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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINAL: LIGHTNING v PENGUINS

May 22, 2016

Jon Cooper

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Game Five

Q. Jon, with all the injuries that you guys had and now the Penguins are starting to get some injuries, can a team win a Stanley Cup using fewer than 24, 25, 26, 27 players?
COACH COOPER: I don't know. We haven't won a Stanley Cup, so I haven't been in that situation. Over the years, regardless of what happened, everybody -- at some point teams get hurt, and that's where your depth comes into play, and you have to overcome them somehow.
We probably had an unusual rash that started just before the playoffs, and maybe -- I guess, if we were going to have the injuries, maybe it was best that they happened then so we could mentally know that -- what we were going to be up against.
But when you play this high intensity, competitive hockey, it's inevitable that guys are going to get hurt, and you have to work your way through it.

Q. Speaking of injuries, Ben Bishop was saying today how much he wants to get back, but he doesn't want to come back unless he's completely ready or can do everything. (Indiscernible) in the Finals, too. How much is that trust between you and him, knowing it's in a doctor's hands and how he's feeling and knowing when he's actually ready?
COACH COOPER: Well, you have to trust the player, but I think we've got a pretty good relationship with all of our guys, and ultimately, it's up to them.
The one thing I do know is every one of those guys in that locker room is an intense competitor, and they want nothing more than to get out and play, and Ben's a big part of why we're here.
You know, talking about injuries, unfortunately, they happen, and Vasi's had to come in and do an unreal job for us to keep us here at 2-2. But when Ben is ready to come back, he'll probably push himself back before he's able to, and that's just the way he is.

Q. Jon, what's the challenge for you and your assistants when you're involved in a series where teams can be opportunistic and they have the talent to turn a game within a five-minute stretch, no matter how well you're playing?
COACH COOPER: Well, that's Pittsburgh. You can play extremely well, but they just have -- most good teams have them, the player that can make something out of nothing. They have a few of those guys. No need for me to go in and point them out. I think we all know who they are.
But that's why they're all-stars, and that's why they're eventually going to be Hall of Famers is because, when you have that ability to create something when all looks lost, it's scary to defend against. So you just have to make it uncomfortable for them to do that and try and limit those opportunities to happen. But I don't think you can ever really stop them. Talent is talent.

Q. Jon, if I can follow up on Tom's excellent question, when you lose players like Steven Stamkos and Ben Bishop --
COACH COOPER: Tom and "excellent" don't usually go together.

Q. I think you're being hard on him.
COACH COOPER: 82 games I have to deal with him.

Q. What clues does your team give you when you lose top players like that in Steven Stamkos, that they're going to be okay, that they aren't going to feel sorry for themselves or wonder if they can get the job done? Like, what signals do you get that, you know what, we're going to be okay?
COACH COOPER: I don't know if -- see, right now, it's -- I don't know how to explain this. I think back when Stammer got hurt in Boston that day and our reaction to that, when there was literally for 24 hours, oh, my gosh, our season might be over here. Then basically, we had to turn the page on that.
And I think about when Ben Bishop got hurt in Toronto, or against Toronto, and then we went to the playoffs without him. I think when the reality sets in that this could happen, and you look how that playoff went for us, I think we all looked in the mirror and said, injuries happen. So when they do happen, are we going to stick our tail between our legs, or are we going to understand that somebody's going to step up and we can't feel sorry for ourselves.
I think with some of those situations that you go through and you deal with them then, when they happen again, they just don't seem to matter as much. I don't want to underscore this and say, oh, we didn't have Stralman, and we didn't have Stamkos, and we didn't have Bishop -- we don't want that, but if it does happen, we have to move forward. If you can't do that, then you're not going to last very long.

Q. Going back to 11 (indiscernible) 7 men in Game 4, you've used that quite a bit. Is there something you just like about that or maybe a by-product of what you're dealing with?
COACH COOPER: I've done this before. It's not new. I did it in the minors all the time. I just -- there's so many different reasons why it can be a matchup problem. Sometimes it's maybe you can use your 7th defenseman more than your 12th forward.
For instance, Anton Stralman is just coming back. So if he's not able to play the minutes he did before, maybe we need to have another defenseman in there, and I can go through a laundry list of reasons.
But our guys are comfortable with it. Sometimes you have an ability to get some of your better players out there more in those cases, and I just like having the extra defenseman at the disposal, especially in the day and age of the TV time-outs and how many breaks there are in between with all those built-in mini rests in there, and having a certain arsenal -- or a lot of times it's been 11 and 7, and for the most part, it's worked out pretty well for us.

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