“As long as I get to sit in George’s chair.”
This is Jon Cooper’s only caveat before agreeing to this interview. The head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning wants to sit in Hockey Night in Canada host George Stroumboulopoulos’s red leather seat as we chat briefly prior to Tuesday’s match versus the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Professional coaches tend to be a straight-faced lot, especially when a microphone is present, but Cooper should be afforded a few smiles and quips. Hockey’s most interesting man just clinched a playoff berth (“a bit of a relief”) and has guided the Lightning to a franchise-best 47 wins this season, just his second full campaign at the NHL level.
“If you’re not having fun at what you do,” says the 47-year-old lawyer-turned-coach, “then I don’t understand why you’re doing it.”
As he sat in George’s spot, the Jack Adams candidate speaks on how the Lightning reversed their fate against Montreal, the development of Jonathan Drouin, and the change he’s observed in Steven Stamkos.
SPORTSNET.CA: Your Lightning just became the first team to sweep a five-game season series from the Montreal Canadiens since 1983-84. How did you do it?
JON COOPER: I don’t know. [laughs] In all seriousness, it’s probably a combination of a lot of things. First and foremost, we got swept by them in the [2014] playoffs. Deep down inside there was a little of “we’ve got to prove people and we’re a better team than we showed in the playoffs.” There’s no better team to do that against than Montreal. That’s part of it.
The other part is, we’ve caught them at the end of road trips; we’ve caught them on back-to-backs. But as the [season] series went on, they caught us shorthanded. The game last night, we’re missing a bunch of guys, we’re on a road trip, and for us to come into a tough building and beat them at a crucial moment of the season, I was really proud of our guys.
How often to you allow yourself to think about Round 1 and which team you might match up against?
I’ve learned my lesson on that. Last year, the team we thought we matched up best against was the Montreal Canadiens, and that lasted a whole six days. I’m done looking at who we’re going to play. What we did last year was focus too much on other teams. I think I’ve learned from that. This year we’re just focusing on ourselves. Whoever we play, we play. The one thing we do want to determine is getting home ice.
“The team we thought we matched up best against was the Montreal Canadiens, and that lasted a whole six days.”
Jonathan Drouin scored 108 points in 46 games in junior last year. This year: just three goals so far. Your top six is so strong. In a perfect world, where would be the best place for Drouin to develop?
Then you’re sitting there saying, “Would you rather play more minutes on a team that might not make the playoffs, or play less minutes on a team that’s in the playoffs?” Jonathan Drouin is going to be an outstanding player in this league, but it’s really hard for a 19-year-old kid to come into this league and establish himself. Jonathan’s done a great job; he’s going to have 30-plus points this year.
Nobody’s looking at his [27] assists and saying he doesn’t have enough assists. It’s just the puck hasn’t been going in for him [4.3 shooting percentage]. What I’ve seen of his development, he’s a completely different player than he was at the start of the year. Much like myself as a coach learning the league, as I did last year, Jonathan’s learning the league. There’s something to be said for that: what defence pairs you’re going against, players’ tendencies, knowing you have more time and space than what you think you have.
He’s been outstanding. And if anybody watched the game against Montreal, they saw how far the kid has come. He’s explosive, dynamic with the puck, and he had one heck of a goal against [Carey] Price.
Gotta See It: Jonathan Drouin vs. Carey Price
For you personally, did you enter this season with a better mind-set, having learned the rhythms and nuances of life coaching in the NHL?
No question. My first year was learning the league, on and off the ice. Learning the refs. Learning the players, the coaches. Everything you have to do to help yourself have success in the league, I had to learn last year. This year has been much easier in that regard. We have this good young core, and then our free agent signings [namely Brian Boyle, Anton Stralman, Ryan Callahan; Jason Garrison acquired through trade] were outstanding—great teammates, guys that have played in the playoffs. That made the transition seamless, and that’s helped me out.
Any skills you honed as a lawyer that have translated well to coaching?
I was a trial attorney, and you have to be comfortable speaking in front of people. You have to formulate an argument and convince a jury or judge of your argument. It’s no different than addressing a team. You’re convincing your team: “This is how we’re playing. This is what we’re going to do.” They’ve got to believe in what they’re doing, and you’ve got to be comfortable talking in front of people.
“He’s more take-charge than he was in the past.” — Jon Cooper on Steven Stamkos
Your penalty kill ranked 23rd last season. It’s ninth best now. What do you attribute that to?
Our personnel changes have helped out. That’s been our greatest Christmas gift, because we were struggling up until Christmas. Then post-Christmas we’ve been top-three in the league in PK. [Associate coach] Rick Bowness does a heck of a job. Not that he didn’t do it last year, but our personnel this year has helped him with our PK getting better. He puts in the attention to detail, and our guys are getting it out.
What’s the toughest in-game decision you’ve had to make?
The toughest ones are when you have to pull a goalie. And in the playoffs last year… you want your guys to succeed, and to pull them out of games is always tough.
Steven Stamkos is healthy again, and this is his first full season as captain. What changes have you noticed in him?
I’ve actually gone through three captains in my short tenure. When I first came in, Vinny [Lecavalier] was captain. And the thing about leadership on this team is, there has always been a pecking order. Marty [St. Louis] wasn’t as vocal when Vinny was captain; Stammer wasn’t as vocal when Marty was captain. Now Stammer is captain and he’s more vocal than he ever was. There was a respect value there, a hierarchy. He’s more take-charge than he was in the past.
One of my favourite off-ice moments last season was when you interrupted Stamkos’s press scrum in the playoffs.
I think you’re one of the only ones.
Gotta See It: Coach Cooper interrupts a Stamkos playoff scrum
Well, that’s what I was going to say. You took flak for that. Would you do something similar again? Is the NHL too conservative?
I understand, I suppose, what [critics] are thinking. I don’t think ever we can take ourselves too seriously. If you’re not having fun at what you do, whatever job you’re in, then I don’t understand why you’re doing it.
I’ve done that before. It’s just because we’re in the bright light of Montreal, there’s a lot more media there, we were down three games to zero, maybe people took that a different way. I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m going to be myself.
The one thing people said to me was, “Coop. Whatever you’ve done in your career to get to the NHL, don’t change because you’re in the NHL.” And I’ll never do that.
