Jon Cooper is leaning back in a chair at the desk in his office at Amalie Arena. It’s Saturday, and out on the ice, the Islanders are finishing up their morning skate ahead of a game they will lose, 5-3, to the Lightning. In here, Cooper, the Tampa Bay coach, is explaining the art of bouncing back.
“There’s perfect storms in winning,” Cooper told Post Sports+. “And there’s also perfect storms in losing.”
The room is packed with memories and memorabilia, but the two pictures to Cooper’s right, of him celebrating two Stanley Cup victories, stand out. Cooper has coached the Lightning since 2013-14, and he reached the mountaintop with back-to-back Cup wins in 2020 and 2021, losing in the final last year and in 2015. But that didn’t come without moments of doubt along the way. The Lightning missed the playoffs in the 2016-17 season, after having reached the Cup Final and the conference finals in the two seasons prior. That disappointment, and the recovery from it, is what we’re here to talk about, because it’s where Cooper sees a parallel between his team and the Islanders.
That year in Tampa, Steven Stamkos suffered a season-ending injury after just 17 games. Goaltender Ben Bishop didn’t play at all. Thirty-three players played 10 or more games.
