MontréalDetailed Forecast Subscribe Subscriber Services ePaper canada. Photograph by: Alex Brandon , THE ASSOCIATED PRESSMONTREAL — If Jon Cooper didn’t exist, John Grisham would have to invent him. Maybe he did. The former lawyer has an easy manner, a fresh face, the ability to talk with ease and purpose and a little good humour. His Tampa Bay Lightning are down 2-0 to the Montreal Canadiens in their first-round playoff series, with Game 3 Sunday night in Montreal. And the first-year NHL head coach is treating it like a pleasant day in court, with a jury that can yet be swayed. “Everyone thinks we’re supposed to lose,” said Cooper after Tampa’s morning skate. “Now I’m hearing done, be on the golf course by Wednesday, I’ve heard it all. “But at some point they’re going to have to do that in front of their fans, try and knock us out. I’m sure they’ve never had a 2-0 lead on the road and come back and blown it. Montreal did just that in 2011 against Boston, of course, and against Carolina in 2006. It was a lovely dig, breezily delivered, with a bit of a wink. This wasn’t Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri telling an adoring crowd in Toronto, “F--- Brooklyn,” before Game 1 of their playoff series. But it was a coach who wasn’t afraid to be a little playful, which hockey could use more of. “If you really look at the whole season of what’s gone on here, I don’t think there’s one person in this room if they were picking who would make the playoffs this year in our division was picking the Tampa Bay Lightning to go anywhere,” said Cooper, a 46-year-old, who was born in Prince George, B.C., and played some high school hockey in Saskatchewan. “We were like a hot pick for number six, maybe a little bit number seven in our division. Those guys in there ended up coming second. Then we get to the playoffs and everybody picked — I think we had 40 pollsters we went through, and I think 35 of the 40 picked the Montreal Canadiens to beat us. So it doesn’t matter how well we play, we were still not picked to do anything. “I’m sure injuries probably helped structure why people chose us to not win the series. We get home ice and don’t deliver the way clearly we wanted to. Cooper is a great explainer, and it’s one of his strengths as a coach. He got here by coaching kids while he was practicing law in Lansing, Mich. He eventually quit law to coach in Texarkana, Texas, and worked his way to the NHL. Tampa survived Steven Stamkos’s broken leg and Martin St. Louis’s thunderous mood to post a 101-point season, and Cooper has been their steady man at the helm, with rookies everywhere and constant turbulence. The injuries have continued, with starting goaltender Ben Bishop and super-rookie Ondrej Palat hurt. Palat, injured in Game 1, was a game-time decision for Game 3. When Montreal counterpart Michel Therrien speaks, you can almost see him forming the sentences in his head, and erasing anything that could be too interesting, in either language. He is under pressure because he is Montreal’s head coach. Sometimes he lets something slip — like Sunday, when he told reporters, “We know where Palat is hurt. We have to play physical against him, and take away his time and space.” It wasn’t quite menacing, but Therrien’s been a bully for a long time. Cooper, meanwhile, is still at ease, and pretty honest for both a lawyer and a hockey coach. He was pressed, a little later, on whether the pressure was really on Montreal. He smiled.“Well, there’s only pressure because two games doesn’t win you a series,” Cooper said. “But let’s be a realist here. They’re up two games to zero. I would like to be up two games to zero. I think in that situation, they’re in a better spot than we are. I’d rather be up 2-0 than down 2-0.”He may be booed Sunday night, but it’s not like Cooper doesn’t like Montreal, for the record. It’s all an opportunity.“I’ll tell you one thing about being in Montreal, and I think I said this in Tampa, as a fan and as a coach in the league, there’s something about coming to Montreal and being in this arena — from the presentation before the game to when you’re on the ice to the atmosphere, they hit a home run,” Cooper said.“I’m sure it’s a treasure to play here because the fans are extremely passionate: they cheer, they have chants, they understand the game, and as a visitor it’s really cool to be a part of that.“I’ve really enjoyed it. We played an American League game here during the lockout and there was 18,000 fans here and it was just a ton of fun. I’ve been fortunate to play a few regular-season games here and we’ve just really have enjoyed it. I personally have really enjoyed the atmosphere. You try to sit here and say, `Is this a hostile environment?’ I’m sure it is, but I don’t like to look at it that way.“I like to look at it like it’s a great hockey environment and embrace this because there’s a lot of storied history that’s been in this building and we can actually be a part of this history. We are a part of this history. Now we can be a part of history that’s really not talked about so much, or we can be a part of history that’s really talked about. And let’s have fun with that. « Previous 1 2 View as one page Next »© Copyright (c) Postmedia Network Inc. 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