By Larry Lage
AP Hockey Writer
DETROIT (AP) - Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper left Wall Street to be a lawyer, planning to eventually become a sports agent.
To make ends meet as an attorney, he made $1,500 a month to handle cases for financially strapped clients in the middle of Michigan. Cooper's charm and communication skills helped him cut deals for defendants while quickly processing a lot of people in and out of the state district court.
Then, Cooper got a call in the fall of 1999 from the judge who often saw him do his day job and knew he was a pretty good hockey player.
"I said, 'Jon, do you want to coach my son's high school hockey team at Lansing Catholic?'" retired judge Thomas Brennan recalled in a telephone interview Monday. "He said, 'Yeah, I'll do that.' And, Jon absolutely flourished because you could tell he really enjoyed doing it."
Cooper progressed to coaching junior hockey, then in the minor leagues, and eventually took over Tampa Bay's American Hockey League affiliate in Norfolk in 2010. Then, nearly three years ago, the former securities trader and public defender was hired by Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman to lead Tampa Bay.
"Sometimes I look at it like, 'Geez, how did you end up a National Hockey League coach after that fork in the road?'" Cooper said. "I never dreamt, thought or set a goal to say I'm going to coach in the NHL. It was just my passion for coaching. I loved it so much and I kept going from team to team and all the sudden, I ended up on the top of the ladder."
One of his good friends, Detroit coach Jeff Blashill, is hoping to knock Cooper down a rung Tuesday night.
Blashill, a rookie coach in the league, made home ice an advantage in Game 3. He used the last change to put a trio of fast and physical forwards on the ice to match up with Tampa Bay's Tyler Johnson-led line that dominated Detroit in the first two games of the series.
It worked, helping the Red Wings blank Tampa Bay 2-0 and cut their deficit to 2-1 in the first-round series.
Before the series and during it, Blashill has jabbed at his buddy on the other bench.
"Must have been a bad lawyer," Blashill cracked last week when asked about Cooper's journey to the NHL, before saying he thought it was a great story.
A reporter asked Blashill on Monday what would fluster Cooper.
"I could talk about his clothing options, for sure," he said with a grin. "That would really rile him."
Published: Wed, Apr 20, 2016
