It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that the Tampa Bay Lightning will be keeping Jon Cooper in his current role as head coach, but historic collapses can make teams resort to drastic measures. Even after the team’s unbelievable loss at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Lightning GM Julian BriseBois left zero doubt in his faith in Cooper, explaining that he would be trying to sign him to an extension today if he hadn’t already done so. “There’s no sense in looking for the next Coop when I have the original,” BriseBois told reporters including Caley Chelios at his season-ending media availability.
Cooper’s contract was set to expire before the two sides agreed to a three-year extension just before the start of the playoffs. Even though the team fell apart in four games against the Blue Jackets, they still had a historically-good regular season with a 62-16-4 record. Though he still doesn’t have a Stanley Cup on his resume, there is little doubt that Cooper is one of the best coaches in the league. In 508 career regular season games behind the Tampa Bay bench he has a 305-159-44 record and has taken the team deep in the playoffs three times including to a Stanley Cup Final in 2015.
The Lightning have plenty of decisions to make this summer when it comes to their roster, given the drastic raises that players like Brayden Point have earned, but they won’t be blowing things up. Cooper will still be behind the bench to try and take the team to a championship and will likely face very little controversy unless they get off to a horrendous start.
While he could be blamed for not having the team prepared, the players have to look at themselves. They needed a Mark Messier moment, and no one stood up.
Unfortunately, they just found out how much they depend on Victor F. Hedman, perpetual Norris candidate & workhorse extraordinaire. And, the Bolts should have realized referee-incompetence was going to crap-call/crap-no-call them off the ice. The league has come out & stated in other series that games are, for all intents & purposes being tainted with “inconsistent” officiating…spelled crap-calling. Tampa has been screwed the whole year, yet somehow managed to tie the wins record. And, as expected, the screw-jobbing continued in the playoffs. It shows that those people still hanging on to the old “Don’t worry, the calls will even up” BS, are more wrong than ever. Wouldn’t it be a nice change for the actual rule book to be enforced without looking at the scoreboard or worrying about which pissant from a team is chirping them? Nothing stinks the playoffs up more than whistles being swallowed at opening puck-drop, only to be un-swallowed before the end of the period. Would Tampa have benefited from more P.P.s? Maybe. Would it have swung the series? Maybe, but not a guarantee. Columbus might have been playing with fire, but they survived & didn’t get burnt. Now, they’re on to the next series and the Bolts are on to the 9th tee…
Calls were missed yes but not just on tampa… so i dont see why you’re crying about it, they got out played by the Jackets so badly its not even a contest… maybe if their captain and the rest of the roster would have woken up and actually played hard and not have underestimated the Jackets they wouldn’t be in the position they’re in right now, maybe they have too much star power and not a team built for the playoffs… too much skill not enough grit, maybe they should have made a move at the deadline to bring in some more playoff performers, playoff experience etc. Tampa could have won but they got too complacent and blew it for themselves… Kuch getting suspended for being dumb just adds to that, there’s so much Tampa could have done different to make a different outcome, but hey blame the refs if you feel its necessary to make you feel better about the Bolts shooting themselves in the foot… It all really comes down to the guys in that room nobody else is to blame