The Tampa Bay Lightning’s historic collapse is coming from problems that came all the way from the top. It might be drastic, but it might be best for Tampa Bay to move on from head coach Jon Cooper.
It was the sweep heard around the hockey world when the Tampa Bay Lightning were sent packing at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night. Columbus fans were ecstatic, and rightfully so as the franchise’s first playoff series victory came in epic fashion. Tampa Bay fans were speechless, save for a dramatic “we’ll talk about it later” tweet from the Lightning’s official account. The entire hockey world was absolutely stunned.
Thus begins an early off-season in Tampa where everyone in upper management will be left wondering what happened and what went wrong. Those type of question brings panic, and panic often brings impulsive and sweeping changes, whether for better or worse. One of those changes should be the firing of head coach Jon Cooper.
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That would be an awfully shocking change after Cooper led the Lightning to a President’s Trophy this season and tied the regular season wins record, but unfortunately, Tampa is going to begin playing the blame game and Cooper is the prime target. Even though Cooper signed a multi-year contract extension just a few weeks back, such a stunning loss may leave Lightning management with buyer’s remorse.
Let’s look at the road that led Cooper into the hot seat. Tampa Bay came out guns a blazing in-game one building a 3-0 lead and completely and utterly collapses.
You can blame the President’s Trophy curse, but there has to be more to it than that. The team that seemed impenetrable during the regular season began to play lazily, almost without a purpose, while Columbus took full advantage.
It’s quite obvious the Lightning underestimated Columbus, but that doesn’t excuse their lack of motivation. Who should have been motivating their team after that stunning game one upset? It should have been their head coach Jon Cooper, but he mostly idly sat by and watched.
This was not a series won on luck. Tampa Bay didn’t find themselves on the losing end of bad bounces and controversial calls against them. All their setbacks with the exception of Victor Hedman’s injury were self-inflicted. And when all was said and done, Jon Cooper commented with the tone deaf comment of the year.
"“When you have the amount of points we had, it’s a blessing and a curse in a way, because you don’t play, really, any meaningful hockey for a long time and all of the sudden you have to amp it up,” Cooper said postgame. “It’s not an excuse, it’s reality.”"
There’s an old sports quote from Green Bay Packers coach Vine Lombardi – “there’s a thousand reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.” While Cooper insists his “we haven’t played important games in a while” comment wasn’t an excuse, it comes off as more of a suttle brag on his part.
He’s trying to boast about his team when they suffered the most shocking playoff loss in recent history. If the Lightning came out and put up a hard fight, you could at least respect their effort. But Tampa played like a team that thought this first round match up was below them and Cooper’s nonchalant comment proves that was a problem that came from the top.
Throughout the series, Cooper showed little to no emotion, perhaps trying to put on a calm face for his players. That lasted up until his successful coach’s challenge that overturned a Blue Jackets goal in Game 4 to put the Lightning back within one. Unfortunately, it was too little too late.
Cooper experienced a reign of great success with the Lightning, but always came close but not close enough to the ultimate prize of a Stanley Cup. Cooper and former Lightning GM Steve Yzerman had a fantastic working relationship that turned the team into one of NHL envy.
Since Yzerman has handed over the reins to Julien BriseBois, and is all but certain to leave the Lightning all together when his contract expires this off-season, maybe it’s time for BriseBois to bring in a coach of his own picking.
With a talent stocked roster like the Lightning, anyone can coach them to a playoff spot, but it’s now painfully obvious that Cooper couldn’t get the best out of his players when they needed to most. If he did, maybe the Lightning could be more confident in a BriseBois and Cooper working relationship, but with BriseBois poised to be the new kid on the block and here to stay, Cooper’s left as the odd man out.
Columbus getting the best of Tampa Bay will without a doubt go down as the NHL’s best David vs Goliath type story, even surpassing the 2012 Los Angeles Kings. Let’s be honest here, everyone is more fascinated with why the Lightning lost than why the Blue Jackets won. Cooper wouldn’t be unemployed for long, as someone will see past the epic round one failure and offer him a contract, so the Lightning won’t be on the hook for that contract extension of his too much longer.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Tampa is desperate for answers after the upset that hockey pundits will always look back on with intrigue and confusion. The Lightning can appreciate all Cooper has done, but this blunder might be too big to earn a second chance. When the going got tough at the franchises best chance to win a Stanley Cup in the Steven Stamkos era, the tough did not get going.