Jon Cooper humble in victory, extremely complementary of the Rangers at SCF media day on Sunday
Jon Cooper has become one of the greatest coaches in NHL history in a very short amount of time. In the same time he has also become one of the classiest and well respected coaches. Even though he said that they "handed" the Leafs certain games during round one, at the end of the series he had the utmost respect for the Leafs and it showed.
It became well known during the Eastern Conference Finals that Cooper and Gerard Gallant are very good friends. That was very evident in the handshake line as they shared a lengthy embrace with a couple of laughs. Cooper went as far as saying "Gallant will be sitting here in the near future" referencing his chair at the media availability today to begin the cup final.
Cooper not only praised his good friend Gallant and his coaching abilities but also praised the Rangers for how well they played. He said, "to go 7, 7 and 6 games, that's 20 games in 40 daysto make it this far, what they've done is impressive."
In his time as the Lightning Head Coach he has taken the team to 6 Eastern Conference Finals and now 4 Stanley Cup Finals, and has done it all with a massive amount of respect for each opponent. Here's the full clip of Cooper's comments about Gallant and the Rangers.
