For the first time in two months Jon Cooper was able to relax and watch a hockey game from the comfort of his couch.
"It's the first time in a while I'm watching hockey and I don't really care who wins," said Cooper, head coach of the American Hockey League's Norfolk Admirals, on Wednesday as he was enjoying Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final between the New Jersey Devils and Los Angeles Kings.
The product of Prince George will put his own coach's cap back on Friday when the Admirals host the Toronto Marlies in the first game of the best-of-seven AHL championship final for the Calder Cup.
"I'll be the first one to tell you how hard it is to get to the finals," said Cooper, "I've been very fortunate in my coaching career that I've been able to go to the finals in every league I've been in. I know how hard it is to get there. You've got to try your darndest to win it because you'll never know when you're going to get back."
Cooper is the only person to serve as head coach to a national championship winning team at all three levels of junior hockey in the United States - Tier III - 2002 Metro Jets, Tier II - 2007 and 2008 St. Louis Bandits and Tier I - 2010 Green Bay Gamblers.
Since joining the Admirals in August 2010, Cooper has led the Tampa Bay Lightning affiliate to a 94-44-10-8 record over two season and saw 18 players get a chance to skate in the NHL. Cooper received the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award as the AHL's outstanding coach in April, voted by coaches and members of the media in each of the league's 30 cities, after leading the Admirals to the AHL regular-season title with a 55-18-1-2 record, setting franchise marks for wins and points.
Norfolk ended the regular season on a 28-game winning streak and after the first three rounds of the playoffs have posted an 11-3 record.
"The streak was amazing in itself especially when you play so many on the road," said Cooper. "When we did first lose, it was in the playoffs so we kind of always held it in our hat that we never ended the streak, the league ended the streak and we just ran out of [regular-season] games to play."
In the eastern conference quarterfinal, the Admirals fell 5-2 on April 21 to the Manchester Monarchs - AHL affiliate of the Kings - and then lost a pair to the Connecticut Whale, affiliate of the New York Rangers, in the semifinal before sweeping the St. John's Icecaps, affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets, in four games to earn the berth in the championship.
"The playoffs are such an original kind of beast that we just put the streak behind us and just focused on winning the series," said Cooper. "We didn't care if we were going to win the series four games to zero or four games to three.
"This team has really put something very unique together that the hockey world hasn't seen in sometime, so I'm really, really hoping that we can add a Calder Cup to all the accomplishments the guys have done this year," he added.
Cooper said it's a little like blind man's bluff preparing the Admirals for the Calder Cup final since it'll be their first meeting with the western conference champion Marlies this season.
"Until you lace up the skates and get on the same rink with each other you truly don't know what you're up against," said Cooper. "If you stick to your game plan and do what you do best more often than not you'll come out on top."
Of course, he's chatted with various people, watch a lot of video and had many conversations about the Marlies players tendencies with veteran Keith Aulie, whom Norfolk acquired from Toronto at the trade deadline. But, the Marlies have Carter Ashton, formerly with the WHL's Lethbridge Hurricanes, Saskatoon Blades and Tri City Americans, who went the other way in the deadline deal.
"It's weird to have a guy from each team that got traded at the deadline," mused Cooper.
After two successful seasons with the Admirals, Cooper's name pops up these days during discussions about filling NHL head coaching vacancies, like the one in Edmonton.
"I'm just enjoying the moment with this team," said Cooper. "We're still playing and honestly I don't even think of situations. The only time that stuff comes up is when I get asked by reporters. "When I took this job I felt like I was surrounding myself with great people," he added. "I couldn't ask for a better boss than Steve Yzerman and Julien BriseBois. They've given me full-range to coach this team and every time I've needed players, those guys have gone out and found them for me. I haven't even thought about going anywhere else because I've been in such a great situation here."
Cooper isn't the only Prince George connection in Norfolk, as former Cougar Dana Tyrell played with the team this season before having knee surgery in January, while Brett Connolly has attended the last two rookie development camps held by the Lightning and Admirals, which Cooper helped run.
After coaching high school or junior aged players since 1999, Cooper said, leaping into the professional ranks was eye opening.
"Pro is a completely different beast," said Cooper. "The people management part of it really comes into play because in junior everybody is pretty much the same age."
In the professional leagues the players vary in age from 18 or 19 to 40-something, with different personalities and coming from different countries.
"How I compare it is I throw a newspaper on the floor and the young up-and-comers will grab the comics, the veteran guys will reach for the financial part of the paper and the middle guys will reach for the sports," he said.
But, he added, no matter how old the player is there's one thing that makes coaching worthwhile.
"The really gratifying part of it is how much the players really want to learn," said Cooper. "You think, well they're in pro, but they're like sponges, they're always trying to get better and always trying to learn."
