Jon Cooper has room to roam these days.
Since being named head coach of the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning, the Prince George product has had to make several adjustments to his normal routine. The roominess behind the Lightning's bench is one change he didn't mind.
"It's unreal, at least you get to walk around on the NHL benches," said Cooper during a phone conversation from Long Island, NY. "The benches in the American [Hockey] League, if someone gets hurt or someone needs stitches the trainer's like blowing by and throwing you into the fire because there's no room. The big part for a coach is you actually have room to navigate around. That's the biggest difference."
Before arriving in Tampa, Cooper coached the Lightning's AHL affiliate for three seasons, posting a 133-62-26 record (.661 winning percentage). During the 2011-12 season when the Lightning's affiliate was located in Norfolk, Cooper led the Admirals to the best record (55-18-1-2) in the regular season, including a professional hockey record 28-game win streak.
Cooper was named coach of the year and the Admirals won the Calder Cup, the AHL championship trophy. The Lightning relocated its farm team to Syracuse last summer where Cooper racked up a 39-18-8 record behind the Crunch bench before making the jump to the NHL.
"We beat Albany one night and the same night I got the call asking if I'd be interested in going to Tampa," said Cooper. "You enjoy a win one night and all of a sudden your world has been rocked with an opportunity. It's been a whirlwind. It's surreal to explain."
If Penguins win:
In seven games as the Lightning head coach, Cooper has a 3-3-1 record after dropping a x-x decision Thursday to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
If Lightning win:
After seven games as the Lightning head coach, Cooper's improved his record to 4-2-1 on Thursday when his troops knocked off the mighty Pittsburgh Penguins x-x.
Cooper said the fact he had coached about half the team in the past three seasons, whether in Norfolk or Syracuse, made his introduction to the players less nerve-wracking.
"You're looking over seeing Martin St. Louis, Steven Stamkos and Vincent Lecavalier and all these guys you don't really bump into too often and then you look over and see a wide array of the Syracuse kids, I was probably only speaking to half the guys because the other half were very familiar," said Cooper. "That definitely made it easier. After I spoke to them and kind of told them about me, and who I was, I felt pretty good about the situation when I left."
With nine games remaining on the Lightning's regular season schedule, Cooper has his work cut out for him to qualify for the playoffs, trailing the Southeast division leading Washington Capitals (21-17-2) by eight points and the second-place Winnipeg Jets (20-19-2) by six points.
"Nobody's giving us a chance," said Cooper. "We're just quietly trying to bunch [together] some points here and put ourselves in the conversation to make the playoffs. If you look at the reality of statistics we are probably, to the outside world, an extreme dark horse.
"The one thing is the coaching staff and the players don't look at it that way and I don't say that to be a sound bite in the media. The guys truly believe we have the team and the group to do this, that's why, I think we're seeing some of the success we are."
