Jon Cooper addressed the media after the series loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series.
On whether his team played better than last year’s series:
I would agree with that. I am not going to get into a debate about who is the better team. They beat us 4-2. Statistics say they were the better team than us.
Do I sit here and think we could’ve done anything different to change the tide? No. We played well enough to win the series. Anyone who watched the series would agree with that, but you can’t lose three overtime games at home.
If you are not going to win a home game, it is really tough to win a series. We had the lead in Game 3 and gave it up with a minute left. We had a 4-1 lead in Game 4 and gave that up.
In this one, we had to come from behind, but there are still three games in overtime. Regardless of how the territory of the games is going, if you can’t pull those out, then it is tough to win.
That is where I give Toronto credit. Even when they were being leaned on by us, they were opportunistic. They capitalized on plays they had to. When it came to be our turn for that to happen, we couldn’t capitalize.
On the empty feeling of an early playoff exit:
This team hasn’t lost a playoff series in the Eastern Conference since 2019. It is 2023.
We are not used to this feeling. You sit here and do this press conference 10 minutes after the game ended. I can’t even think of the word.
It just doesn’t feel good. As I said, I think there are 31 other teams in the league that would love to have our history here in the last 10 years, five years, three years.
That is why this is difficult. Usually, we’re on the other side of the press conference where I am going second as the winning coach. At some point, you are not going to get the break. It is just the way it is or there would be teams that win 15 Cups in a row.
For a team and an organization that really has struggled in the playoffs, at some point, they were going to get a break. It just sucks it was the series against us.
