Montreal is getting all the love from Jon Cooper and the rest of Team Canada

Jon Cooper is a Montreal respecter, and he made that feeling known when asked about the atmosphere at the Bell Centre on Wednesday night. Canada and Sweden put on an instant classic for the fans in Montreal, and the excitement and energy the fans gave back to the players makes best-on-best hockey so unique. The Montreal fans cheering for division rivals like Mitch Marner, Brad Marchand, and all the Tampa Bay players perfectly represent national pride. In Montreal, the Canadiens come first, but in Canada, nothing comes before the national team.

Cooper's love for Montreal came when he had his first playoff series as a head coach in 2014. That season was around the peak of atmospheres in the Bell Centre, and they gave Cooper and his team a hard lesson on what playoff hockey is all about. Montreal sat behind Tampa Bay by one point in the standings, but the Canadiens swept the Lightning. It's a memory that Cooper holds close to his heart despite the result.

Cooper made that thought clear on Wednesday night after the game when he started explaining how much the game against Sweden meant to him and the rest of Team Canada. “I think this is the greatest hockey arena to come to. I love this city, I love being here, I think this is the greatest away arena in the league to come to, I marvel at what is put on here, I think hockey is done right here”

The NHL has to be looking at the result of Wednesday's game and are ecstatic they chose to have Canada's representative be Montreal. The fans' energy brought an extra excitement to the game that made it seem more meaningful, and the only thing I can think about is how electric the atmosphere will be on Saturday night for Canada vs. USA.

It isn't the first time Cooper has talked glowingly about Montreal and their fanbase. He was also an advocate in the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals when the Canadiens were trying to get more fans in the stadium against the league's mandates. Cooper understands the hockey history in Montreal and genuinely appreciates his opportunity to coach at the Bell Centre as the head of Team Canada.

The NHL made a great decision to put the Canadian games in Montreal. It would have been too corporate of an atmosphere if they put it in Toronto, and it's about time the Bell Centre gets to host this kind of event. The 2016 World Cup had some juice, but you can only imagine how much better it would have been if the tournament were in Montreal. We can only hope this will be the start of Montreal's return as the Canadian Hub of Hockey, a moniker that Toronto thinks they have overtaken.