Reigning champion Tampa Bay rumbled whatever he could, but eventually broke off in Colorado’s handling in a mute manner. On Friday in Denver, Tampa will be subjected to Cooper’s test, which it has not yet experienced with the current group, writes Sport’s NHL journalist Tommi Seppälä.
10: 01 • Updated 10:07 AM
TAMPA. Holy guns, what hockey was played in Tampa on Thursday!
When it comes to NHL hockey standards, the bar had been raised to near-record highs in the fourth final of the Stanley Cup. The teams rushed to go close, accurate, and physical hockey for nearly four innings before Colorado Nazem Kadri hit the match package.
The battle in the trough was incredibly fierce throughout the evening. Tampa in particular had to rip literally everything out of his grated plane. Tampa, who played in the tube finals for the third time, blocked 34 shots, stubbornly defended the center, deprived and grabbed, but eventually the gas light came on and the team could not get into the tank.
Tampa, like the third match, was missing the first center Brayden Pointin addition to which a Russian star Nikita Kutsherov is thought to be playing with some form of injury. There are also a couple of other people in the ranks of Tampa who are playing with ailments and there were more wounded people on Thursday. In the middle of the game the locker room left Anthony Cirelli mixed Erik Cernak. The latter skipped the game.
Tampa’s struggle against a seemingly inevitable fate is inspiring and appreciable in every way.
Colorado, on the other hand, does not feel mercy. Avalanche’s need for achievement is at an incomprehensible level, and it didn’t go too far to celebrate the latest victory. Just a few minutes after the end of the match, the players’ expressions in front of the media were already focused on serious. Mikko Rantanen stated to the undersigned that the victory will be celebrated for three minutes.
After that, the gaze turns to the fifth final.
Jon Cooper knows how to play media
This determination, along with Colorado’s distinctly fresher look, does not bode well for Tampa.
This was also seen by the head coach Jon Cooperwho put up quite a performance in the press room after the match.
Speaking with distracted eyes, Cooper said he answered only one question, during which he stated that Colorado’s winning goal should not have been accepted. However, he did not say the reason before leaving. Presumably, Cooper pointed out that Colorado had six players on the ice at the time the goal was scored.
He didn’t mention that Tampa also had too many players on the field just before the goal was scored.
The classic Cooper test for both Tampa players and referees is on hand.
Lawyer Cooper saw his own team break up, so something special had to be invented. Cooper is a great performer and a psychologically intelligent coach who knows how to send messages through the media in different directions.
Cooper was unwilling to publicly snatch his team’s breakup. I think Cooper was genuinely moved by his team’s incomprehensibly tough fight and stinging defeat, but in the face of the media, he was already playing the fifth final. Attention out of the break of your own team and a message to the referees.
Cooper knows he’s in the lower nail, so even the most desperate means are available. Cooper has been in constant conversation with the referees and the emotional speech after the game was part of this game: Colorado has run a whopping 50 percent superiority game in the final series, so Tampa, who is in pain with his underpower game, needs every whistle – or no whistling.
Tampa’s coaching staff himself knows that nothing can be done for the paint struck in the books, and Tampa cannot lie down with it. Cooper is also way too smart to do that. When he plays in front of the media tomorrow, his eyes have already been turned tightly to the next match and the message has been conveyed to both his own team and the striped shirts.
However, it may be that the lawyer’s latest rapture doesn’t help either, as tired and broken the team at Tampa is right now.
However, the same breath must be reminded once again that Tampa, who has experienced and won everything and is brilliantly trained, can never be counted out until the last buzzer has struck.