Canada's 4 Nations head coach Jon Cooper: 'You're basically playing three Game 7s'

Jon Cooper was always walking into a dressing room loaded with talent.

Canada's head coach for the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off, an event marking the league's return to the international stage, and the country's hockey brain trust had an embarrassment of riches to choose from when selecting the roster.

Countless iterations could have potentially got the job done.

Apart from the jaw-dropping skill poised to be on display in February led by Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby, many of the players chosen to pull on the red and white Maple Leaf have another thing in common — championship experience.

Canada rounded out its lineup this week for the showcase event set for Montreal and Boston. Battle scars were clearly among the intangibles considered.

The 23-man roster includes no fewer than 21 Stanley Cup rings, Olympic gold medallists and world championship winners. A number of the players have also gone on deep playoff runs.

Cooper, whose day job is serving as the two-time Cup hoisting coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, said success in pressure-packed moments was part of the equation ahead of a four-team round-robin tournament that will see the two best countries play in a winner-take-all final.

"You can't put a price tag on experience," Cooper said Thursday on a video conference call. "I truly believe this is a tournament where you're basically playing three Game 7s [in the preliminary round].

"There's no real margin for error."

Canada rounded out its roster Wednesday after initially naming McDavid, Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Brad Marchand, Brayden Point and Cale Makar back in June.

No stud options in goal

Added to the mix up front were Mitch Marner, Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, Anthony Cirelli, Brandon Hagel, Mark Stone, Travis Konecny and Seth Jarvis.

The defence led by Makar will include Devon Toews, Shea Theodore, Alex Pietrangelo, Josh Morrissey, Colton Parayko and Travis Sanheim.

The biggest question for Canadian general manager Don Sweeney of the Boston Bruins was in goal, where the country no longer has stud options. The puck-stopping trio this time consists of Jordan Binnington, Adin Hill and Sam Montembeault.

"We were a lot more calm in picking the goaltenders than maybe what the outside world was viewing," Sweeney said. "We had tremendous amount of choices and some guys that have played really well.

"They're going to provide us the backbone that we need."

The 4 Nations tournament, which also includes the United States, Sweden and Finland, runs Feb. 12-20 and will serve as an appetizer for the NHL's Olympic return in 2026.

But Cooper, who is slated to coach Canada at those Games some 14 months from now with St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong leading the charge up top, said the focus will solely be on the ice.

"I don't think anybody's going to sit here and say, 'This is a stepping-stone for the Olympics,"' he said. "When the tournament's over and we're all doing our debrief on everything that goes on, maybe at that time we'll sit here and say, 'This worked or this didn't."

Canada brought some young players along for the ride, including the 22-year-old Jarvis, but the most notable omission might have been 19-year-old phenom Connor Bedard, who has struggled at times in his second NHL season.

"There's some challenges," Sweeney said. "He's working through that."

'Hall of Famers' throughout roster

The 4 Nations isn't technically going to be best-on-best with Russia, because of the war in Ukraine, and reigning world champions Czech Republic not in the mix, but it's the closest the men's game has got to that threshold since the 2016 World Cup.

"Pretty special roster; Hall of Famers all over it," Stone said of Canada. "Excited to get into that locker room and get this team assembled and ready to go."

The NHL went to five straight Olympics between 1998 and 2014 before skipping 2018 for financial reasons and missing out on 2022 because of COVID-19. The league and the NHL Players' Association announced last winter hockey's stars would play at the 2026 and 2030 Games.

The goal is to also hold a World Cup with an expanded field in 2028 and 2032 to get international events on a two-year cycle moving forward.

"I can't stress enough of how much work went into building this team," Cooper said. "This is as competitive a group as you will find. Every one of these players will lay in traffic for their country.

 "We're really excited."

Cooper will also no doubt be thrilled simply looking around the dressing room at the talent, and experience, on hand when he delivers his pre-game speech at the Bell Centre on Feb. 12 before Canada's tournament opener against Sweden.

"It's sure pretty cool to know you've got Cup winner here, Cup winner here, Cup winner here, Olympic winner here, world championships," he said. "Guys that have been in these big games that understand what it's like.

"You can't help but love to have that experience."

Of that, Canada has plenty.

U.S. plans to show it has closed gap on Canada

It didn't take much to stir Jack Eichel's national pride in looking ahead to representing the United States.

Appearing on a Team USA Zoom call Thursday, the Vegas Golden Knights forward jumped right in when reminded how U.S. teams featuring NHL players competing in best-on-best international tournaments haven't won a gold medal since the 1996 World Cup of Hockey series.

"I'll take it," Eichel interjected after Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy apologized for not hearing the question.

"I think there's a lot to prove for us as USA Hockey," Eichel said. "I think for a while it was Canada on a pedestal by themselves. And I think for us, we feel like we've closed that gap. And I think this is a great opportunity to prove that."

From the Boston area, Eichel supported his case by referring to the growing pool of American talent that's entered the NHL though the U.S. national development program over the past decade. And that's reflected in how a majority of the U.S. team's 23-player roster is made up of USNDP alumni, Eichel included.

"Obviously, we feel very confident in our group and the names on our roster," Eichel said. "But that's only half the battle. You've got to go out there and do it. And we're excited for that opportunity."

The U.S. last medalled at the world championships by winning bronze in 2021, and hasn't placed better than third since 1960 at Squaw Valley, which also doubled as the Winter Games. The Americans' last Olympic gold came with amateurs competing at the 1980 Lake Placid Games, since dubbed the Miracle On Ice while winning silver medals with NHL players in 2002 and 2010 — both times losing to Canada.