Is Cooper the best coach in the League?

[ThunderRoad]

I didn't say anyone could coach the Lightning. He's obviously a great coach.

Apologize, not you specifically, but others in the thread that Cooper basically just stands there and chews gum.

 

[Hockeyholic]

Apologize, not you specifically, but others in the thread that Cooper basically just stands there and chews gum.

I use to think he did nothing. Especially around April of 2019. I honestly thought they would never get over the hump with him as coach.

Obviously..he proved me wrong.

 

[Cenzo_]

You can think so. And I can think you're absolutely wrong.
If you honestly think Jon Cooper doesn't have any impact on his team's success then I believe that you don't understand the dynamics of good leadership in upper management and how much it impacts the organizational structure below them.

Tampa is a team full of talented individuals. Jon Cooper the coach has those individuals buying into his system and playing as a team. When he needs them to play disciplined defense he has them playing disciplined defense. When he wants to push the pace offensively he lets his big guns play. Very few coaches in the history of the NHL are capable of giving up control to their players and then getting it back shift by shift, game by game. It's one of Trotz's weaknesses for as much as people love the guy.

A good coach can take a team and make them 10% better.
A bad coach can take that same team and make them 30% worse. The same goes for management in any organization, sports or otherwise.

Jon Cooper makes his team better. Full stop.

Ok sure, but you kind of prove my point that its is hard to gage if he is the best coach in the league due to that team being so vastly superior to its peers. Tampa 10% worst probably still win the cup

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

Ok sure, but you kind of prove my point that its is hard to gage if he is the best coach in the league due to that team being so vastly superior to its peers. Tampa 10% worst probably still win the cup

Tampa 10% worse gets beat by NYI and goes to 7 against Carolina.
Tampa 30% worse gets bounced by Florida.

 

[Shinjuku Calling]

No.

 

[HockeyWooot]

Top tier for sure. Many of the TBL core came up together in the AHL under Cooper led teams.

A lot of the non-1st rounders who have developed into studs, can probably attribute some of their development to Coopers tutelage.

Everyone buys in. That club has a specific culture and Cooper seems to be a big part of that too.

 

[Future GOAT]

No, but he does coach an All Star caliber team. So that'll help.

 

[holy]

Back to back cups now and strong regular seasons

He looks like Michael Keaton sort of..

He looks like this guy:

 

[jetsforever]

No, the roster is loaded.
(I mean technically he could be but we can't say he is based on these wins)

 

[Bounces R Way]

He has definitely got an argument. A very good argument in fact. Trotz is no doubt a great coach but he didn't get out of the second round until his 19th season as a head coach. In his 9 seasons as the TBL head coach Cooper has 2x Conference Final and 3x Stanley Cup Final appearances, with two Cup wins. Going by resume alone Cooper's is easily much more impressive.

Sure the Lightning have a great team, for some reason this forum doesn't like to acknowledge Jon Cooper's role in molding that great team. He's been with a lot of these players their entire professional careers. Plenty of talented teams fall flat because they can't adapt, Cooper has coached the Lightning up to a standard that they can win any game, any time, using any strategy. Great teams have great coaches.

 

[skinmez]

"I just stand there and chewing bubble gum". His own words after the Stanley cup win so no, i don't think he is the best.

 

[CasusBelli]

Best is a tricky word. I’d say it’s a tie between him (master strategist) and Trotz (master tactician).

 

[Mach2]

At this point it time, it would be hard to convince me that Jon Cooper is not the best coach in the League. For certain, Cooper is the best coach for the Lightning. Their team of players, coaches, management, trainers, etc., have been working in successful harmony for several seasons. The playoffs also showed me that Coop is a smart tactician: he juggled the lineup and the lines (both pre-game and in-game) on numerous occasions and with game-winning success. I will add that during the Lightning vs Islanders games, there were several occasions where I thought Coach Trotz looked bewildered, which I did not expect to see.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

Well apparently he was the first coach to think of the genius idea of getting his top line away from Danault, so I guess.

 

[Goose]

I don’t really get how the average fan is able to evaluate coaching performance.

Myself included.

 

[ole ole]

Back to back cups now and strong regular seasons

He looks like Michael Keaton sort of..

All that team needed was anyone on the bench to yell out line change.

 

[Silencio]

If your yardstick for best coach in the league is Stanley Cup wins (and really how else are you supposed to objectively qualify this?) then Quenneville still holds the title.

 

[amnesiac]

Nope, Barry Trotz

 

[Channelcat]

Average

 

[Petey But Really Jim]

He up dere

 

[DFC]

Nope, Barry Trotz

Yeah, probably. I fear that man.

 

[elitepete]

Not even close

 

[BelovedIsles]

He’s a great coach in that he can bring together such immensely talented players to buy into a system where they can beat you 6-5 or 1-0. I think he’s improved over the past two seasons, emphasizing a defensive-minded system. He’s unified and motivated a bunch of all stars, not every coach can do that.

Trotz is a great coach as well. He works with what he has and extracts everything he can from a mostly blue collar roster. He also understands the game at an elite level. I listen to his postgames bc he’s mostly teaching in them. He has an uncanny ability to gel a locker room. Give Trotz more talent with NYI, he’ll win a few more Cups. My only flaw with Trotz is his short leash with youth, a few defensive lapses and you’re out.

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

He's top-10, but the Lightning are absolutely stacked. Hard time believing there aren't at least a handful of other coaches that couldn't have done what he's done.

Would have Trotz #1 by a fair margin.

 

[Headshot77]

I'll be honest, it's impossible to objectively evaluate coaches IMO. It isn't just about success with coaching it's about doing more with what you have than what others can do. That's why everyone says Trotz is the best because he took a middle of the road Islanders team and turned it into a cup contender. Cooper has been their coach since 2013 and they have been consistently great since then. He's also the longest tenured coach in the NHL.

I'm willing to say he's great because of this despite really having no way to actually evaluate him.