Is Jon Cooper’s job with the Lightning in jeopardy?
The Tampa Bay Lightning‘s season came to an end on Sunday in heartbreaking fashion in a 2-1 Game 7 loss at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens.
Despite total territorial dominance in the game, the Bolts could not muster a tying goal after a phenomenal play by Alex Newhook gave the Canadiens the eventual winner on a batted puck from an absurd angle.
Now, the Lightning are staring at a four-year run of making the playoffs only to be knocked out in the first round. For a team that won two Stanley Cups and lost in the Final in a bid for a third immediately before that, it marks a clear step back for the core and head coach Jon Cooper, who stands as the longest-tenured head coach in the NHL.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by host of The Sheet Jeff Marek to discuss whether a fourth first-round exit in a row could lead to Cooper’s job being in danger.
Tyler Yaremchuk: That’s an interesting line to finish on there, coaches that could wiggle free, because I think there are Leafs fans and Oilers fans and Canucks fans, even, who are sitting and going, ‘Hm, four straight first-round exits for Tampa Bay.’ Is that just wishful thinking from some Canadian fan bases?
Jeff Marek: I see you’ve been paying attention, Tyler. Yeah, like look, at a certain point… I think Tyler’s right here. At a certain point, we all just assume that Jon Cooper’s always going to be the coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and he may still very well be the head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and they may just spin this thing back, and we don’t know what the future for Victor Hedman is. We don’t know whether Darren Raddysh is going to hit free agency, but they’re still an elite team here, and maybe Julien BriseBois says we’re going to plug a couple of holes here and spin this thing back and Jon Cooper’s our guy, and that’s the end of it… He does still have some term… Or, does Julien BriseBois say okay, we need to make a decision here. Players aren’t going anywhere, we still have a competitive and elite team in the National Hockey League… There is going to be a day when Jon Cooper is not the coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Are we there yet now? I don’t think so, but I don’t think that it’s something that we should just brush off and say that it’s not even a conversation… I think it is.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…