Jon Cooper acknowledged this isn't a position the Tampa Bay Lightning are accustomed to following an overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 6 of their first-round playoff series that ended the Bolts' season Saturday.
"Listen, this team hasn't lost a playoff series in the Eastern Conference since 2019. It's 2023," the Lightning head coach said postgame. "We're not used to this feeling. (When) you sit here and do this press conference 10 minutes after the game ended, it's ... I can't even think of the word, but it just doesn't feel good."
The Lightning reached the Stanley Cup Final last season before the Colorado Avalanche bested them in six games. Tampa Bay was coming off back-to-back championships in 2020 and 2021. The Bolts also made the final round in 2015 - losing to the Chicago Blackhawks - and got to the Eastern Conference Final before bowing out in 2011, 2016, and 2018.
"There's 31 other teams in the league that would love to have our history here. ... That's why this is difficult because usually we're on the other side of this press conference, and I'm (talking) second as the winning coach," Cooper said. "So at some point, you're not going to (catch a) break. It's just the way it is ... and for a team (like the Maple Leafs) that has really struggled in the playoffs, at some point, they were going to get a break. It just sucks it was (in) the series against us."
Cooper lauded his team's effort but lamented its failure to win on home ice in the series.
"I'm not going to get into a debate about who's the better team. They beat us four games to two, so statistics say they were the better team than us," he said. "But do I sit here and think we could have really done anything different to change the tide? No.
"We played well enough to win the series. I think anybody that watched the series would agree with that. But you can't lose three overtime games at home. If you're not going to win a home game, it's really tough to win a series."
He continued, "That's why I give (the Maple Leafs) credit. Even when they were being leaned on by us, they were opportunistic. They capitalized on plays they had to, and when it (was) our turn for that to happen, we couldn't capitalize."
The third-place Lightning finished the regular season 13 points behind the second-place Leafs in the Atlantic Division.
