NY Islanders top prospect taunts Team Canada and Maple Leafs draft pick after goal

New York Islanders 2024 1st round selection (20th overall) and top overall prospect Cole Eiserman is having a tremendous start to his IIHF World Junior Championship. The Boston University freshman has two goals and four assists for Team USA, which finished atop the Group A standings after a 4-1 win over Team Canada on Tuesday night in Ottawa. The Americas went 3-0-1 in the preliminary round and will face Switzerland (4th in Group B) in the Quarterfinals.

Fellow Islanders prospect, Notre Dame sophomore Danny Nelson, scored the go-ahead goal on the power-play to give Team USA a 2-1 lead in the third period. That was followed up by Eiserman, who looks lethal and always ready on the power play (couldn't the Isles use that?), scoring with a wicked wrist shot from the top of the slot area. However, what he did in the moments that followed the goal also generated a lot of attention.

Eiserman was seen skating to the red line and taunting the Canadian bench before heading over to receive congratulatory gloves from his teammates. "Just probably stuff I shouldn’t say on the mic," Eiserman said after the game when asked what occurred. "Good fun on the ice, and that stuff doesn’t come off the ice. Just on the ice, I like to be competitive and have fun."

Social media lip readers deduced that the taunt was “Atta boy, Cowboy," followed by an expletive directed toward Canada's Easton Cowan. Cowan, the 2023 first-round selection of the Toronto Maple Leafs, is nicknamed "cowboy" because of his countryside roots. He was in the penalty box for the power play goal that gave Team USA a 3-1 lead.

"That's something that's storybook-like … Something that you've dreamt of," Eiserman added about beating Team Canada in their home ice in the World Juniors tournmanent. For now, he's giving Islanders fans something to dream about, but he and his teammates still have a lot of work left to do before accomplishing the dream of winning World Juniors gold.