MILAN — Jon Cooper wants to rip up your opinion column on Team Canada’s iffy Olympic goaltending before it’s even written.
“I understand people have to write about stuff. But our guys go through a wall for them and they do the same for us,” Cooper says, during the coach’s most impassioned answer since touching down in Milan.
“To me, it’s not a story. I don’t know where it comes from.”
Where it comes from is, Canada’s presumptive starter, Jordan Binnington, having a horrible season in the NHL. The St. Louis Blues netminder’s eight wins, 3.65 goals-against average and .864 save percentage rank last among the 12 Canadian goalies who have appeared in at least 20 games.
Where it comes from is, projected No. 2, Logan Thompson (19-16-4), being an excellent late bloomer who won his Stanley Cup ring as a backup and who has never backstopped an NHL team past Round 2 of the playoffs.
Where it comes from is, Darcy Kuemper (14-11-9) losing more games than he’s won this season with Los Angeles, never appearing in best-on-best action, and running with a pedestrian .900 save percentage.
Heck, not one of Canada’s three options in net has won more games than he’s lost in 2025-26.
Surefire Hall of Famers like Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo, and Carey Price, they are not.
“To me, Carey Price goes down as one of the greatest goalies, for sure, of his generation and of all time. He was a winner. We have those guys,” Cooper argues.
“Some of these guys may not go down as generational goaltenders, but they’re Stanley Cup winners. They have championship pedigree. They’ve made the big saves at the times they’ve needed to. I watched that in Darcy Kuemper in my own building in Tampa (during the 2022 Cup Final). I watched it in Jordan Binnington. I’ve watched Logan Thompson the last two years. Like, they’re as good as anybody. And what they’ve done for us not only last year but as teammates, I mean, we have all the faith in the world in them.”
Binnington was a non-story story heading into 2025’s 4 Nations Face-Off as well. All he did was gain confidence as that sprint of a tournament rolled on. Then stand on his head in a next-goal-wins versus Team USA, making 31 stops, six of them in the fourth period.
“He made probably three or four all-world saves early in overtime to allow us to score the goal,” Connor McDavid said that golden night. “So, all credit to him, honestly. Hopefully, some of those haters will back off him, because, honestly, he played great.”
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Which is why Cooper (who leaned on Binnington exclusively in ’25) and general manager Doug Armstrong (who owes his own Blues Cup ring to Binnington) will likely give him the gig until he loses it.
“He proved everything I felt about him, right? The biggest stage, at the biggest moment, at the biggest time, he delivered,” Cooper says. “There’s just some guys that got the it factor.”
Clutch can trump statistics and analysis.
Which is why Armstrong, too, is ear-muffing the doubters.
“Well, I just go back to January last year, hearing the same things, and saw how that turned out,” Armstrong says. “So, it made me quite comfortable.”
Inside and outside the Milano bubble, everyone is at ease with Canada’s firepower up front. Rolling McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Sidney Crosby at centre ice is murderer’s row stuff.
But if the favoured country gets undone by a lack of saves, more ink will be spilled.
“Everyone always just says how they think the goaltending is the weakest part,” Thompson says. “It’s been the word for the last couple of years. I don’t see it that way. I don’t think we see it that way. But for some reason, everyone else does.”
Unlike the 4 Nations, the Olympic tournament allows more time for goalies to be switched out or lose their footing. Heck, Canada opens with a back-to-back against Czechia (Thursday) and Switzerland (Friday), so two guys will get a look off the hop.
Remember, Curtis Joseph started in net for Canada in 2002, gave up five goals in a loss, then got supplanted by Brodeur, who backstopped the country to gold.
In 2010, Brodeur started the tournament only to be replaced by Luongo for the gold medal game.
As long as one stud seizes the net — and provided that goalie is identified early enough — Canada will be fine.
“I’m not worried about it,” Thompson says. “I’m just out here having fun in practice, and if my number is called, I’ll be ready to go.
“Excited to go out there and prove everyone wrong.”
Adds Kuemper: “We just all prepare like we’re going to be playing. And whoever gets a nod, we’re there either to play or to support the guy. And that’s part of a team game.”
So what if Binnington has lost his past six starts and 11 of his past 12 in North America? Who cares if he’s posted a sub-.880 save percentage in 10 of those?
He is treating the tournament like a fresh slate and the criticism as fuel.
“That’s something I’ve used as motivation. That’s just part of sports, is people are going to doubt you, and it’s how you handle it. For me, it’s just staying in my own process and building my game and trying to get better every day, every year, and seeing where it takes me,” Binnington says.
“This is a completely different environment. It’s been in the back of our minds or in our minds for the last six, eight months plus. The moment is here, and it’s about just letting go, playing free and playing your style.”
For the sake of a nation, that style must resemble the winner-take-all version of Binnington and not his recent regular-season style.
“There’s always something to talk about out there. I think for us, it’s just sticking together and whoever’s in there is just supporting and pushing each other. It’s been fun so far,” Binnington says.
“We’re just working at it day to day, and we’ll see how it all plays out.”
