Music: {allcanada} 'Not hockey': Canada's Cooper on 3-on-3 ending to gold-medal game

Sunday, February 22, 2026

{allcanada} 'Not hockey': Canada's Cooper on 3-on-3 ending to gold-medal game

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For 60 minutes, Canada appeared to outplay the U.S. in Sunday's Olympic gold-medal game.

Of course, it was the Americans who came out on top when Jack Hughes scored the winning goal in three-on-three overtime.

The U.S. will forever have the gold medals from these Olympics.

But Canada head coach Jon Cooper questioned the OT format for the decisive game.

"You take four players off the ice, now hockey's not hockey anymore. 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 it's not in the Stanley Cup Final or playoffs," Cooper said, per Michael Traikos of The Hockey News.

Canada forward Nathan MacKinnon discusses the team's 2-1 overtime loss to the United States in the gold-medal game, saying they had a bunch of prime chances to take the lead but it felt like it "wasn't meant to be.

Canada outshot the U.S. 42-28 for the game, with American goalie Connor Hellebuyck stepping up with big saves time and time again throughout the contest.

Canadian alternate captain Nathan MacKinnon put it bluntly.

"You be the judge of who was the better team today," he said, per Josh Clipperton of The Canadian Press.

Of course, all that matters when the final buzzer sounds is the scoreboard.

And that read U.S. 2, Canada 1. Final