Jon Cooper has found himself in a unique situation with the Syracuse Crunch.
The head coach of the Crunch is coaching most of the same players he helped guide to the Calder Cup title last spring in the American Hockey League, but at the time they were playing in Norfolk as the Admirals.
"It's a tough situation, I feel bad for our guys because they never got to enjoy the championship in the city they won it in," said the Prince George native about the off-season decision by the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning to move their AHL affiliate from Norfolk to Syracuse. "That's the tough part for me. They went through all this hard work and didn't get to enjoy it in their city."
Cooper said there was speculation that Tampa Bay was preparing for the move last spring, but other than hearing a few of the rumours he tried to keep it away from himself and the players as they progressed through the playoffs.
"We were so involved in our cup run so we didn't really think about it because I didn't want that to be a distraction," said Cooper. "Management probably knew a lot more than we all knew."
Hockey fans in Syracuse are knowledgeable, said Cooper but the Crunch still have to play second fiddle to the Syracuse Orangemen, the NCAA Division 1 men's basketball team that are perennial contenders each year during March Madness.
"If you took Syracuse basketball out of the equation then I'd consider us a fairly big guy in town," said Cooper. "They still rule the roost in this town but one thing about [Syracuse] is it's a very educated hockey fan and they enjoy us and, I think they enjoy our style of play and they're coming out to see us."
