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The Tampa Bay Lightning crashed out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Tuesday, April 30, at the hands of the Florida Panthers after falling 4-1 in their first-round matchup.
Lightning head coach Jon Cooper wasn’t happy with the two disallowed goals that made it impossible for his team to mount a comeback and force Game 6, but his choice of words to voice his frustration had him under heavy fire.
“Are net front battles not allowed anymore?” Jon Cooper pondered in his April 30 press conference. “That’s a part of everybody’s game, the boxing out that goes on there, it’s like prison rules in the playoffs but it’s not prison rules for the goalie?” he continued.
“Like, the second something happens, we might as well put skirts on [the goalies] then if that’s how that’s gonna be. … I think we’re letting the goalies off the hook,” Cooper said.
Cooper’s comments crossed a line with some fans and media members across the NHL and put the coach in a dubious position.
“I wonder what the players on women’s hockey teams think of that comment,” one fan responded.
“Put skirts on them? Wow, that’s some kind of misogyny. Coach, you should be better. Gross,” another fan wrote.
Jon Cooper Issues Apology at the Start of Exit Interview
Considering the rise of the Professional Women’s Hockey League in such a short time after being founded in 2023, it’s surprising to find a seasoned coach like Cooper talking about hockey and women in an underlying tone of inferiority directed toward women within the sport.
Cooper, however, realized his mistake and opened his exit interview on Wednesday, May 1 issuing an apology to those who might have felt offended by his initial statement.
“As you know, we had a pretty disappointing series loss the other night and I made an inappropriate analogy about goalies in skirts,” Cooper told reporters on May 1. “That’s one of those moments, if you could just reach back and grab the words back, I would have.”
Cooper said he is a fan and that he supports women’s hockey and admitted to being “wrong” with the words he choice to criticize the officiating in Game 5 of the first-round series and the two disallowed goals.
“As a father of two (girls), especially a massive supporter of women’s hockey and girls who play sports. Quite frankly, it was wrong,” Cooper said. “I sincerely apologize to all I offended. It has pained me more than the actual series loss itself.”
The Sportsnet analysts weighed in on the second disallowed goal on April 30, agreeing with coach Cooper that the league might have gone too far to protect goalies in tight actions happening inside and around the crease.
The Lightning racked up 98 points through the regular season finishing that portion of the year in fourth place in the Atlantic Division. They, however, couldn’t deal with an overwhelmingly superior Panthers franchise that ended Tampa Bay’s season in five games beating them 4-1 in the first round of the playoffs.
Lightning Facing Crucial Decision on Steven Stamkos’ Future
With coach Cooper’s apology issued and heard, the next biggest storyline in Tampa Bay entering the offseason is whether or not the franchise will offer franchise icon and veteran captain Steven Stamkos a contract extension.
Stamkos will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 and the franchise is expected to try and convince him to sign a new contract before that date, according to Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois.
“Obviously, Steven Stamkos needs a contract, and we want him to be part of [our] group,” GM BriseBois told reporters during his exit interview on May 1. “It’s obviously a priority to see if we can get [the contract extension] done.”
Asked if there is any doubt in his mind that he can re-sign Stamkos, Briseboys simply said, “I’m very hopeful.”
Stamkos finished the 2023-24 regular season scoring 40 goals and assisting 41 for 81 points in 79 games. He also scored 11 points in the playoffs through Game 5, including 5 goals and 6 assists. He’s been with the team since the Lightning drafted him with the No. 1 pick of the 2008 NHL draft.
Since joining Tampa Bay, Stamkos has led the franchise to four Stanley Cup Finals winning the championship in 2020 and 2021 and falling short of it in 2015 (against the Chicago Blackhawks) and 2022 (against the Colorado Avalanche).
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