Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper in a press conference.
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Jon Cooper blasts the NHL on inconsistent video review calls

Published April 30, 2024 at 9:06
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The Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper blasted the NHL about the inconsistent video review calls after his team got eliminated by the Florida Panthers.

The Panthers joined the Rangers as the only teams to have clinched their ticket for the second round. However, they got a little help from the referees and the NHL.

Jon Cooper and the Bolts ended up losing 6-1, with the Panthers scoring twice in an empty net, but it could've been completely different. The referees overturned two goals scored by the Lightning based on goaltender interference.

In case you missed it, you can watch both goals in the video below:



Following the disappointing loss, Cooper addressed the situation in his post-game comments. He believes the League protects the goaltenders too much, and that calls are too much inconsistent.

He delivered a passionate speech to explain his opinion. Here's what he said:

"If anybody's going to talk about this game, they're going to talk about the goals that were taken away. And in this league, where goals are at a premium and how we've, all we've done is make the rules for more goal scoring. That's what we've done. And every year there seems to be something we tweak so more goals can be scored.

And that's great, but, you know, there are mandates, and the words were to pull a goal off the board, it has to be unbelievably egregious. That's the standard to pull a goal off the board. Well, the first one's on the board, and I couldn't find anything remotely egregious about that. It's really tough.

Forsling is holding on like it's a full penalty. He's holding on to Duclair. So he's trying to yank, he's trying to get his balance. It really does affect nothing. Bob misses the puck and it's a net-front battle and it's in the net. That's just the part for me.

And then, so now we have to rebound from that. We do. And then the next one is a net-front battle. And I will give the goalie credit. He quit on the play. He completely quit. Didn't see it, didn't whatever, and then flailed.

And there was, I mean, maybe incidental contact at most, and then, but now we have to challenge it because they took it. They saw the reaction of the goaltender, and Bob's doing the right, you know, he duped him and so be it. But now we have to make that challenge.

And again, it's well, then is there. Net-front battles aren't allowed anymore, and that's part of everybody's game. It's the boxing out that goes there. It's prison rules in the playoffs, but it's not prison rules for the goalie. The second something happens, you know, we might as well put skirts on them then, if that's how it's going to be. I mean, they have to battle through stuff, too. And when the players are working so hard on both teams, and it's

I said, it's a war down there, I think we're letting the goalies off the hook, and they've got way more pads on than everybody else does. So, you know, the egregious part, I couldn't see it. And so now we go into the third period, and this conversation is going down if we'd won six one. But we're going into the third period now, down one where maybe we're up one or maybe it's tied and it's a different game.

And, I'll give our guys credit. We had some looks, you know, in the third to tie it, and we don't. And then we kind of shot ourselves in the foot on the fourth one by, you know, how we played that. But again, give Florida credit. They weathered that little storm we had, but it's the circumstance we were put in that I felt.

Again, this is just my opinion, I felt was, you know, a little unfair. And I just the spirit of the rule of, especially in the playoffs, come on, how do you let those slide? Does this by any means? We were gonna say we're gonna win the series. It does not. But would it have changed a lot of the momentum of this game and the way things had gone? I think so. So I'm not sitting up here,
again, this conversation probably that has to, you know, going on in my head.
but Florida won the series. I mean, this is. They won the series four one. It wasn't four three. And this was the game deciding. So they did a lot of work before this to put themselves in a situation, and they beat us."


Cooper showed that he's a great leader with a lot of sportsmanship. It's definitely a tough moment for the Lightning, espiecially considering Steven Stamkos possibly played his last game in the Bolts' uniform.

Do you agree with Lightning's head coach Jon Cooper about the NHL's inconsistent video reviews?

Source: Daily Hockey Dose - Jon Cooper slams officials on inconsistent goalie interference calls
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April 30   |   239 answers
Jon Cooper blasts the NHL on inconsistent video review calls

Do you agree with Lightning's head coach Jon Cooper about the NHL's inconsistent video reviews?

Yes21188.3 %
No2811.7 %
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