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Player Profile : G – Colin Cooper Always a Goalie “When I was two, I wanted to be a goalie.” Some kids just know what they want. For Calgary Canucks starting goaltender Colin Cooper, all he wanted growing up was to be a goalie. At age two, he knew. He has pictures of receiving his first pads and this was back in the day when you still had to print pictures out to see them. Skip ahead a few years, he still wants to be a goaltender. And he is one. And he is good one at that. The born and raised Calgarian became the starting goaltender in his rookie year with the Calgary Canucks Jr. A team in 2012-2013 and is now poised to shut down the league’s top scorers and backstop his team to the playoffs and beyond. Growing up, he played for Shaw Meadows where he credits Kyle Richter for an important piece of his development. Working with a goalie coach who played Jr. A before going to Harvard certainly provided motivation to follow that same route. He graduated to the Buffaloes AAA organization where progressed at the top level before his first spring camp with the Canucks. “They showed interest right at spring camp and gave me a red card (to be on the team),” explains Cooper on the bus heading north for a game. “It’s great, I get to live at home and play.” Play, he certainly has. Last year, he was in 43 games as a rookie amassing a 10-26-3 record that doesn’t quite tell the tale of his season or development. His 3.88 GAA and .897% get closer. “It was an important learning experience. I learned with how to deal with more stressful situations and be relied upon,” he says. His glove hand certainly developed into a puck-magnet. He plans to use that experience to help his team from the net out this year. “I just want to be that wall in tough situations, be reliable,” he says confidently. He believes that the team in front of him will be better too, despite the fact last year’s troubles were largely based on having more injuries than the team has had in thirty years. “Already we’re showing a lot of improvement,” says the starting goalie that sees the team from a pretty good vantage point. “As we mesh with chemistry, we’ll get more wins. I think for sure we’re a playoff team. We can be the underdog story that really surprises in the playoffs.” He also had a good opportunity to see the team come together during training camp as he took a leadership role in mentoring the young goalies vying to back him up. “Last year, Mangone took me under his wing and I knew how that made me feel so I wanted to do that for the guys this year,” says the usually quiet goaltender who doesn’t exhibit any of the weirdness typically associated with people who play his position. “I’ll play big brother for a couple guys. I like keeping it lighter.” |