How sweet is it for the Tampa Bay Lightning?
Doubly sweet, after they beat the Montreal Canadians 1-0 Wednesday in Tampa to capture their second –straight Stanley Cup.
Rookie Ross Colton scored the only goal, 13:27 into the second period, and Conn Smythe Trophy winner Andrei Vasilevskiy did the rest, stopping all 21 shots he faced for his fifth shutout as MVP of the playoffs.
For Jon Cooper, the Prince George-born-and-raised Lightning head coach, winning the Stanley Cup on home ice in Amalie Arena took supreme sacrifice from his players, as Cooper witnessed from his perch behind the bench with the Habs pressing for the equalizer in the dying seconds. Lightning forward Barclay Goodrow saw Montreal defenceman Shea Weber jump off the bench to take a pass inside the Bolts blueline.
“It was all summed up when Weber loaded up for that shot and Goodrow stepped in front of it, that kind of sums up the character of this team,” said Cooper, in a televised interview on Sportsnet.
For Ulkatcho Nation's (Anahim Lake) Carey Price and the Canadiens, trying to be the first Canadian-based team to win the Cup, it was not to be. They fell three victories shy of their goal, after getting behind 3-0 in the best-of-seven series.
Cooper won his first Stanley Cup with the Lightning last season when the Lightning beat the Dallas Stars in a six-game final in the pandemic playoff bubble in Edmonton, where fans were not allowed in the building, in stark contrast the sold-out Amalie Arena, where chants of “Coop” were among the loudest heard in the wild post-game celebration.
Cooper joins some select company, along with Toe Blake, Punch Imlach, Fred Shero and Glen Sather as the only NHL coaches to win back-to-back Stanley Cup with their first team.
So what made this one special?
For Cooper, it was the fact his team lived up to the pressure of defending its title knowing there will be several roster changes coming this summer due to free agency, salary cap rules and the expansion draft with the Seattle Kraken joining the league next season.
“The biggest thing, we didn’t talk about it publicly, but the team knows they’re probably not going to be together next year and led by Ryan McDonagh, (Patrick) Maroon and Stammer (Steven Stamkos), the conversation was, ‘Don’t let this end, it’s too special a group,’” said Cooper. “They weren’t going to go out without raising the trophy.
“This is the culmination of your life’s work and character, I’m telling you, it can trump skill and this group’s got it. Gamers all over the place. It’s all these players, they’re the ones who did it. I just stood there and chewed gum.”
For Prince George fans hoping Cooper will bring the Stanley Cup home, you can expect that to happen this summer, now that the pandemic is just about behind us. The 53-year-old coach will definitely have that trip in mind once it has set in what he’s accomplished this season.
