Team Canada coach Jon Cooper said he's not using the 3-on-3 overtime as an excuse for losing the gold medal game. But he said taking four players off the ice made the hockey "not hockey anymore."
MILAN, Italy - About an hour had passed since Jack Hughes had scored the "golden goal" for Team USA in the Olympic final when Team Canada coach Jon Cooper was asked for his thoughts on how Canada handled the risk management of a 3-on-3 overtime of this magnitude.
Rather than talk strategy, Cooper blasted the overtime format that the IIHF instituted for the first time at this year's Olympics.
"You take four players off the ice, now hockey's not hockey anymore," said Cooper. "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 (3-on-3) is not in the Stanley Cup final or playoffs."
Canada needed overtime to defeat the U.S. at last year's 4 Nations Face-Off, with Connor McDavid scoring the winning goal. But that overtime was played 5-on-5.
At this year's Olympics, the IIHF changed its format to 3-on-3. And while that format is something the NHL uses to help decide regular-season games, it is not used in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
When Cooper was asked whether he would prefer that the IIHF return to the traditional 5-on-5 format for the 2026 Olympics, the Team Canada coach seemed to backtrack on his previous comments, making it clear he was not using the 3-on-3 format as an excuse for failing to win gold.
"All the teams know the rules going into these beforehand. So you can't come up here and say we're the losing team because we lost in a 3-on-3 and that's not fair," he said. "We knew the rules coming in. We won a game in this tournament 3-on-3, so that's not the way it is."
Indeed, Canada defeated Czechia in the quarterfinal, with Mitch Marner scoring in overtime.
But this time around, Canada couldn't find the back of the net at 1:41 in the extra frame.
Instead, Canada turned the puck over, and the Americans skated down the ice on a 3-on-1, with defenseman Zach Werenski finding Hughes in the slot, who then beat goalie Jordan Binnington with a well-placed wrist shot.
"Great play by Z to Jack 'The Superstar' Hughes," said Brady Tkachuk.
Added Matthew Tkachuk: "His goal, too, to make the goalie slide and then put it five-hole. Only the best of the best think like that — and he did it."
It was the kind of play that you typically only see in a 3-on-3 overtime, where odd-man rushes and open ice are the norm. Even Cooper was impressed.
"It's still skilled players out there making skilled plays," he said. "And the U.S. team has some skilled players — as do we. They made one more play than we did in overtime."
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