Whaaaaaaaaaat?
Cooper inherited a fairly stacked Norfolk team that was dabbling with the 8 seed in years prior, but needed a little more direction. To call the roster "inferior" is completely comical. Silly. Nonsense.
Furthermore, you're using a pretty weak argument in defense of Cooper, and in favor of firing Guy. Yes, I too can take a small sample size and say "well player X has played amazingly this year because of Cooper!", but it simply isn't true - its only a small cross-section of games which hardly establishes both the effort and talent level of the players.
I'm sure Cooper will fix everything. I mean, its not like Conacher hasn't fallen back to earth after his start, or is that Guys fault?[/QUOTE]
Be as blatantly patronizing as you want to be - to each his own. The comparison is between Montreal's prospect pool and the Lightning's prospect pool and the status of the two affiliates. Tampa's has improved quite a bit the last few years but certainly has never been a strongsuit of the organization and the reason the Lightning struggled for so many years. The Admirals missed the playoffs the first 3 seasons affiliated with Tampa (which they pretty much made the playoffs every year prior and Norfolk had its doubts when it came to being associated with Tampa) - did come close in 09-10 but Cooper has had the Lightning affiliate in the playoffs since he arrived behind the bench (the best ever for a Tampa affiliate has been under Cooper). IMO the Montreal prospect pool was better and deeper than Tampa's before the last couple drafts with those players now coming into the AHL ranks. What Norfolk did last season was impressive - never done before. Cooper has Syracuse in first place overall the following year so far.
In the NAHL, Cooper's teams won the championship 2 out of 5 years with a rather impressive overall W-L record. He completely turned around a franchise in the USHL (both as coach and GM) to win 2 GM of the year awards and 1 coach of the year award in the span of 2 years (the worst team in that league prior to him getting there and turning them into a championship team). Then he moved on to the Tampa organization.
He has more head coaching experience than Guy. And yes, am completely aware that experience has not been at the NHL level, however again, I think the risk with Cooper at NHL level is no more than Guy at NHL level and IMO the future with this team's young stars is much brighter under Cooper. The sample size is necessarily small for both men in the Tampa organization but that is what exists. Oftentimes in statistics, that is what you have to work with due to cost constraints and time. The quality of the data you have can give a small sample size power. The players that have worked under Cooper that have been called up have played well - are they complete finished products? Not at all, they are still young and learning. However, what they have shown in a small time frame has been impressive - the potential that is there, the little aspects of their game that seem mature for their age and experience level. The work ethic and improvement of this team's young players under Cooper is there - that at least is fact. Definitely excited to see how this translates for Connolly after having been coached by Cooper. As for Conacher, he's playing just fine - it's not always what translates to points and I will believe that Cooper had a positive influence on Conacher that helped with his transition to the NHL game (as well as Cory's own work ethic and skill). There are many examples of players flourishing on teams coached by Cooper, including Barberio.
And yes it is possible that Guy is not as effective as a communicator/strategist as Jon, especially when it comes to handling these younger players. It is possible you see a more physical game played under Cooper's instruction than what isn't there under Guy's guidance (IMO Aulie is an example). It is possible this current Lightning team could benefit from Cooper. Guarantee? No - but this is sports where nothing ever is and where the shelf life and tolerances are shorter.
Would like to hear some actual explanations for why Cooper is a bigger risk than Boucher? Could exchanging the two be a complete wash? Maybe, although IMO that is unlikely due to the fact Yzerman has said he wanted to build this team through drafted players and yes, there is evidence they are flourishing under Cooper. Would the Lightning be worse? See absolutely no reason for this. Consequently, yes, bringing Cooper up just might be a turning point. In a perfect world, you can have both gentlemen working together behind the Tampa bench - unfortunately don't see that happening due to the opportunities Cooper will see.
There is a reason he is/will be highly sought after for head coaching jobs - and yes, IMO, he has a much sturdier, notable track record than Boucher when he was offered the Lightning coaching job.