Cooper says his job is to improve a Ferrari as Canada's Olympic coach

CALGARY - Canada's Olympic men's hockey coach Jon Cooper compares his job to fine-tuning a Ferrari.

Cooper returns to Canada's bench at the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina, Italy, after coaching the team to victory in the NHL's Four Nations Face Off in February.

"Our job is to take the Ferrari and make it better," Cooper said Thursday in Calgary.

"The roster is going to be built to win, and that's the only way you can really put it."

The 23 players from Canada's Four Nations roster, plus 19 more, were summoned to Calgary for an Olympic three-day orientation camp that concluded Thursday.

Canada's 25-man roster bound for Italy will be named in early January.

Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Sam Reinhart, Brayden Point, Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar were already chosen for the squad.

NHL players will return to the Olympic men's hockey tournament for the first time since 2014, when Crosby captained Canada to gold.

Only two of the 42 invited to Calgary have previous Olympic experience: Crosby and defenceman Drew Doughty in 2010 and 2014.

So gathering a group of players who had recent success in an international best-on-best in the Four Nations puts Canada "a step ahead in some areas," Cooper said.

"In a couple weeks, we're going back to our day jobs and then all of a sudden the Olympics are going to be here before we know it," the coach continued. "But we have set the table ... we do have a little bit of a process now of what to do and what to expect."

Cooper joked that Canada's top players wanting to impress him and be named to the Olympic squad could make life difficult for his own NHL club, the Tampa Bay Lightning.

"These guys are going to have to earn it on a nightly basis, and the fact you have a hat trick one night and then maybe aren't the same, you'll be watched," he stated. "Whenever all these players come and play the Tampa Bay Lightning, we'll get their best. Don't really like that."

International Ice Hockey Federation rules are much stricter on fighting than the NHL's, making it less likely Canada will engage in three fights in the first nine seconds of the game as it did in the Four Nations preliminary round against the United States.

"I've thought quite a bit about that tournament as a whole," said Canada's general manager Doug Armstrong. "The Olympics are going to be played very similarly to that, minus (nine) seconds.

"If you win the front of your net and the front of their net, you have a chance to win the game, so we're going to build a team that wins in those areas.

"We have the list of players here. We have another longer list of players that are eligible, another 50 players that we're going to scout."

Each country traditionally carries three goals, plus 22 skaters. Jordan Binnington of the St. Louis Blues, Adin Hill of the Vegas Golden Knights and Sam Montembeault of the Montreal Canadiens were summoned to Calgary.

Binnington stopped all six shots he faced in overtime in the Four Nations final against the U.S. before McDavid scored.

Armstrong, who is Binnington's GM in St. Louis, says goaltending is the most open competition on the team.

"We're here with three goaltenders because when we talked about the actual number that are going to be participating, we didn't really want to have that many goalies in one spot, so we decided to go with the three, but I've reached out to the other goalies that we believe have a legitimate chance, and told them the thought process behind bringing the three," Armstrong explained.

"They're going to have that opportunity from October 7th to January 1st to prove who should be on the team."

The NHL's last night of games before the Olympic break is Feb. 5. Canada opens against Czechia on Feb. 12 in Milan.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 28, 2025.