‘A wild journey’: Coach Jon Cooper hits 1,000 NHL video games with Lightning

Zettler: ‘He has that gift’

Not lengthy after giving a presentation at an NHL teaching clinic whereas he was between jobs in 2012, longtime coach Rob Zettler’s cellphone rang.

A younger Cooper wished to know if the skilled NHL assistant coach had any curiosity in becoming a member of his American Hockey League teaching workers for the Syracuse Crunch.

Zettler checked in with some references, realized extra concerning the alternative in Syracuse and bought to know Cooper higher. He rapidly realized he was becoming a member of Cooper’s teaching workers.

“It was an absolute no-brainer for a number of reasons,” Zettler mentioned. “One, because of what he’d been able to do on his climb up the ladder, but also where he was going. I wanted to work with someone young, fresh, with a new perspective on how he sees the game and how he sees how to handle players. It was probably the best move I’ve ever made in hockey for opportunity, for relationships, for just coming to work every day and enjoying what I do on the daily.”

Zettler, who has frolicked with Cooper each in Syracuse and with the Lightning, might inform instantly that his new colleague carried an consideration to element that separates him from the gang.

“I’d been coaching for a while already, but when I saw the detail in his approach to the game, the structure on the ice, the detail in the meetings, the presentation in the meetings, that really was like, okay, this is different,” Zettler remembers. “Coaching in the NHL, we had detail, but not that kind of detail. I don’t think there was a lot of coaches that brought that kind of detail. I think it’s changing now, but he kind of led the way in that area.”

Tampa Bay’s chief has a profession document of 594-319-86 for a .595 profession profitable share that’s the highest among the many top-50 winningest coaches in league historical past.

“That’s what keeps you at 1,000 games,” Zettler mentioned of Cooper’s capacity to win. “Every year there’s a window there for us to win a championship, and there’s all kinds of factors that go into it, for sure, but he’s a major factor.”

Zettler applauded Team Canada’s 2026 Olympics head coach for his capacity to interrupt down and simplify difficult hockey ideas for his gamers. Part of the rationale a coach reaches 1,000 video games is their capacity to work with others, and Cooper is without doubt one of the finest at that, in keeping with his longtime assistant coach and buddy.

“I keep coming back to the relationship part of it. It’s the relationship with players, the relationship with staff, and the relationship with people above you. The general managers, presidents, all of it. And I think he checks the box on all of those,” Zettler mentioned. “And I don’t think you last that long unless you have a strong relationship in all of those areas. There’s hard times in hockey, there’s emotional times in hockey. There’s times when you win, and there’s times when you lose, and to be able to navigate through those situations and come out on top in a lot of them is a testament.”

The finest instance of that’s Zettler’s key reminiscence of Cooper from all of their years collectively. It isn’t a Stanley Cup win or a joke from the coach’s room. It’s a second of humanity.

During coaching camp two years in the past, the group was getting on the bus, and there was a participant sitting alone who was by no means going to play for the Lightning.

Cooper bought on the bus, walked previous everyone else earlier than sitting beside them and interesting in a 15-minute dialog for the complete bus journey. Those are the moments that separate Cooper within the eyes of these round him.

“Coop’s NHL pedigree was already in place, and he’s spending that kind of time with somebody that was never going to play for him. Coop gives the gift of time to a lot of people, especially to his players,” Zettler mentioned. “And I think they see that, and they realize that, and it’s a gift. It really is, because a lot of people will find their way out of a conversation or find their way to rush through a conversation. He just doesn’t do that. He has the ability to kind of pull you and show you that he cares.”