After practice on Wednesday, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper discussed the injury status of Victor Hedman, Erik Cernak, Ian Cole, and Michael Eyssimont as well as his team’s Game 1 win over the Maple Leafs.
Practice Notes – April 19
No Hedman, Cernak, Eyssimont or Cole on the ice as the #GoBolts start practice today n Toronto.
— Eduardo A. Encina (@EddieInTheYard) April 19, 2023
Tanner Jeannot taking PK reps paired with Bellemare. #gobolts
— Eduardo A. Encina (@EddieInTheYard) April 19, 2023
Is there any update on the three players that left the game last night?
Cooper: Cernak and Eyssimont will be out [for Game 2]. Hedman will be game-time.
How about Tanner Jeannot’s availability?
Cooper: We will hope. We will see tomorrow what kind of roster we can field.
Will Ian Cole be okay for tomorrow?
Cooper: Yeah, he should be.
Were you surprised by your team’s performance last night after the last month of the regular season, or was it business as usual for you in the playoffs?
Cooper: You are happy when you can score right away in the first minute and a half of the game, especially with the way the crowd was going. There was a definite buzz in the building. I felt that kind of put a pin in it a little bit.
Naturally, getting the second one helped. Any time you can jump out to the lead on the road, you are happy with that. I think we kind of fed on that as we went along.
Your team has had some tough starts to games this season, including one against Florida after the All-Star break. What leads teams to fail to start on time in games sometimes?
Cooper: First of all, it is 82 games. I think it has happened to everyone except for maybe Boston. Other than that, there are going to be games where the other team is feeling it, you are not, and the harder you try, the worse it gets. Maybe the goalie is not on it.
There are a plethora of reasons why that happens, but when you play as many games as we do, it is hard. Sometimes there are schedule losses. That one was a spring break loss, maybe? I don’t know what you call that one.
It is a tough league. The sign of a mature team is being able to just sweep those games under the rug and get right back at it. That is what we were talking about post-All-Star break when you are kind of set in a playoff spot. You know you’d really have to collapse to be out of it.
Those things can happen. That sounds excuse-like, but it is not. I am just a coach. I just stand there. With what these guys have to do — on every team, not just ours — with the grind to play every night, there are going to be games where it doesn’t go your way. That was definitely one of them.
How did your team manufacture the response it needed after its Game 1 loss last year?
Cooper: That is an urgency thing as well. Don’t get me wrong. I am not sitting here and saying Toronto didn’t come out with urgency [last year], but just the way that game went, we felt we lost it in every way possible. The goalie felt he could be better. The players felt they could be better. The coaches felt like we could be better.
There was an urgency the next night. I think that is a big thing for us. I am sure Toronto’s urgency is going up. As an opponent, you have to match that.
It is easy to sit here and say, “Ah, we got the first one. We did that last year. It is okay if we go back [1-1].” I disagree with that. Be greedy now. Go get the second one and really try to put some pressure on them.
There might be an advantage for the team that lost the first game, but we will see. We will see how we respond.
Corey Perry admitted he didn’t have as strong of a regular season in the last couple of months. He was a -28. The playoffs arrive, and he gets the fans all cranked up in the warmups, and then we saw what he did in the game. Can you speak to the ability to turn a switch on?
Cooper: First of all, there is a little humble pie in what he is saying. How many of his minuses were 6-on-5 empty-netters? Like 15 of them, where he is the furthest guy away from the net and probably has nothing to do with it.
If we go to his five-on-five, I bet you it is within three of even. He is being humble, and I appreciate him for that. He has had a much better season than he is giving himself credit for. He has also been in the league for a long time.
Do we have Corey Perry on this team because he is a big part of this team? Yes, but he is here to play at this time of year. Whether he gets 10 minutes of ice time, Corey has an impact on our team in such a positive way. It is not always the 10, 12, or 14 minutes that he plays. It’s when he is sitting on the bench or in the locker room.
He is not giving himself enough credit for what a positive impact he has on us.
How does a player that looks like he might’ve been done four or five years ago still make these kinds of contributions at this stage of his career?
Cooper: The fact that he has been to three straight Finals on three different teams — not a coincidence.
How pleased were you to see Pierre-Eduoard Bellemare score the first goal knowing it was not an easy season for him?
Cooper: You talk about adversity. We are just one team out of 32, but when you have some of those personal issues that happen to all of us… It happened to me in 2020. It happened to him this year. Those are tough, especially when your immediate family is in North America but your mother is in France.
That was extremely tough on him. He is another one. He is kind of in the Corey Perry mold. These guys are outstanding veterans that bring so much more to the table than the minutes they play each night.
It just shows the strength of that kid. It was great.
Can you talk about the resiliency your defense showed last night after losing two important players?
Cooper: That is a lot to ask. You have to look at it a couple of different ways. We played in LA a couple of years ago, and because of injuries and cap reasons, we had to play the entire game with four D. We said to the guys, “You just have to do it for 20 minutes.”
It is tough, especially when playing a team like the Leafs. Everybody kept it simple. I thought our forwards did a heck of a job helping them out. It helped that we had a bit of a lead. It was way better than the game being tied. But they did a great job.
What can you say about Darren Raddysh playing over 22 minutes, including some time on the power play?
Cooper: You have to include Perbix in there, too. Those are two guys playing their first NHL playoff games in Toronto, of all places.
Raddy is a little different, though. He is playing on the big stage in the OHL doing the things he did. He paid his dues in the American league. I thought Ben [Groulx] a great job with him in the minors of bringing him along.
He is a kid who stuck with it. He felt his progression and felt himself grow. I have said this before: I thought he could’ve made our team out of training camp. The numbers didn’t fit for him. Now, he is getting his chance. Boy, is he making the most of it.
