Jon Cooper is one of the most well spoken head coaches in the National Hockey League. He is also very good at his job as he has led the Tampa Bay Lightning to their third consecutive Stanley Cup Final. But that hasn't stopped him from singing the praises of the New York Rangers who they beat in 6 games in the Eastern Conference Final.
On Sunday, the NHL hosted a media day for the teams in the Stanley Cup Final. Jon Cooper was asked about his past series with the Rangers and gave head coach Gerard Gallant huge praise for the job he's doing.
Jon Cooper believes what he saw in the New York Rangers last series is a championship caliber team. One of the reasons the Lightning came up on top Cooper believes is because of the amount of games the Rangers played, versus how many the Lightning played. The Rangers were just coming off a seven game series with the Hurricanes, while the Lightning had just swept the Panthers in four. The playoffs are a war of attrition and the Rangers maybe just ran out of steam against Tampa Bay. Either way, Jon Cooper was very impressed at what he saw from them.