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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINAL: LIGHTNING v PENGUINS

May 14, 2016

Jon Cooper

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Practice Day

THE MODERATOR: We will start with questions immediately.

Q. Sounds like you got some good news on Ben Bishop. Official update on his status?
COACH COOPER: Actually, I feel really bad saying all this, but everybody's indefinite until I'm told they can play.
Everything has been really good so far on Ben. Much better news than the scene we saw, what happened when he was carted off. Still, as far as any playing plans, I have no answer yet.

Q. I was wondering if you could describe maybe what you saw after Ben left the game. How important the rest of the team's demeanor was?
COACH COOPER: I talked about this a little bit last night. Regardless of who it is on your team, when the stretcher comes out on the ice, I think there's a natural concern when that happens. I think also the game kind of goes from a game to, Oh, my gosh, this is serious.
So I think there was a moment there where there was probably concern on everybody's part.
The break ended up being a little bit longer than any of us anticipated. A big reason for why we've gotten to where we are in this playoff season is because of the demeanor and calmness on our bench.
Can I sit here and say two years ago when Ben went down against Toronto that we had the same attitude? Probably not. But this year, they're a team. Nobody wanted to see this happen to Ben at all.
There was a calm among everybody that, Hey, we can do this. There was complete confidence in Vasilevskiy in the sense that, I don't know if there was a concern, it was about Ben's health. It was never about, Oh, my gosh, this game's in doubt. As I said earlier, this is a big reason why we've pushed forward to where we are right now.

Q. The fact that Ben may not be able to play, is this injury a galvanizing situation for this team? Would you say it tightened perhaps the mantra in your scope of thinking, how you want to approach the playoffs moving forward?
COACH COOPER: I'm just going to answer this. This has kind of been the story of our whole season. Whether it was Anton going down late in the year, Steven Stamkos going down after that, even J.T. Brown in the Detroit series, we had Matt go down. I think we've had, gosh, nine or ten different defensemen play in this playoff season.
Probably with all the injuries that have happened to us so far, I guess you can sit here and say major contributors to our team, our players unwavered. Obviously that's a great sign for us.
We just hope this is the end and, you know, we're able to get all these guys back because you've heard me talk many times before, let's not let this be Stralman's last game, Stamkos, Brown, Bishop, all these guys. If we're going out, we're all going out together. Keep hanging around.
Our boys are pretty driven.

Q. The way that the guys are pushing forward regardless of what happened, I know you probably don't want to pat yourself on the back, is that a reflection on you and do you think your players have adopted your personality?
COACH COOPER: That's a question you probably have to ask the players. I think the one thing they've all adopted, and I think this is from going through what we went through last year, is what it takes to get here.
You think about seven exhibition games, the 82 regular‑season games, now we've played a lot in playoff games, you add that on to what we played last year, it's just being in these situations before. How we dealt with them, how you deal with just all the unknown circumstances that can happen.
I think our guys, they've passed every test. Unfortunately we fell two wins short last year. But I think just those experiences have joined our team a little closer together. It's really gratifying to watch these guys go. I feel fortunate that I'm their coach.

Q. It would seem that there's tendencies for younger players to make impacts in this league, maybe not goaltenders. What have you seen from the 21‑year‑olds on this stage last night?
COACH COOPER: For a 21‑year‑old, actually I could throw Vasilevskiy in that conversation, too. They've seen a lot of playoff time in the short tenure of their time on our team.
In the broad scope of things, just in my short time, I've only been in the league three years, I've watched just the age of the entire league go down. It's really kind of turned into a young man's league. You're watching this more often now.
I don't think we're the only team. You look across the way, they've got a fantastic goalie in Matt Murray playing there. It's not uncommon now that young guys are getting more of a chance to perform and excel, but it's more accepted, where I think it was probably not as much in the past.
Also the players these days, it just seems they're bigger, stronger, faster, better in so many different ways. I don't know. It's a tribute to these kids coming up.
Coaches are either giving guys a chance or they're being trusted in situations where they have to come in like they did last night and they're performing well. It just goes to show the talent of these players coming up.

Q. A lot of people in Pittsburgh considered Ryan Callahan's hit a little excessive. He's not going to have a hearing.
COACH COOPER: What was the question? I'm sorry.

Q. Ryan Callahan, people thought perhaps he might receive a suspension from the hit he put on Letang last night. The information we received, there will be no hearing, therefore no suspension for Callahan. Is that a calming influence regarding everything else that happened in the game last night?
COACH COOPER: Obviously Ryan is an integral part of our team. In the absence of our captain being able to play for us, there's guys that have had to step up in that department. Stepping up in that department is Ryan Callahan. You talk about some of the successes we've had, Ryan Callahan may not show up on the score sheet every night, but he shows up on the game sheet in the room every night.
He's a leader. There's a reason why he was captain of the New York Rangers, why they've had success there, and why we've had success in the two years he's been here.
He's a guy that there's a reason we signed him to a long‑term deal, because to push us forward, we needed more of the Ryan Callahan type.
So having him still be with us is big.

Q. Do you believe the speed of your team matches their blue‑collar work ethic?
COACH COOPER: Do I believe our skill matches?

Q. Do you believe the skill and speed of your team matches the grit and blue‑collar nature of your team when it comes to the perception of who the Lightning are?
COACH COOPER: To be honest, I suppose. I think when you get as far as we are this year, probably came on a little bit last year, I suppose a little bit can account for that.
I think with any team, do we have an identity, I guess, as a skill, speed team? Yes. But I think if you open up the stats page, you're going to see the Tampa Bay Lightning as a penalty leader in the playoffs. It's something we're not proud of, but it's kind of a way we've had to play to get things done, adapt to different scenarios, circumstances, situations in games. We've had to really grind some things out, especially I think the Detroit series set the tone for how we had to, I guess, move on, to proceed, is to match another team's I guess toughness against us.
I think we were fortunate to be able to do that. That just carried on in the Islanders series.
Do I see this series going the same way? I can't sit here and say that's for sure. But we have been a little battle‑tested in the ways we've tried to win games.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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