Canada’s Olympic men’s hockey coach is complaining that the overtime rules for the Winter Games are “not hockey anymore,” after Team Canada lost its gold medal game to Team USA on Sunday.
The Americans won gold on Sunday in overtime 2-1, giving the USA its first gold in hockey since the famed “Miracle on Ice” Olympic team in 1980. Sunday’s game came to an end in the Winter Games in Italy when US star Jack Hughes scored the game-winning goal in overtime.
But now, Team Canada’s coach, Jon Cooper, is complaining that the OT rules at the Olympics aren’t optimal, Fox News reported.
Olympic hockey rules state that overtime is played three-on-three. The method can speed up the OT game. But coach Cooper thinks the rules also make it into something that is no longer hockey.
“You take four players off the ice, now hockey’s not hockey anymore,” Cooper exclaimed after his team’s loss. “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.”
Still, Cooper went on to say the OT rules are not why Canada lost.
“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,” Cooper added. “We knew the rules coming in. We won a game in this tournament 3-on-3, so that’s not the way it is.”
Team Canada did win its 3-on-3 match against the Czech Republic at this year’s Olympics. The team also beat the U.S. in four-on-four OT during the 4 Nations Face-Off last February.
In the end, Team Canada could not seem to get the puck past powerhouse US goalie Connor Hellebuyck, who was simply impenetrable with a whopping 41 saves. In the end, the only Canadian player able to scoot one past Hellebuyck, was Cale Makar, who scored the lone goal for Team Canada.
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