Jon Cooper confirms 1 Canadian is OUT for gold medal game.

Team Canada will be without one of their top players when they take on the United States of America in Sunday's Gold Medal game at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

On Saturday, Canada's head coach Jon Cooper spoke with members of the media about the big upcoming game and nearly all of the focus was on the health and status of Canadian superstar Sidney Crosby. The captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins was injured earlier in the tournament and his status for Sunday's game has been up in the air, although Cooper provided no clarity on that front on Saturday.

Instead, Cooper's comments indicated that his decision regarding Crosby will be made in the moments leading up to tomorrow's game.

"It's too important," said Cooper of potentially dressing Crosby if he cannot play. "We don't want to have someone in there as an inspiration when we could have a player capable of helping in the game. You never know if guys are gonna get hurt."

That means that Crosby is officially a game time decision, although that won't be the case for everyone.

Jon Cooper also provided a definitive update on the status of Canadian defenseman Josh Morrissey, unfortunately confirming that Morrissey will not be able to represent Canada in the Gold Medal game.

"Listen, there's nothing more that us...we want Josh in this game and he helps us. Puck mover, everything he does. In the end if you're not physically able to do it — and the one selfless thing about this team and the way I've watched these players, and it goes right down to Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli, when it comes to the flag, nobody's getting in the way. If they're not capable of giving what they think is optimal effort, they don't want to put the country at harm. They understand what we have here. Josh, in the end, he just wouldn't be able to perform at what he could. We made the decision"

Stay tuned for more on this developing story.