Writing about Coach Jon Cooper’s extension in a way that is interesting is challenging. It’s plainly obvious that in many ways, Cooper’s job is thankless. The Lightning have so much talent that, if they fail to win the Cup, the blame will fall largely on the coach. But, in addition to talent, the extraordinary success the Lightning have had this season is also a testimony to their overwhelming skill and depth. First and foremost, the players should get the credit. But it would be insane to dismiss Cooper’s fingerprints on this team.
The consistency of the Lightning with Cooper at the helm has been superb, this season and in his tenure. This season, the fewest games they have lost in a row have been two, and it has happened only twice (February 5th and February 7th and November 10th and November 13th). The year 2017, when they missed the postseason, looks more and more like an aberration. The Lightning lost in the first round in Cooper’s playoff debut in 2014, but every single season aside from that and 2017, they have made it to the final four or better. (They lost in the Cup final in 2015, and in the conference finals in 2016 and 2018.) This season, the Lightning are first in a dazzling amount of statistical categories and anything less than the Cup will be seen as a colossal disappointment. Expectations are sky high, and Cooper’s stewardship has brought them to this point.
One of the things that always impresses me with Cooper is how well he manages the Lightning’s talent. Consider the variables at work: There is a good bet that after this season, Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, and Andre Vasilevskiy will all have won major awards. Eminence creates assumptions, and yet Cooper does a deft job at managing and massaging those expectations.
He has veterans like Ryan McDonagh who are new to the organization and have expectations about playing time and usage. The Lightning made a gigantic mistake not extending Brayden Point in the offseason, so he is still playing on his entry-level contract while he is registering 40 goals and is a top-ten scorer in the NHL. Despite being extremely underpaid, Point seems happy – playing with Kucherov can’t hurt – and from the outside there are no discernible signs of bad blood.
J.T. Miller and Yanni Gourde did receive contract extensions that gave them healthy term and a not insignificant amount per year. Yet Cooper has put both forwards on the fourth line this season with Cedric Paquette, and not just for one shift or one game. Not doubt, Miller and Gourde both view themselves as top-six forwards, and on most teams they would be. The talent glut, along with the development of the team’s rookies, has forced Cooper to juggle where he stashes the veteran forwards. For Ryan Callahan that has been as a healthy scratch. Cooper excels at treating his players like adults and professionals, and when Jonathan Drouin would publicly gripe to the media, he immediately became incompatible with the Bolts’ ethos.
The rejiggering of veterans provides a nice segue to talk about the development of young players under Cooper. When Point played his rookie year, it seemed obvious he was a steal in the third round. The scouting department gets a ton of credit for plucking him at 79 overall. But his numbers have also risen dramatically in his first three years. Point scored 18 goals and 22 assists in his rookie year, notched 32 goals and 34 assists last year, and currently has registered 40 goals and 50 assists with a handful of games to go in this season. Rarely is a path to superstardom so linear! Surely his dramatic progression has been accelerated under Cooper and the coaching staff’s guidance.
Then there is the development of rookies like Mathieu Joseph, Anthony Cirelli, Erik Cernak, and Adam Erne, all of whom have demonstrated they are not just steady NHL players, but especially in the case of Cirelli and Cernak, essential cogs that can be used to close out one-goal leads or help the Lightning erase a one-goal deficit. Cooper isn’t the only one fostering their development, but he deserves credit for his assistant coaches (Jeff Halpern and Derek Lalonde are new behind the bench) and his ability to delegate. If all this sounds bureaucratic and corporate-y, it is because the job description for NHL coach has duties of governance or CEO in it. Power starts at the top and funnels downward.
Are there nitpicks? You bet. Why is Vasilevskiy still playing every game? Why are Kucherov, Stamkos, Hedman, and Point still playing? The Presidents’ Trophy has long since been clinched, which means these games are glorified exhibitions. And as Ondrej Palat showed, injuries can happen.
Other nitpicks. Now that Hedman and Mikhail Sergachev have established themselves as an effective defensive pair, Dan Girardi should not see a minute of action in the postseason because Tampa Bay has six defensemen who are demonstrably better. But my guess is that Girardi will play anyway. How was Alex Killorn, not Point, the bumper on the first power-play unit last year? Can Cedric Paquette dial it down for the postseason so he doesn’t put the Lightning shorthanded once a game?
And yet, look at the revival of Stamkos, who is playing the best two-way hockey I can remember seeing from him. Kucherov is set to win the scoring title, and possibly other hardware. Point has established himself as an elite center, and Hedman and Vasilevskiy both have an argument for being the best at their respective positions. The best players are performing, the rookies are excelling, the role players are thriving, and the team can’t stop winning. Kudos to Cooper, and congrats on the extension.