Pete DeBoer on Olympics, Marc-Andre Fleury, and coaching with Jon Cooper

By Justin Emerson

Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021 | 2 a.m.

There’s never been a point that a call from Hockey Canada would go unanswered on Pete DeBoer’s phone. A proud Dunnville, Ontario, native, DeBoer has always jumped at the opportunity to represent his homeland on the world stage.

DeBoer was named an assistant coach for Canada at the 2022 Olympics, a position he’s long held in high regard. He’s coached Canada at World Juniors, at World Championships and at a showcase challenge series with Russia more than a decade ago.

But he’s never been a coach at the Olympics until Canada takes the ice in Beijing in February.

“That’s the top of the mountain for national team play. It’s the equivalent to the Stanley Cup for what we do all year,” DeBoer said. “It’s something special, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime COVID can’t wait for.”

DeBoer will serve as assistant alongside Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy and Islanders coach Barry Trotz under head coach Jon Cooper, who as coach of the Lightning has won the last two Stanley Cups.

He’s gotten to know Cooper well over the years, and during the pandemic they were both part of a group of NHL coaches who got together once a week over Zoom to bounce ideas off each other. They’re also both unique in that they have law degrees — DeBoer from the Universities of Windsor and Detroit, and Cooper from Western Michigan University's Cooley Law School.

At the Olympics, DeBoer will be with his fellow coaches behind the bench of perhaps the greatest collection of hockey talent in their careers. Canada will be heavily favored for a gold medal now that NHL players are expected to return after missing the 2018 Games.

Russia won in 2018, but Canada won in 2014 and 2010, the last two Olympics in which it was truly a best-on-best tournament.

“It’s always been a professional development opportunity for me, to work with other great coaches,” DeBoer said. “Take things from them, work with the best players in the world, just a phenomenal experience.”

One of those players is likely to be DeBoer’s old goalie in Vegas.

Marc-Andre Fleury, traded from Vegas this offseason and the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, seems like a mortal lock for the Canadian team.

Signs have popped up over the years suggesting Fleury and DeBoer didn’t see eye-to-eye. There was the sword-in-the-back photo during last year’s postseason, and a report from the Athletic in Chicago said Fleury believed DeBoer and management didn’t view him as “their guy.”

DeBoer pushed back on the idea there was any friction between the two. He pointed to Fleury’s usage both in the regular season (where he started 36 of the team’s 56 games) and the postseason (where he started all but two games).

“I think if you look at how we played him this year, I don’t know how you can say he wasn’t ‘our guy.’ It was clear he was our guy and he earned the right to be our guy right through to the end,” DeBoer said. “For me there is no ‘our guy’ or ‘their guy.’ It’s who can help us win, and I think this year it was clear that Marc-Andre was that guy. He was our guy and we played him like that.”

DeBoer mentioned during the postseason that losing a star player is as detrimental to a team as acquiring one could be. Fleury was a star goalie, but also beloved in the locker room, as were fellow offseason departures Ryan Reaves and Nick Holden. It’s reality in a league with a hard salary cap that teams can’t stay together forever, but it doesn’t make it any less painful.

That’s another thing DeBoer talked with Cooper about. The Lightning lost the entirety of their checking line this offseason because of the cap, and DeBoer said how Cooper told him they used the mentality that they have limited time together to drive them toward the Stanley Cup two years in a row.

And it didn’t come easy for Cooper, who was hired in 2013, reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2015 and finally won in 2020, then again in 2021. The long road to the top is another parallel between the man regarded as one of the best coaches in the NHL and his Vegas counterpart.

DeBoer has led the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup semifinals two years in a row, one year after doing the same for the San Jose Sharks. He’s reached that round five times in his career and the Stanley Cup Final twice, but has yet to raise the trophy.

This will be a big year for DeBoer, who will lead one of the NHL’s best teams through its fifth season as a franchise as well as help man one of the world’s best teams through the most prestigious tournament in international hockey.

He’s hoping some Olympic gold in February will precede some Stanley Cup silver in June.

“That’s what motivates you, that’s what gets you up in the morning looking for answers and improvements to get you to take that final step,” DeBoer said. “When you look at Tampa and you talk to Jon Cooper, it was seven years of that type of pain and disappointment until they finally took that final step.

“It’s not easy to do, and we’re going to be showing up and working as hard as we can until we do that.”