Canada Said What?

Oh, Canada. It’s Okay.

In case you didn’t watch the Men’s Gold Olympics game yesterday, Team USA beat Team Canada in overtime. Team USA hasn’t won gold since the 1980 Miracle Team. Canada has won gold THREE TIMES since the last time the US won gold-2002, 2010, and 2014. They have won a total of 9 gold, 4 silver, and 4 bronze medals in men’s hockey at the Olympics, compared to Team USA’s 2 gold, 9 silver, and 2 bronze medals. And yet the coach for Team Canada is tantruming like a child who just lost the peewees sectional tournament.

Apparently, Team Canada’s coach, Jon Cooper, has insinuated that the only reason Team USA won was the 3-on-3 overtime format. He was quoted as saying, “You take 4 players off the ice, and now hockey’s not hockey anymore.” His thought process was that this was not the rule for the 4 Nations tournament, nor is it the rule for the Stanley Cup. So it got me thinking. Is Coach Cooper being a poor sport and whining about losing or does he have a genuine point? I am kind of leaning toward the first, but decided to do some digging into overtime rules in hockey anyway.

Overtime Rules by Tournament

The rules on overtime from youth level hockey all the way up to pro varies a lot. Even within the Olympics itself, the rules varied depending on how far into the tournament the game was. The Olympic rules were:

Preliminary round

• 5-minute overtime
• 3-on-3
• Shootout if still tied

Medal rounds (elimination games)

• 10-minute overtime
• 3-on-3
• Shootout if still tied

Gold medal game

• 20-minute overtime
• 3-on-3
• Repeat overtime periods until someone scores
• No shootout

Three on three seems to be the most common for OT play across most levels. Even it it’s not always used in tournament playoffs, it is used during regular season NHL hockey. All players on both Team Canada and Team USA play for the NHL. Both head coaches for both teams are NHL coaches. This format of 3-on-3 OT should not be forgein to either team. So why was Coach Cooper so upset? Should the Olympics use a 4-on-4 or 5-on-5 model for OT or should they stick to 3-on-3? Share your thoughts!