Posted on 02/23/2026 8:53:31 AM PST by V_TWIN
Jon Cooper is blaming the Olympic overtime rules for Canada’s loss to the United States.
Unlike the 4 Nations Face-Off and the Stanley Cup Playoffs, where the overtime period is five-on-five, the Olympics use a three-on-three format. This is designed to make overtime periods quicker and reduce shootouts. It’s also used in the NHL regular season.
“You take four players off the ice, now hockey’s not hockey anymore,” Cooper said, via The Hockey News. ”There’s a reason overtime and shootouts are in play — it’s all TV-driven to end games, so it’s not a long time. There’s a reason why it’s not in the Stanley Cup final or playoffs.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
And most of those “Canadians” live full-time in the US.
All I can say is that he knew the Olympic rules as well as the US did. He took his team there knowing that. They could have scored the first goal in overtime and won the gold. The point is, that didn’t happen.
Canada has a great team, but the US won under the Olympic rules. Deal with it.
He is not wrong on this. It does take away from the game and it is TV and financially driven. But all teams have to play within these rules and Team USA figured it out and Canada did not.
If he were to be honest, he could blame the loss on being unable to score on a minute and a half two-man advantage or a couple of his NHL star goal scorers missing wide open nets. Or perhaps, the most honest and gracious excuse that the US goalie, Hellebuyck had an amazing game.
Yeah and the sun was in their eyes and the refs were against them and blah blah blah.
“””And most of those “Canadians” live full-time in the US.””
Yup. And today they will go back to play on their US teams with the guys who beat them. Weird stuff.
Earlier in the game, Canada had a 5-on-3 for about a minute and failed to score.
Yeah I don’t like the rule. But that’s how it goes. It was a great game. They had a great run.
Yup. And today they will go back to play on their US teams with the guys who beat them. Weird stuff.
There’s a reason no Canadian team has won a Stanley Cup since 1993. Players don’t want to pay Canadian taxes.
3 on 3 is still much better than a 1 on 1 penalty shot
Call a Whammmbulance!
Ha!
They outshot the Americans 42 to 28. You don’t want to go 3 on 3 in overtime, put more pucks in the net during regulation.
I remember one set up (I cannot recall the tournament) that OT consisted of 10 minute periods where you went from 5:5, then 4:4, then 3:3.
I despise shoot outs.
But, the rules are the rules. Everyone plays by them.
Yes, Canada dominated the game in terms of shots on goals. But, that also means the US goalie performed better than the Canadian one.
Finally…it’s a game for goodness sake. It really doesn’t much matter in the course of the world.
It’s like claiming you won the election because you got the popular vote.
Were the rules known before they started competing? If so, shut up sore loser. If not, why were they changed?
they should have 5 to 3 in OT. Each team is 5 for half the time, and 3 for half the time.
Excuses are for losers.
Both teams played with the same rules.
He’s not wrong about that, but he has nothing to complain about when his star players couldn’t score more than 1 goal in 60 minutes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.