On the play, Cooley came down the right side of the ice, got by Kings defenseman Andreas Englund as he spun around, snuck behind Jordan Spence and got his shot off while falling down. It was stunning to see live, even more stunning on replay, and earned him First Star of the game and an ovation from the capacity crowd.
But after the game, Cooley was as focused on his miscue as he was on his magic. Earlier in the second, Cooley backhanded the puck across the middle of the ice where Spence picked it up and passed to Adrian Kempe, resulting in the Kings’ first goal of the game at 9:08 to cut it to 2-1.
“After that pizza I threw up the middle, I thought I had to do something,” Cooley said.
He laughed.
“It was just a hockey play,” he said. “I thought I had some space. I thought I missed the net, actually, but I saw the guys put their arms up, so definitely felt good to get that one.”
And as much as coach Andre Tourigny appreciated the goal, he perhaps appreciated more Cooley’s acknowledgement of his mistake, publicly.
“He’s a young player with high skill,” Tourigny said. “Like I said to him, ‘For me it’s not about the mistakes you will make, it’s about learning. It’s about learning from the mistakes.’ I told him, ‘I will ask you often, what did you learn?’ You just want him to learn every day a little bit, learn something new, something [like] where’s the space, that kind of stuff. And not repeating the same mistakes. That’s the two things I ask him so far and we’ll go from there.
“I think by his answer to [the media], he showed he learned. He learned what to not do and at the same time he showcased what he can do.”
Boy, did he.
“That was funny. The guys were saying, ‘Oh, he redeemed himself,’” Tourigny said. “Then after, the guys were cheering him. It’s exciting when you see those kinds of plays. I think he’s a likeable kid. The guys like him. We have a good group of boys. I think the reaction was sweet on the bench.”
All week in Australia, Tourigny has been tempering expectations for Cooley, who opted to leave the University of Minnesota after his freshman season to sign with the Coyotes. The 19-year-old forward was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award as the top player in NCAA men’s ice hockey last season.
“Logan, I have no doubt is a talented player,” Tourigny said. “He’s part of our future, he’s part of our present. We’re excited to have him, but there’s other guys who play really well on our team that have other goals. That will be a good thing for us, we will have internal competition, which will be welcome.”
For now, Tourigny is thrilled to see what’s developing between his players as they start preparations for the season in Australia. He spent the game Saturday watching as Jason Zucker helped tutor Cooley and Dylan Guenther, two young players who represent the future of the Coyotes.
“’Zuck’ was really good for Cooley today, [he] talked to him a lot on the bench, kept him composed when a tough time happened,” Tourigny said. “He had a constant communication about certain things, certain movements, the way to open the ice.
“I think you want that kind of leadership, big brother. We have that.”
And for the Coyotes, for Cooley, that bodes well as the rookie adjusts to life in the NHL. For now, though, the rest of the hockey world got a show Saturday, waking up to a candidate for the best goal of Cooley’s rookie season – one which hasn’t even really gotten started.
