Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper Furious Over Johnson Cheap Shot
Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper is furious over the actions of Canadiens defenseman Greg Pateryn and his cheap shot on Tyler Johnson.
The Tampa Bay Lightning certainly didn’t have a good evening in their final game of the 2015-16 regular season. From the word go the Montreal Canadiens had control of the game and were more than prepared to complete a season sweep of the Lightning. Unfortunately, this was not even the worst part of the Lightning’s final moments of the regular season.
As most of you know by now, the Tampa Bay Lightning will take on the Detroit Red Wings in the first round of the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Unfortunately, thanks to the actions of one specific Montreal Canadiens defenseman, the Tampa Bay Lightning could potentially be down another of their key forwards as they make their way into the postseason.
Late in the first period, the Tampa Bay Lightning were attempting to make a play in front of the Montreal Canadiens net. This play was ultimately turned away by Canadiens goaltender Mike Condon. Now that Condon had control of the puck, the referee blew his whistle and the play halted. Well…unless your name is Greg Pateryn.
Greg Pateryn decided to finish his check to Tampa Bay Lightning center Tyler Johnson, which concluded with Pateryn giving Johnson a hard shove which resulted in Johnson losing his edge and ramming head-first into the boards behind the Canadiens net. As you can imagine, Tyler Johnson laid there for quite some time in more than a little distress. Eventually, Johnson would have to be assisted off the ice by his teammates.
Once Johnson made his journey down the tunnel to the Tampa Bay Lightning locker room, he would not be seen again for the remainder of the game. Later in the game, it was announced that Johnson would not be returning to the game and was now listed as Day-To-Day with an Upper Body Injury.
As you can imagine, the blood of those of us here in the Bolts Nation began to boil, but none boiled quite as feverishly as that of Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper. When asked about the Tyler Johnson incident, Cooper held nothing back on his thoughts about the play.
"“Yeah, I think 20,000 people saw it.” Cooper said. “The one thing we love about this game and why we all love this game is there’s honor and there’s respect and that kid had a blatant disregard for both. That was egregious what happened and there’s no place for it. I’m at a loss for words for what happened.”"
After about one minute into his postgame press conference, Coach Cooper had enough and decided he no longer wanted to talk about the incident. Of course, what else could he say? He hadn’t even had an opportunity to make his way to the trainer’s room to check on his player.
However, Cooper does make one point over the course of his interview that rings all too true to hockey fans. The kind of play by Pateryn against Johnson is not only dirty and completely unacceptable but could end up being career or life-threatening. As Coach Cooper said, there is absolutely no room for this kind of play in the National Hockey League.
Next: Tyler Johnson Nailed Into Boards By Greg Pateryn (Video)
It is unknown at this point just how severe Tyler Johnson’s injury is, whether or not he will be ready to play in Game 1 against the Detroit Red Wings, or what kind of supplemental discipline Greg Pateryn will face as a result of his actions. All we can do now is wait and see if the NHL Department of Player Safety does the right thing and protects their players accordingly.