After Team Canada’s 3-1 loss to Team USA, head coach Jon Cooper discussed the fights to start the game, a tight-checking loss, adjustments to generate more offense, and Cale Makar’s status for Monday’s game against Finland.
On the start of the game, featuring three fights in nine minutes:
Well, a couple of nights ago, when I sat up here, if you had told me something was going to top that, I would not have believed you. But that topped it.
You know why it topped it? It wasn’t planned. It wasn’t two coaches throwing guys over saying, “This is happening.” None of that happened. It was as organic as it gets.
It was probably 10 years of no international hockey exhaled in a minute and a half.
USA vs. Canada started off in MADNESS
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— ESPN (@espn) February 16, 2025
On whether he thinks the fighting we saw in this game is a positive for the international game:
Well, this is an NHL event. Countries are playing each other, but it is not an IIHF event. I don’t think we can put it in that category.
These guys have grown up with it. It is part of our game. At my last look, I didn’t see anybody running for the exits.
People are going to talk about this. There are probably people who don’t like it, but it set up a heck of a game.
When it was over, for 59 minutes, the two teams battled each other as hard as they could. We will let the fans be the judge…
