brightest. He has done a heck of a job. We expect them from him tomorrow.

What do you appreciate about Brandon Hagel’s game and his story? He was in an obscure position out of junior, and now he is on Team Canada.

Cooper: He has taken the journey less traveled to get to this particular team. There are a lot of undrafted guys who have played in the NHL—obviously, not the lion’s share—but to be able to get to a best-on-best tournament and play for the country of Canada, you had to have done something special.

There are simple words like “gamer” that come to mind with Hags. He has an engine. He never quits. He has hockey sense.

At times, skilled players do certain things, and he does all of these things that probably don’t make their way into the newspaper until you are in a tie game with seven minutes left and you need a penalty kill. You need a puck chucked out of the corner 200 feet. The guy doing it is Brandon Hagel.

He was brought here to excel in those situations. He does that. He is just another alpha in a room full of alphas. He is not afraid of the moment, even though his road here has been much different than most.

If this game goes to overtime, have you had further discussion about how you want to deploy the players? With Nate MacKinnon saying he was gassed, would you revisit how you would attack it?

Cooper: As you probably saw, there were different groups together going out.

The reason Nate was gassed is because he kept circling back and was having these unbelievable rushes. He created his own skate for himself.

I will talk to the guys and see how they felt. He, in particular, skated a lot of miles in that overtime for good reason. He had multiple scoring chances because of it.

Maybe I should’ve said, “Why didn’t you put one of those in, then you wouldn’t have to skate as much?”

I would’ve loved to win that game in regulation, but now that we have been through it, I am kind of glad. I am a lot more prepared for this now moving forward, especially with a bunch of guys you haven’t coached before.

What has been the most interesting thing about working with Rick Tocchet? How would you describe his unique position on your staff in that he has played at the highest level and can connect with players that way?

Cooper: Everyone has an extremely valuable spot on this staff.

It is amazing to me that he played in the ’87 Canada Cup. It is shocking. It is not that he didn’t deserve to be there, but he is such a young guy. It doesn’t feel like he should’ve been there.

The one thing about Tocch: He is so relatable. You hang on to everything he says. His experiences and what he has gone through, and his educating of our players, has been phenomenal. His relationship with Sid is second to none. He has the respect of everybody.

He is that guy who passes information on. If you are talking about the glue on a staff, you’d have to sit there and say that Rick Tocchet is a big part of it for us.

Do you expect Cale Makar to be available?

Cooper: Expect is a big word, but I am confident. I am confident he will be there.

Is Jordan Binnington in net on Saturday night?

Cooper: I have to tell the goalies before I tell you.

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