Canada’s Winter Olympics hockey coach Jon Cooper is mourning the death of his father just days after watching his team miss out on gold at the Milan-Cortina Games.
Cooper, who is also head coach of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning, will not be on the bench for his team’s next two games after finding out the news.
Posting on X on Wednesday, the team’s media relations manager Benjamin Pierce confirmed the tragic circumstances and added: ‘Thoughts go out to Coop and his family.’
It is unclear when or how Cooper’s father died, or if the coach was able to see him when he got back from the Winter Olympics in Italy.
According to the Toronto Sun, Cooper’s father was named Robert – Bob to those who knew him – and he ran a construction company in his native Prince George, BC.
On Sunday, Cooper came close to sealing a gold medal for his country in the men’s hockey showdown against the USA, before losing in overtime.
The 58-year-old is the longest-tenured head coach in the National Hockey League, having coached the Lightning since 2013.
He has won two Stanley Cups, in 2020 and 2021, and took charge of Team Canada in June 2024 ahead of the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Cooper is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States, but was born and raised north of the border in Prince George and Wilcox, Saskatchewan.
In this year’s Olympics, Cooper guided Canada to huge wins over Czechia (5-0), Switzerland (5-1) and France (10-2) in the preliminary round, before a thrilling overtime win the quarterfinal against Czechia.
In the semifinal, the Canadians beat Finland 3-2 to set up a gold medal showdown with the USA, which 26 million people tuned in to watch in the US alone.
Canada came out on the wrong side of the OT result, claiming the silver medal at the Games, while the gold medal Americans have spent the last 48 hours partying in Miami, meeting Trump in the Oval Office, and attending the State of the Union address.
Attention is now turning to the return of the NHL tonight, but Cooper will be absent from his team’s first game back against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
On Thursday, the Lightning travel to face the Carolina Hurricanes, the second of the two games Cooper is expected to miss.
As it stands, the head coach is expected to return to the bench on Saturday when Tampa Bay hosts the Buffalo Sabres.
The Lightning have enjoyed a strong start to the 2025-26 season with a 37-14-4 record, good enough for first place in the Atlantic Division.
