It is with great excitement that we at the Tampa Bay Lightning are proud to announce the launch of the brand-new Bolts Blogs program!
Through this program, we will be providing media members and digital content producers with a chance to have their work published on TampaBayLightning.com and amplified through our social media channels. Each month, content creators can submit stories for selection by the Lightning editorial group. On this dedicated landing page, one story will be selected and posted to live on the page until a new submission is selected the following month. Think of it as an op-ed or letter to the editor section.
We view this as a fantastic opportunity for non-traditional platforms and media who don’t usually cover the team to gain viewership and grow their product through the reach of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
TAMPA – In the court of hockey appeals, the time has come to correct an injustice.
Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper is the second winningest coach in the history of the National Hockey League at the 900-game mark. When Cooper reached that milestone on November 27, he collected his 536th career victory.
The only coach in the history of the game to have more wins at the 900-game mark is the legendary Scotty Bowman, who collected 548 wins at that mark.
Yet, despite that decade-plus of success Cooper has enjoyed – all of it with the Tampa Bay Lightning – he has never won the Jack Adams Award as the Coach of the Year.
How the former public defender has never won the Adams Award is criminal.
Consider this an argument to build the case against this injustice and the chance to right a wrong.
The Jack Adams Award was first handed out in 1973-74 when Hall of Fame coach Fred Shero was named the winner after the Philadelphia Flyers posted a 50-16-12 record. Bowman earned his first Jack Adams 1976-77 with Montreal, three years before he would reach his 900th career game behind.
Bruce Boudreau, who has the third most victories prior to 900 games coached, won the Coach of the Year in 2007-08 in his first stint behind the bench when he took over mid-season in Washington, but never won it again.
Cooper has been a finalist twice.
In his first season with Tampa Bay, Cooper took a team that finished 28th in the league the previous season and led them to a 101-point season and second place in the Atlantic Division. Cooper would end up finishing third behind Patrick Roy and Mike Babcock, the later who finished two spots and eight points behind the Lightning in the standings.
The other time he was named a finalist came in 2018-19 when he led Tampa Bay to a 62-win season that tied the NHL record at the time. But Cooper would finish second to Barry Trotz, who took the New York Islanders from the worst defensive teams to the best, cutting down the goals against by more than 100 total goals allowed.
That’s it. Only twice has Cooper garnered the attention of the voting pool to be recognized among his peers as one of the best head coaches in the game.
In his tenure with the Lightning, he has led Tampa Bay to two Stanley Cup championships, four Stanley Cup Final appearances and six Eastern Conference finals/semifinal round. His postseason record is 87-63 and his teams have won 18 playoff rounds in 26 series.
Next month Cooper will stand behind the bench for Team Canada for the Four Nations Faceoff, the first best-on-best situation featuring NHL players representing their country since the World Cup of Hockey in 2016, a tournament he also was a part of as an assistant coach on Team North America.
When the Olympics come around next February in Italy, and the NHL pauses to allow players to participate, Cooper will behind the bench again for Canada.
What more does Cooper need to have on his resume to finally be recognized as the Coach of the Year?
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the polar vortex.
The cold reality is that Cooper won’t win the Jack Adams trophy unless the mindset of the voting pool changes.
Look at the recent trend of Jack Adams award winners and it’s not hard to see how voters view the award. Apart from Jim Montgomery – the winner in 2023 after leading the Bruins to an NHL record 65 wins – the award has typically gone to a coach whose team either exceeded expectations or took over a failing team and led them to the playoffs. (Remember, this is only based on the regular season and all votes are tabulated before the playoffs begin.)
Last year’s winner, Vancouver’s Rick Tocchet, improved the Canucks by 12 wins and went from out of the playoffs to a division title. Darryl Sutter in 2022 took the Flames from a .500 team the previous season to 50 wins and a division title.
Even when Trotz won with Washington in 2016, it was his first year with the Capitals and he improved Washington by 10 wins.
A coach established like Cooper is going to have a difficult time breaking through that sort of trend among the voters. He did in 2019 when he led the Lightning to a record-tying season, but that seems to be the only manner a coach with tenure will get the attention of voters.
See, the Lightning go into every season right now with a certain set of expectations of reaching success. The only season under Cooper in which they failed to make the postseason was in 2017. So, they expect to be a playoff team every year, and for the most part Tampa Bay has lived up to those expectations.
But the time has come for that to change.
You’ve seen all the evidence, now it’s time for the closing argument.
Jon Cooper should be the strongest candidate for the Jack Adams trophy this season. Sure, Craig Berube – a first-year coach voters seem to gravitate toward – has Toronto in first place in the Atlantic right now, Travis Green has Ottawa trending upward in his first year with the Senators and Spencer Carbery has Washington unexpectedly in first place in the Eastern Conference.
But the expectations for the Lightning entering the season might have been at its lowest point since Cooper’s first season with Tampa Bay. Gone is franchise icon Steven Stamkos. Traded was top defenseman Mikhail Sergachev.
That’s two big parts of the Stanley Cup contending teams. Two big holes in the lineup to fill.
Some preseason pundits predicted this might be the year the Lightning would take a step back, perhaps even miss the playoffs.
But as of Friday, Tampa Bay’s point percentage was .600, they are the highest scoring team in the league and the Lightning sat in a playoff spot within striking distance of the division with games in hand.
That’s not the story though.
While Tampa Bay has three more wins through 35 games this season compared to last season, it’s the way the Lightning have played this season that is the real story of the season to this point.
Tampa Bay’s goal differential through 35 games last season was minus-3.
The goal differential through 35 games this season is plus-36, the third best in the league.
At 5-on-5 play, the Lightning have gone from a minus-11 last season through 35 games to plus-22 this season. That’s a 33-goal turnaround in a key statistic Tampa Bay vowed to improve this season.
That kind of turnaround to date for Tampa Bay has caught the attention of some in the national media who see the window for the Lightning still wide open.
Now, it’s time for the voters to take note of what the Lightning have done to this point in the season. Because of all the seasons Cooper has been at the helm of the Lightning, he’s done his finest work this year.
Time for Cooper to be properly recognized for what he’s done, and what he’s doing.
Jon Cooper deserves to have his name added to the list of Jack Adams winners and collect another trophy for the mantle.
The defense rests.
Erik Erlendsson served as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat writer for The Tampa Tribune from 2001 to 2016 and founded the independent website *LightningInsider.com* in 2017.
