A Calder Cup parade down George Street?
It could happen.
Prince George's Jon Cooper, head coach of the playoff-champion Norfolk Admirals, would love to bring the American Hockey League's top prize back to his hometown for a little tour.
"We'll have to see if we can swing that," said Cooper, whose Admirals capped off a historic season by sweeping the Toronto Marlies in the best-of-seven Calder Cup final. "If I can slide it in there, even if it's just for a day, we'll try and do it."
Cooper and his Admirals lifted the Cup Saturday in Toronto after a 6-1 pasting of the Marlies. Norfolk started the series with 3-1 and 4-2 wins on home ice and then recorded a 1-0 overtime victory in Game 3 in Toronto.
The AHL is comprised of farm teams for National Hockey League franchises.
In the playoffs, the Admirals posted an overall record of 15-3 and were just as dominant as they were all season. During the regular schedule, they went 55-18-1-2 and that mark included a record-setting 28-game winning streak leading up to the playoffs.
The regular season, however, would have lost some of its lustre if the Admirals had fallen short of their first-ever playoff championship.
"It's hard to put into words what's gone on this season," said the 44-year-old Cooper, who was born in Prince George and played minor hockey here until age 15, at which time he left to attend school and play hockey at Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Wilcox, Sask. "It's something special that hockey hasn't seen, ever. The 28-game win streak was an unbelievable achievement but I felt that we needed to win the Calder Cup to show everybody that it wasn't a fluke. And when we won the Calder Cup, especially sweeping the conference finals and the finals, it just put a stamp on the streak and it shows how remarkable this team really was this year."
In the best-of-seven conference final, the Admirals breezed past the St. John's IceCaps. They started the playoffs with a 3-1 series win against the Manchester Monarchs and then beat the Connecticut Whale 4-2.
Cooper, the 2011-12 AHL coach of the year, said a combination of factors led to Norfolk's unprecedented success.
"We had all the right pieces," he said. "We were a team that had great leadership and guys that had been there before and we had a stable of rookies that just needed 45 games to figure out the American Hockey League and develop into what they potentially could be in the NHL. These rookies accelerated their progress and when they figured it out, it was like the perfect storm. And the biggest key to the whole thing is -- the greatest intangible you can have -- is how close [the players] are. When you have an extremely close team like we had and you put it against equally-skilled teams, more often than not we're going to win. When we caught the winning bug, it was really, really hard to get rid of it."
The Admirals are affiliated with the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning and feature ex-Western Hockey League players Brandon Segal (Calgary Hitmen), Keith Aulie (Brandon Wheat Kings) and Dustin Tokarski (Spokane Chiefs). Former Prince George Cougars forward Dana Tyrell appeared in 18 regular-season games for Norfolk but spent most of the year with the Lightning. He skated in 26 games for the big club before suffering a season-ending knee injury in January.
This was Cooper's second year with the Admirals. Prior to accepting the job as their bench boss, he guided the Green Bay Gamblers of the United States Hockey League for two seasons. Before that, he worked for five years as head coach and general manager of the St. Louis Bandits of the North American Hockey League.
In a former life, Cooper was a criminal defence attorney but he closed his practice in 2003 to focus on coaching. He got his law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Michigan, which he attended after four years at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.
Norfolk is located in Virginia -- not exactly a hockey-mad market -- but the Admirals' incredible season and their tear through the playoffs caught the imagination of the city. When Cooper and his players touched down at Norfolk International Airport on Monday, they got a memorable welcome.
"The plane landed and fire trucks surrounded us and sprayed the plane with water," Cooper said. "It was unreal. It took us an hour to get to our bus because there were so many people there. There were people chanting. It was like we had lifted up a city. It was a great feeling and we were just really appreciative of all the fans coming out."
An official celebration is planned for tonight.
With Cooper's 94-44-10-8 regular-season record with Norfolk the past two years -- and now the Calder Cup championship -- NHL teams are showing interest in him. For several weeks now, he has been considered a candidate to fill the current head-coaching vacancy of the Edmonton Oilers. With the spotlight on him, he's doing his best to keep everything in perspective.
"I haven't looked too far ahead," said Cooper, who is married and has three kids.
"Working for this organization has been unbelievable for me. I've been blessed with great management and great players and it's hard for me to look elsewhere. On the other side of things, at some point I've got to move up in my career and if I'm afforded that opportunity I've really got to take a hard look at it. But right now, I'm just going to enjoy what's going on now."
