Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper calls out the Detroit Red Wings for their questionable play style in an interview last night in Detroit.
The Tampa Bay Lightning find themselves in a rather sticky predicament tonight. Being down 3-2 in the series against the Detroit Red Wings means that they will have to be perfect in the next two games or they will be heading home with their post season journey having met its end.
As you can imagine, this is incredibly frustrating to not only those of us here in the Bolts Nation cheering our Boys in Blue on, but the players themselves and the people who are there fighting for that next win in the series.
One of the things that have been getting inside the heads of those of us here in the Bolts Nation has been the incredibly questionable play style thus far in this series. There have been points and times when players have either embellished a play in order to draw a call or penalties the Red Wings players are directly responsible for the end up being called on the Lightning.
While this is most certainly not the direct reason that the Lightning have not been dominating games as of late as that burden lies in the hands of the offense, it has certainly done a lot to get under the skin of the Tampa Bay Lightning fans and presumably under the skin of the team as well.
In an interview from the team hotel last night , Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper was asked about the level of interference that the Detroit Red Wings implement into their game and whether or not this is something that he is seeing when he watches the tapes from the game. As usual, Coach Cooper holds nothing back and calls it as he sees it.
"“There are 30 teams in the league and nobody does it more than the Detroit Red Wings, hands down,” Coach Cooper said. “The old saying is, ‘If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.’ They do it to a ‘T’.”"
While this may sound like an excuse; especially coming from a Head Coach coming off of a disappointing shutout loss in front of their hometown crowd, Cooper is quite clear that this is not an acceptable reason for the Tampa Bay Lightning to be down in this series.
"“My message to our guys is you’ve got to suck it up, you’ve got to fight through it. And if they’re bringing it, you’ve got to bring a gun to a knife fight. That’s how it has to go.” Coach Cooper said. “So to get on them, we have to be better.”"
We don’t think that we could have possibly put that any better than Coach Cooper has. We have all seen it. Take for example the penalty in the second period of Game 4 when Tyler Johnson is called to the box for High Sticking Danny DeKeyser.
If you watch the play over again, which we have done what seems like a million times, it seems pretty clear that it was DeKeyser that lifted Johnson’s stick to his face. Did Johnson’s stick hit DeKeyser in the face? Absolutely. Should it have been a penalty against Johnson? In the strictest sense of the rules, yes, it should have. However, at the same time, did DeKeyser play a huge role in that chain of events? Most certainly.
This brings us back to what Coach Cooper said, “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying,” and if there is one thing we know for sure it is that the Red Wings have that kind of play style on lock.
As much as this kind of thing gets under our skin and makes us want to go full-on Steve Downie on someone, we agree with Coach Cooper that the team has to suck it up and move on. Excuses do not buy you a pass in the post season.
If the Tampa Bay Lightning wants to come out of Detroit tonight with one more shot at greatness, they are going to have to give it right back to the Red Wings in the one way that counts; on the score board. We all know that they have what it takes. At this point, it is all in the execution.
When the Tampa Bay Lightning takes the ice tonight, they hold their own futures in their hands.
While the Lightning may be a thousand miles away tonight, they still need their Thunder, now more than ever. We are calling on each and every one of you to dig down deep and scream loud and proud for your Tampa Bay Lightning tonight so that the Boys in Blue can hear you all the way from the Bolts Nation.
The only question left is are you up to the task? We know we are!
Next: Tampa Bay Lightning: Special Draft Class of 2011
More from Bolts by the Bay
- Tampa Bay Lightning: Maxim Groshev Stands Out at Rookie Showcase
- Tampa Bay Lightning Atlantic Division Preview: Boston Bruins
- Do the Tampa Bay Lightning provide Tyler Motte with career stability?
- Mikhail Sergachev hints a renewed vigor for the Tampa Bay Lightning
- Four training camp battles to watch with the Tampa Bay Lightning