Jon Cooper addressed the media after his team’s 7-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series.
On the status of his three injured players in Victor Hedman, Erik Cernak, and Michael Eyssimont:
It is hard for me to comment on the three guys who are out. I don’t know.
On whether Victor Hedman was nursing an injury before the game:
I don’t know. Honestly, that one was a little bit surprising. We are hoping he should be okay.
Again, it is way too early to tell. This is one of those where we’ll wake up tomorrow, see what is going on, and then we’ll give you some sort of report.
On the match penalty to Michael Bunting:
I will give you the company line. The league will look at that. To me, it seems to check a whole bunch of boxes.
On a big Game 1 after the Leafs entered the series as favourites in many eyes:
The Leafs might win the series. They might. There is so much runway left in this.
What I have learned over the years: I sure as hell wouldn’t bet against our guys. That is not to say we are going to win, but I don’t know. I’ve got their back.
On his team’s ability to start the game so strongly in a hostile atmosphere:
We have been there before. We have been down this road. To be honest, you embrace these moments. In the atmosphere at the beginning of the game, you are going through the anthems, and the crowd is going nuts. It is a wonderful experience. It is not something you should shy away from.
We talk to guys about that. Don’t shy away from this. Embrace it.
Was the timing of some of our goals on point tonight? Of course. We scored in the first minute and a half of the period. We scored at the end of the first and the end of the second.
The underrated goal was the Point goal after Toronto made it 3-2. That was the big one for us. There was a lot of great timing on our part tonight, but they earned it.
I think we thoroughly need to pump the breaks. Heck, we lost Game 1 last year and ended up winning the series. I am sure Sheldon is telling their team that exact same thing.
For us, for one night in a playoff game, I loved a lot of the things that we did. It is on us to make sure we continue that in the next game. If Toronto beats us, good for them, but we need to bring what we brought tonight to continue to beat what I think is one hell of a Leafs team.
On whether “flipping the switch” for the playoffs was a conscious decision by his team:
It was not a conscious decision, especially from our seat — the coaching staff’s seat. When you are behind the bench, you naturally want to win every game. You want the team to play well. You want all of those things to happen.
The reality is — based on what I have learned in this league — that just doesn’t happen that way. Not when you play 82. It doesn’t even happen when you play 25 in a playoff run. You can’t play perfectly all of the time.
The game is about habits. The game is about percentages. When you start putting those in your favour, those teams usually make the playoffs.
Flipping the switch is the cliche we have all used over the years. I think there is disruption — every team has it, whether you get new players at the deadline, whether Covid hits, or something happens — and you are going to go through waves.
What this team has always done is put themselves in the position to make the playoffs, and if there is a hiccup — like we’ve had in the last month — you are still getting in. It is a little bit of a different scenario here because we are probably the only two teams who knew we were playing each other for a long time, but I will never question the guys in that room.
As the coach, you always want the best, but deep down inside, you know there are a whole bunch of gamers in that room. On this night, we knew they would come out to play.
On the Lightning power play going four-for-eight:
For both teams, what was it? 6 for 12? There were six in a row or something like that.
There are really, really good players on both teams. Our power play has been exceptional over the years. So has Toronto’s. To be honest, they were hard to defend.
I am sure they are looking at us and going, “Okay, how are we going to stop them?” We are sure looking at it as, “How are we going to stop them?”
There are some gifted players out there. Do I suspect the power plays are going to roll the way they have been rolling? I don’t. But I am going to be honest: These are good players out there. They are hard to stop.
On Mikhail Sergachev’s continued evolution into a complete defenseman:
Personally, moving forward here, I am pretty blessed to have had Victor Hedman — and still have Victor Hedman — and what he has done for our team. To sit here and think we have another one of those coming…
To watch his development… He came to us at a really young age, and he was an elite junior player, but he had to learn how to play the pro game. He actually had to learn how to defend.
Players who go from good to great learn how to defend. All of that other stuff he can do offensively are God’s gifts he was given. All of those things you have to do when you don’t have the puck, that’s the decision you have to make of whether to be good or great.
Sergy has made that decision. He is a hell of a player for us.
