Cooper: Penalty ‘stupidity’ cost Lightning in Game 1 loss

tampa bay lightning Coach John Cooper said there was a lot of “stupidity” in the penalties his team took. 4-3 Disadvantages of overtime for visiting montreal canadiens in Game 1 on Sunday.

canadiens winger Juraj Slafkowski Completed a hat trick just 1:22 minutes into overtime to lift Montreal. All three of his goals came on the power play, during which the Canadiens went 3 of 5.

After the loss, Cooper said, “We had a problem. We took four offensive-zone penalties. Just look at them. It’s not over-aggression; it was stupidity for a lot of them. That was on us.”

This also included a high-sticking penalty on the winger Jake Guentzel With 21 seconds left in regulation, the Canadiens got a power play that went into overtime, where Slafkowski finished it off.

“That was a game we gave them a chance to win. This is the Stanley Cup playoffs. This is not game No. 62. So, the way we conducted ourselves and the number of penalties we took was extremely disappointing,” Cooper said.

The Lightning lost 2 of 5 on the power play.

Tampa Bay had the third-best penalty kill in the regular season (82.6%), but was just the 15th-best penalty kill since February’s Olympic break (79.8%). star defenseman Victor HedmanThe penalty kill contributor last played on March 19 after taking a leave of absence from the Lightning for personal reasons. He is back with the team and skating but did not play in Game 1.

Cooper said it was more about failing to prevent goals than the penalty kill.

“If you’re going to end the penalty at 50%, you’re probably not going to last that long. But if you’re going to end the penalty at 50% when you only have two left [penalties]So it’s 1-for-2, maybe you can survive. You can’t let that happen. That’s upon us. No excuses,” he said.

Cooper said he has seen the Lightning lose the first game in the playoffs and rally to win the series.

“It’s not as much of a concern as how we lost it. If it continues like this, the series won’t be as long as we thought,” he said.

Game 2 is Tuesday in Tampa, Florida.