Team Canada’s head coach Jon Cooper after the quarterfinal drama:

“Let me be crystal clear: I’ve coached this game my whole life, lived it, watched it change—and I know every shortcut, every dirty play, every frustrated cheap shot teams pull when things get heated. What happened today on that Milano ice crossed every line. It was reckless, blatant, and straight-up embarrassing.”

“When a player finishes a check properly, you see control and respect for the rules. But when someone ditches the puck entirely and launches at a guy’s knee or head out of pure anger? That’s not hockey instinct—that’s deliberate intent to injure. The hit on Sid in the second, the way Gudas went low, and that smirk right after? Everyone saw it for what it was.”

“I’m not naming names—you don’t need me to. Anyone who watched knows exactly who I’m talking about. This is aimed right at the refs and the IIHF disciplinary crew reviewing the tape: the late whistles, the dropped arms, the inconsistent standards shift after shift, the free pass for dangerous crap—it was all there. You preach player safety and integrity, yet you hide behind ‘it’s just physical hockey’ to excuse stuff that spits on everything this tournament is supposed to stand for.”

“Yeah, Canada beat Czechia 4–3 in OT today. Don’t get it twisted—the win doesn’t wipe away what went down. Being on the right side of the score doesn’t excuse officiating that swung momentum, risked lives, and let chaos rule the rink. Our captain got forced off the ice in a way that should never fly at this level.”

“We’ll own our screw-ups. We always do—we blew that lead, fair enough. But we won’t stay quiet while safety rules flip-flop game to game, team to team, shift to shift. That’s not competition. That’s negligence.”

“Sidney Crosby deserves better. The fans deserve better. And the IIHF has to decide right now: Are you protecting hockey, or just letting chaos run wild?”

Shocker: Connor McDavid steals the show in Team Canada’s Olympic win

Shocker.

The best player on the Edmonton Oilers was the best player on Team Canada Thursday in their Olympic Games debut.

Connor McDavid made his presence felt early, drawing an early power play in the first period and notching three assists and a team-high six shots on net as the Canadians rolled past Czechia 5-0.

McDavid helped put Canada on the board late in the first period, setting up Macklin Celebrini, then put the game on ice by sending a perfect saucer pass to Nathan MacKinnon to make it 4-0 on a power play and sending a nice feed to Nick Suzuki to make it 5-0.

This comes as no surprise to Oilers teammate Zach Hyman, who fully expected his captain to stand out even among the best players in the world.

“Any room he’s in, he has the skill set that is just elite and above,” said Hyman. “On Team Canada, everybody has an elite skill set but the way I’d put it is if you watch our skate everybody kind of looks the same but there is one guy who looks different. That’s him. And no matter what room or what ice surface you put him on, that is always going to be the case.”

The Oilers captain, who’s been waiting his whole career for this tournament, led all forwards in ice time at 18:04 on a line with Celebrini and Tom Wilson.