‘Not hockey’: Canada’s Cooper on 3-on-3 ending to gold-medal game

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 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.