Canada head coach Jon Cooper, centre, behind the bench with Nathan MacKinnon (29), Sidney Crosby (87) and Connor McDavid (97) at the 4 Nations Face-Off in Montreal in February.

Jon Cooper’s plate is already full with his day job.

The Tampa Bay Lightning head coach has had to navigate a minefield peppered with injuries to key players through the first two months of the NHL schedule. That would normally occupy all of the two-time Stanley Cup winner’s professional bandwidth.

This season, however, is different.

The league and its players are poised to make a much-anticipated Olympic return at 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games following a 12-year absence.

And Cooper, who led Canada from behind the bench to a 4 Nations Face-Off victory and will assume the same role in Italy when the calendar

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