Jon Cooper was less than impressed after a 6-2 shellacking to the Boston Bruins in their second-round series opener on Saturday.
Following the loss, the Tampa Bay Lightning coach opted for a tough practice Sunday, putting his players through a series of intense drills.
The Lightning are spending a lot of time on breakout drills today. Jon Cooper is very vocal, barking orders, making them run it again if they mess it up, screaming “Execute boys, execute.” Lots of coaching going on here in an off day practice in the playoffs. Pressure on.
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) April 29, 2018
And the pace to this Lightning practice is really high. It’s non-stop, focused and really fast. You can tell that losing 6-2 pissed them off.
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) April 29, 2018
This practice has a training camp feel to it. I almost expect the Zamboni to come out to resurface for part 2 of this practice. I would be shocked if that happened but it has that feel.
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) April 29, 2018
While the practice may have been difficult, Cooper's words following the workout were even harsher.
"I bet you all five games in the Jersey series we had more intensity than we had in Game 1 last night," Cooper said, per Joe Smith of The Athletic. "And that's just not going to get it done."
The agitated bench boss particularly felt his team put up little resistance against the Bruins' dominant top line of Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak, and Brad Marchand.
Jon Cooper on how the Bergeron line probably felt vs. his players: “Oh man, can’t wait to play those guys again.”
— Fluto Shinzawa (@FlutoShinzawa) April 29, 2018
Clearly, Cooper is hoping for a better showing when the two sides meet for Game 2 on Monday.
