TAMPA, Fla. — As Jon Cooper walks down the hallway of the Tampa Bay Lightning locker room, memories of what he calls the “monster we created” are all over the walls.
There’s footage of the Lightning’s entry into a decade of Stanley Cup competition, from the Tyler Johnson-led Triplets in 2015 to back-to-back Cup winners.
Before entering the team lounge for coffee, Cooper stops to take a look at the nine miniature replica trophies of the Stanley Cup, Prince of Wales Trophy or Presidents Trophy. They are each hung in a case.
“When I got here,” he said. “There were two.”
And for Cooper, it doesn’t stop there.
He is adamant – skeptics be damned – that this accomplished, aging core still has a few kicks left in the can. Or the Cup.
The doubt, Cooper says, is why the next one might be the most significant.
“What was special about Jack Nicklaus winning the Masters in 1986? He kept grinding and then he did it,” Cooper says. “What about Tiger (Woods) when he won the Masters in ’19? Our window is open. But it’s not as open as it was four or five years ago. At some point, guys are going to get old. (Andre Vasilevskiy) is going to get old. (Nikita Kucherov) is going to get old. (Brayden Point) is going to get old. Stamkos.
“But to win, get knocked down and come back, that would be super cool. To be able to answer the people who said, “It was Chicago, it was Pittsburgh, Los Angeles” – the teams that dominated, won their Cups and had to go backwards because of the salary cap – if we can fight that, this would be really rewarding.
With the Lightning coming off back-to-back eliminations in the first round of the playoffs, many see them heading toward the same purgatory as other recent multiple Cup winners: the Pittsburgh Penguins, Chicago Blackhawks and Kings from Los Angeles. They are too good to rebuild, not good enough to compete for a championship.
Cooper sees this group differently.
He views last year’s first-round loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs as an aberration, believing the Lightning played better in that series than the year before when they beat the Leafs in seven games en route to their third consecutive trip to the Cup final. This year, the Lightning faced the defending Eastern Conference champion Panthers, Cup favorites, and lost in five games.
“They’re a legit team,” Cooper said. “I highly doubt there’s anyone who’s surprised we didn’t beat them.”
The Panthers won two one-goal games, including the second game in overtime, benefiting from a shutdown defense with a lead reminiscent of Tampa Bay’s Cup teams.
“One hundred percent,” Cooper said. “And that sucks.”
Do these losses hurt as much as they did before the Lightning hit the mountaintop?
“Is the pain a little less knowing that your name is already on the Stanley Cup? Cooper said. ” Currently not. Because you are so absorbed in the moment that nothing else matters. 2020, 2021, it’s like it didn’t even happen because you’re in that moment. Stanley Cups are when you retire. When you look back, “How many did I get?” ” It is what it is. But you’re in the absolute moment, it’s like, “Now what do you do?”
“I look at this as another year off the calendar. We didn’t win. So now we have to wait another full year to get a chance. And I’m a year older. All the guys are a year older. The problem is that you never know when you’ll be back. We never know. And the chances of you coming back, even if you are the best team, are 10 percent. Everything is against you. That’s why everything must go well.
This year, that certainly didn’t happen for the Lightning. They didn’t have Mikhail Sergachev until Game 4, with the top four defenseman returning from a broken leg. Vasilevskiy, arguably the best goalie of his generation, wasn’t the best goaltender in the series in the two first-round losses and has admittedly suffered from inconsistency throughout this season after missing two months in due to back surgery during the offseason. The Lightning had two goals overturned in the Panthers’ deciding Game 5 due to goaltender interference calls. This prompted Cooper to make a comment about “skirts”, which he said “hurt him more than the actual loss of the show”.
But the core of the league still believes it has plenty of good hockey left. Vasilevskiy is 29 years old, Kucherov 30 years old, Point 28, Cirelli 26 years old, Sergachev 25 years old. General manager Julien BriseBois said he hoped to re-sign captain Steven Stamkos, 34, and Victor Hedman, 33, and the two franchise cornerstones played some of their best hockey. throughout the season. They’ve had to carry a bigger load on the ice and in the room after so many salary cap-triggered departures, from Ryan McDonagh to Alex Killorn to Ondrej Palat and more. The Lightning aren’t as deep or as young.
However, they are not finished, Cooper says.
“We’re closer to where we were before than the other way around,” he says. “We are still a good team. But everyone is also trying to find a way to become good. There are 31 teams coming after you.
“I think our level and the way we have gone about our business in this league is always exceptional. What we did was create our own monster because we created a reputation and expectations of excellence for a decade. It’s always excellent. It’s just that we haven’t won a championship in recent years and were eliminated in the first round. People think, “What happened?” We always knock on the door. But the last few years have been difficult. »
That brings us to Cooper, 56, the leader of the “monster.” He is the longest-tenured coach in the league, having just completed his 11th full season in Tampa Bay. Mike Sullivan with the Penguins is next, two years late. As the team’s personnel and personality change, so does Cooper. He carries fewer losses than before, delegates more and prides himself on reading the room.
That’s why he hasn’t lost it yet.
“He just knows when to attack and when to back off,” Stamkos says. “He has the respect of every player. But he mostly lets the team dictate how things are going to happen. He has such a good pulse on that. There are times when we need a kick in the butt. But he’s not a screamer or a screamer. It is calculated.
“You can see the mutual respect and maturity as a coach and a player, as a captain and a leader, that comes together as we get older. You learn what works and what doesn’t. He just has an overall vision of what needs to be said and done at the right time. That’s why I don’t think it gets old.
Cooper admits he had to push harder in the first two-thirds of this season with the Lightning hanging outside of a playoff spot. Tampa Bay has had seven different rookies make their NHL debuts this season. Half the team, from Tyler Motte to Luke Glendening to Tanner Jeannot to deadline additions Anthony Duclair and Matt Dumba, he was still trying to get to know each other.
“He sees that we have a different team, so he approaches it differently,” says Sergachev. “Obviously he learns from his mistakes. It’s crazy, he’s not stubborn at all. Usually people of this age are very stubborn. He is very mature. I think he continues to evolve as a coach, which is fun to see and fun to watch.
Cooper is under contract through the 2025-26 season. His synergy and relationship with BriseBois is unique, dating back 14 years to their championship with AHL Norfolk. He has one of the best owners in the sport in Jeff Vinik. A father of three, Cooper put down roots in Tampa. He calls the franchise a family.
Could he be a Lightning lifer?
“If there comes a time when the band breaks up, we’ll all get in a room and say, ‘OK, it’s time for the band to break up,’” Cooper says. “I don’t think it’s a situation where you wake up one day and someone is gone. That’s not how things work here. This is a special organization. Because it’s hard to do in professional sports. It’s hard to have the best record in the league and get swept in the playoffs (like the Lightning did in 2019), bite your tongue and keep the group together. That’s what makes this thing work, because of trust. We’re all in this together.”
Cooper says there’s no finger-pointing: “This organization is looking for solutions, not excuses.” And BriseBois praises Cooper’s leadership skills, emotional intelligence and ability to never get too high or too low.
“This allows it to withstand storms, because there are storms,” says BriseBois. “It’s a tough league. It’s a cutthroat business.
There have been 17 coaching changes in the NHL since the end of last season. That’s more than half the league. You can imagine any of these teams would have had Cooper on speed dial if he was available. He’s the type of guy you fire his coach to make room for. A guy you tell to name his price.
Would Cooper ever consider coaching another team?
“If I was unemployed and still had the courage to coach, then sure, somewhere else,” he says. “But that didn’t even cross my mind.”
It doesn’t look like he has to think about it, at least for the next couple of years.
“If there’s a time, I think we’ll know,” Cooper says. “One day we will know it is time to pass the baton to someone else. This is by no means the case now. But it will have to happen eventually. We can’t do this forever.
“It will be a difficult day. It’s going to be a really, really tough day. But I hope it won’t be for a long time. »
As he says this from behind his desk in his Amalie Arena office, he looks at the wall to his right, where there are two huge photos from the last two Cups. The first is of players jumping off the bench in the Edmonton bubble to celebrate in 2020. The second is of Cooper getting a hug from staff on the bench in 2021, smiling and holding up two fingers.
Winning is addictive. This has always been the case for Cooper.
“Part of the joy in the whole process is figuring out what’s going to work,” he says. “There are some key elements here that are still worthwhile. This is a championship caliber team. We just need to find little pieces of the puzzle to put around them.
There is room in the suitcase in the hallway for other trophies. Even in Cooper’s office, which is full of photos and signed jerseys. Where would he put the next championship photo? Cooper looks to his left at the only empty spot, covered by a Lightning logo.
“There,” he said. “It will be perfect.”
(Photo of Jon Cooper on the Lightning bench: Joel Auerbach / Getty Images)