Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper has been named one of three finalists for the National Hockey League’s Jack Adams Award, presented to the coach who “contributed the most to his team’s success.…
In only his first full season behind an NHL bench, Cooper took the Lightning, who finished with the third overall draft pick in 2013, straight to a playoff berth with home ice advantage in 2014. His team compiled a 46-27-9 record, good enough for 101 points in the standings.
What’s perhaps most remarkable about Cooper’s triumphs behind the Tampa bench is that he built success on the backs of inexperienced players and rookies. No team generated more production out of rookies than the Lightning, a testament to both the team’s development system and Cooper’s coaching. According to the NHL’s official release, the Bolts had eight first-year players appear in at least 40 games; that’s five more than any other team in the league.
As Riley noted on the last thread, this isn’t the first time that Cooper has been at recognized for excellence in coaching. He’s won a Clark Cup and coach of the year honors in the USHL, a Calder Cup and coach of the year honors in the AHL, and now he’s a nominee for coach of the year honors in the NHL. Success just seems to follow the former lawyer, who left the courtroom about ten years ago to pursue a career behind the bench.
Along with Cooper, Patrick Roy of the Colorado Avalanche and Mike Babcock of the Detroit Red Wings were also nominated for the Jack Adams Award. While I expect that Roy will likely win the trophy, it’s hard for me to honestly say that he’s as deserving as the other two. Obviously this is all subjective, but I look at what Cooper and Babcock did this season and I’m far more impressed.
Allow me to elaborate. Cooper took a Lightning group that was one of the league’s worst possession clubs and transformed it into a top-ten possession team. Those are real, measurable results. That’s evidence that Cooper’s system worked for the Lightning in the face of some very serious adversity (e.g. the Stamkos injury, the St. Louis trade demand).
Babcock, for his part, coached the Red Wings to a 23rd straight playoff berth despite the fact that his team was decimated by injuries all year long. What he managed to do in Detroit is nothing short of a miracle. If I was the only voter, Babcock would run away with the award.
So, this brings me to Roy. While the Avalanche did shoot up the standings from near the very bottom to near the very top, it’s hard for me to say that Roy really made the difference. His system led the Avalanche to be the 27th ranked possession team at even strength. Somehow, likely due to the stellar play of Semyon Varlamov, they were able to overcome that to finish with a division championship. If I’m looking to give credit for Colorado’s meteoric rise to superiority, I’m handing it straight to their goaltending. I have a hard time rewarding a coach who couldn’t figure out how to coach his team to possess the puck.
Moving back to Cooper, every member of Bolts Nation should be incredibly happy and proud of what he and his team accomplished this year. The first round loss to the Montreal Canadiens was a tough pill to swallow, but it doesn’t change that the future is incredibly bright for hockey in Tampa.
As always, thanks for reading.