Jon Cooper has diminished women before. His comments following the opening game of the 4 Nations Face-Off claiming Sidney Crosby as Canada's all-time greatest player weren't just wrong, they ignored and erased Canada's actual all-time greatest national team star - Marie-Philip Poulin.
Jon Cooper has diminished women before. His comments following the opening game of the 4 Nations Face-Off claiming Sidney Crosby as Canada's all-time greatest player weren't just wrong, they ignored and erased Canada's actual all-time greatest national team star - Marie-Philip Poulin.
Jon Cooper must never have heard the name Marie-Philip Poulin. His comments following the opening game of the NHL‘s four nations face off stating that Sidney Crosby will go down as the best player to ever represent Canada are complementary to Crosby, but also false.
"It's no coincidence his record while wearing a Canadian jersey. That's not a fluke. He will go down as the greatest player to ever represent his country," Cooper said following Canada's opening win at the NHL's 4 Nations Face-Off. "If not, he's on the Mount Rushmore, for sure."
Crosby may go down as the best man to ever represent Canada, but he will not go down as the best player to ever represent Team Canada. That honor will go directly to Canada's national women's team captain Marie-Philip Poulin.
No player in Canadian hockey history has ever had the impact on their national team, from the U-18s through to the World Championships and Olympic Games that Marie-Philip Poulin has had with Canada. Not only will her medal count far surpass any Canadian man, but the fact that she has scored four golden game winning goals, lifting Canada to those medals, almost single-handedly at times, shows that her individual impact and her impact in elevating the play of those around her will outweigh the contributions of any man in the NHL today. It's why she's know as "Captain Clutch."
Beginning in 2010, Poulin was a game changer for Canada's senior national team. That same year in Vancouver, Crosby scored the biggest goal in his own career, the golden goal for Canada in overtime of those Olympics to win gold. So did Poulin. She also scored the game-winning goal at the 2014 Olympics and 2022 Olympics. Women have competed at seven Olympics games, the first when Poulin was seven, and next when she was 14. Still, Poulin has scored the Olympic gold medal winning goal in three of seven Olympic Games, ever.
Crosby has certainly made his own way internationally winning Olympic gold in 2010 and again in 2014 before the NHL removed themselves from the Olympics. He also has gold for Canada at the World Juniors, and World Championships. In total, Crosby has five medals for Canada, four gold and a silver. Poulin on the other hand has 14 medals for Canada, including three Olympic gold, and four World Championship gold. She is in her tenth year as the captain of Team Canada.
Sadly, it's not the first time Jon Cooper has diminished women at the microphone in his career. In fact, it's not even the first time in the last 10 months. In April 2024, Cooper, critiquing the ability of his Tampa Bay Lightning players to be physical at the net front told reporters that "we might as well put skirts on them then, if that's how it's going to be. I mean hey have to battle through things too."
The implication was clear. Women aren't able to play physical, or tough. And the implication was clear here again.
Furthermore, to make the claim he did about Crosby following a round robin game during an exhibition series created by the NHL, that is not the World Championships and is not the Olympics, that is being played without many of the World's top nations, that has only been created this season with no guarantee whether or not the 4 Nations Face-Off will continue to return or will become a staple of international play in the future makes Cooper’s statement even more insulting to the legacy of Poulin.
The 4 Nations Face-Off is an incredible event for NHL fans, but it’s not true international play. Bringing together only four nations is something that we see quite often in international play in terms of exhibitions. But it’s not something we see in terms of larger international competitions, where there’s true legacy and true respect on the line. When discussing Marie-Philip Poulin's legacy, very few will ever point to her contributions with Canada in the Rivalry Series as credentials for her Hall of Fame career. Those games are wonderful exhibitions to showcase the sport, just as the 4 Nations Face-Off will do for men’s competition, but in terms of discussing the overall legacy of a player and their historic impact on the game for Canada, the 4 Nations Face-Off, nor the Rivalry Series will ever be events that people consider as meaningful.
Cooper’s comments, echo those of so many men in hockey who erase the historic achievements of women in hockey by making sweeping claims. Had Cooper stated that Sidney Crosby will go down as the best man to ever play for Team Canada, or the best player to ever play for Canada's senior national men’s team, this statement may have been correct. But when you’re in front of the podium and making overarching, grand statements, you need to be aware that you are speaking on behalf of Team Canada, and on behalf of the greater hockey community. In that way Jon Cooper’s comments were not just false, they were insulting to the legacy of Canada‘s actual greatest player of all-time Marie-Philip Poulin.