Everywhere Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper goes, success follows. One can see that much in his successful coaching career, beginning at the high school level and working his way up to the toughest league out there, the National Hockey League (NHL).
It all started at Lansing Catholic High School in Michigan. In one year at the helm there, he guided the team to its first regional hockey championship in 25 years.
Following that experience, Cooper spent one season as an assistant in the North American Hockey League (NAHL). He then spent the next two seasons coaching two separate teams, winning a championship with one of those teams.
After that, Cooper returned to the NAHL, coaching the expansion Texarkana Bandits team. In his second season behind the Bandits bench, he was named NAHL Coach of the Year. Two years after that, the Bandits won the first of two straight Robertson Cups as NAHL champions.
Cooper then moved on to the Green Bay Gamblers of the United States Hockey League (USHL). While there, he led the Gamblers to the Clark Cup as USHL champions in 2010. That made him the only coach to win a championship at all three levels of junior hockey.
With lots of success already under his belt, the Lightning organization hired Cooper to coach their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate in Norfolk. His second season there saw the Admirals not only set a North American professional sports record, winning 28 straight games but also capture the Calder Cup as AHL champions. The following season, he led the Lightning’s new AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, to the AHL’s best record. That earned him a promotion to the NHL.
A late-season replacement, the Lightning made the playoffs in all but one season under Cooper. His second full season saw the team make the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2003-04’ before ultimately falling short in six games to the Chicago Blackhawks.
That loss to the Blackhawks started a string of close calls when it came to getting back to the Cup finals. Coming within one game of playing for the Stanley Cup in two of the next four seasons, Cooper had to get the Lightning to buy in to playing championship hockey on the ice and conduct themselves like champions both on and off the ice.
Knowing that wouldn’t be easy, Cooper’s team got a lesson in humility during the 2019 postseason. After tying the 1995-96’ Detroit Red Wings for the most wins in a season, with 62, the Lightning were swept out of the playoffs by a Columbus Blue Jackets team that snuck in as an eighth seed.
The next season saw the Lightning and Cooper finally reach the top of the NHL mountain by capturing Lord Stanley’s Cup in the most difficult circumstances. The coronavirus pandemic forced teams to play in a bubble, away from their families, for as long as their team was in the playoffs. Fans had to watch from afar also, so teams couldn’t get energy from their fan base.
For the Lightning, winning without their families in attendance drove them in the 2021 postseason. They became the second team in the salary cap era to win back-to-back Stanley Cups, and they did so in front of their families and fans at Amalie Arena in Tampa. The next season saw the Bolts make it to a third straight Cup Final, but they fell short of their third championship in six games to the Colorado Avalanche.
Now, Cooper has 502 wins to his name and is currently the longest-tenured coach in the NHL. The Lightning, having lost many key components of their championship runs, are in the Eastern Conference’s first Wild Card spot despite dealing with long-term injuries to important players. That is a testament to their coach, a guy who had to grind his way through the coaching ranks.
ITR 36: Coaching Carousel – Inside The Rink
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