Jon Cooper sounded frustrated. But he also sounded defeated.
Like someone who had lost control of a situation and had given up trying to get it back.
The Tampa Bay Lightning had just lost 4-2 to the Florida Panthers on Monday night, putting them down 3-1 in a best-of-seven series. But the Lightning coach’s reaction had less to do with the score and more to do with another on-ice incident that is becoming far too common in a series where we’ve seen more instances of star players getting hurt — than showing off their skill.
In Game 2, Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel was suspended for a game after delivering a late hit to an unsuspecting Florida’s Aleksander Barkov.
In Game 2, Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk was ejected after doing something similar to Tampa Bay’s Jake Guentzel.
In Game 4, Hagel then received payback for his hit on Barkov, with Aaron Ekblad delivering a forearm to the face of Hagel, who left the game after smacking the back of his head against the ice.
In Game 5, what do we expect?
Rinse. Wash. Repeat.
“It’s getting tiresome answering questions about a hit every single game,” said Cooper, who asked reporters what they thought about the hit. “If anybody in here has something, stand up and let me know. Alright, let’s move on.”
Adding insult to injury was that Ekblad scored the goal that tied the game 3-3 in the third period. Eleven seconds later, Seth Jones scored the game-winner, putting the Lightning one loss away from being eliminated.
“I want to be consistent with what I’ve said,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice told reporters. “On the Hagel (hit), I saw it. I’ve seen it before. Saw it last year. We’ll all coach, the players will play, the refs will make the calls, and the league will do what they will. I just want to be — I don’t want to use this platform to start making my case on this. Everybody’s got a job to do. I’ll stay in my lane.”
In other words, it crossed a line. And it wasn’t the first time.
We all love the physicality of the playoffs. What makes hockey so unlike other sports is that the playoffs are so different than the regular season. It can sometimes be like watching a different sport. There’s a different standard.
You can say that there’s a different standard of officiating. But the bigger issue is that there is a different standard of hatred.
Teams are not just trying to win. At times, it seems like they are also trying to hurt. Or injure.
We’re obviously seeing that in the Battle of Florida, which features some of the roughest players in the league. But we’re seeing it everywhere.
In the Battle of Ontario, Ottawa’s Artem Zub somehow got away with a headshot on Toronto’s John Tavares that prevented the former Leafs captain from being on the ice in overtime in Game 4. The following night, Habs fans were freeze-framing Washington’s Tom Wilson’s massive hit on Montreal’s Alexandre Carrier to see if it was a headshot or not.
Even the coaches are getting in on the action, with Maurice and Cooper taking turns chirping each other in their post-game news conferences.
After the Hagel hit in Game 2, Maurice told reporters: “The only players we hit are the ones that have pucks.”
After Tkachuk hit Guentzel in Game 3, Cooper trolled Maurice by repeating the line: “The only players we hit are the ones with pucks.”
To the refs’ credit, they are calling penalties. And to the league’s credit, they are doling out suspensions and fines. And yet, it’s not really changing anything.
At some point, the players have to police themselves.
Playoffs or not, they can’t go around injuring one another and then offering supplemental retribution in the following game. If they do, no one will be left standing by the end of the first round — much less the Stanley Cup final six weeks from now.
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