Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper has been the target of some fairly harsh criticism over the past few days.
The bench boss who led the Bolts to two straight stellar regular seasons is struggling in the playoffs once again. Last season, the Montreal Canadiens swept his team. This year, his team is down 2-1 in a series with the Detroit Red Wings. Seemingly unwilling to adjust, Cooper has his team going back to an empty well over and over again. Raw Charge’s Kyle Alexander summed things up nicely:
Jon Cooper has a Plan A. If Plan A doesn't work, he tries Plan A even harder.
— Kyle Alexander (@kalexanderRC) April 22, 2015Granted, there’s plenty of room for disagreement and debate when it comes to on-ice tactics. We don’t know that anyone else’s ideas or strategies would be any more or less effective than Cooper’s. For that reason, it’s hard not to give him the benefit of the doubt. As mentioned, he led this team to some spectacular heights this year. Further, as bad as the Bolts were in Game Three, they're only down one game in this series. A set of small changes could be enough to turn the tide and give the Lightning the push they need to get the job done.
But, there’s more to this story than on-ice tactics. Perhaps most confusing right now is Cooper’s handling of Jonathan Drouin. The third overall pick from the 2013 draft has been a healthy scratch through the first three games of this series, and he will be on popcorn duty once again for Game Four. While Cooper’s squad struggled mightily to create opportunities and control the puck in Game Three, it apparently wasn’t enough for the young head coach to want to make any lineup changes.
Contrary to Cooper’s beliefs, sitting Drouin is the wrong thing to do. When Cedric Paquette, Vladislav Namestnikov, and Brenden Morrow have been as quiet (or downright dreadful in certain cases) as they have been through three games, there’s absolutely no reason not to put Drouin into game action. You can’t sit here and tell me that he wouldn’t be an upgrade on what we’ve seen from those three aforementioned players. Instead, he gets to sit and watch the game from the sky.
But, hey, Cooper is a smart hockey guy. Maybe he has a good reason for sitting Drouin, right? Wrong. Check this out:
Cooper says 1 reason Drouin is sitting is because Panik struggled last playoff. Panik - 3 career CHL playoff pts in 3 years, Drouin w/ 102.
— Grant McCagg (@grantmccagg) April 22, 2015It would be just as easy to use that ridiculous argument to make a case for Drouin to be in the lineup:
Random fact of the day: PK Subban had two games of NHL experience before playing 14 playoff games in 2010. Can't be afraid to plug guys in.
— Brian Compton (@BComptonNHL) April 22, 2015Don’t take this blog to mean that I’m not a fan of Jon Cooper and the job he’s done with the Lightning over the last two seasons. I think he’s done a lot of really great things, but that doesn’t mean he gets a free pass here for what I consider to be some fairly questionable moves. The Lightning are going with the same lineup that has seen momentum in this series swing right from one team to the other in dramatic fashion. If there was ever a time to get an uber-talented player like Drouin in the lineup, it was after that dismal third game. Apparently Cooper sees things differently. Unfortunately the logic he’s used to reach that conclusion is as faulty as can be.
As always, thanks for reading.
Michael Stuart has been the Tampa Bay Lightning writer for HockeyBuzz since 2012. Visit his archive to read more or follow him on Twitter.