Zizing ‘Em Up: Cooper soaking in special month between Stadium Series, Olympics

NHL.com staff writer Mike Zeisberger has been covering the NHL regularly since 1999. Each Monday he will use his extensive network of hockey contacts for his weekly notes column, "Zizing 'Em Up," to preview the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

TAMPA -- If Jon Cooper needed a reminder of just how far his hockey journey has come, the 58-year-old needed only to look up at the stands at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday.

The Tampa Bay Lightning coach is a native of Prince George, British Columbia, a city of about 76,000 amidst seemingly endless evergreen forests in the guts of the northern part of the province.

About 63,000 bundled-up fans jammed the home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers to watch the Lightning face the Boston Bruins at the 2026 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series -- or what would amount to about 82 percent of his hometown’s population.

To watch outdoor hockey.

In Florida.

Specifically, here in his adopted hometown of Tampa, 3,256 miles from where he grew up.

In abnormally chilly temperatures in the low 40s Fahrenheit, barely a few degrees above the 37 degrees the residents of Prince George were experiencing Sunday.

You couldn’t make the scenario up.

But the adventure didn’t stop there.

Later this week, Cooper will leave to coach Team Canada at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. Canada’s first game is against Czechia on Feb. 12 (10:30 a.m. ET; Peacock, USA, CBC Gem, CBC).

Another dream assignment for him.

Truth be told, most people, at best, are lucky to have one experience where they can say it was a moment of a lifetime. In Cooper’s case, when you couple the Stadium Series and the Olympics, he will have had two of those within the span of several weeks.

Surreal.

“You talk about distractions,” he said. “I mean, I’m on a plane to Milan in [a few] days …”

He paused.

“And so, I was just thinking about that, about all the things that are going on that are so special, unique, once in a lifetime, go check all the boxes. And they’re all happening in the same month.

“And so, we’d love to spread them out. Can’t happen.”

It’s a lot to digest in such a short time. But Cooper knew beforehand that these events, these occasions, these special snapshots in time, were coming fast and furious.

As such, the best way to handle them, he said, was to savor them.

Which is what he continues to do.

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On Saturday, the Lightning practiced inside the tent the NHL constructed to protect the ice surface at Raymond James Stadium from the elements in the days leading up to the game.

“It felt like you were in a rural town in the north somewhere, like playing at a youth hockey rink,” Cooper said afterward. “That’s honestly how it felt.

“It was awesome.”

A flashback to those boyhood days in Prince George, perhaps.

In a recent interview with ESPN, Cooper recalled the family home being on a cul de sac “where the snow was higher than the house in January.”

It was a place where hockey was more than just a pastime. It was in your blood.

Frequently going to NHL games wasn’t really an option. The closest markets were Edmonton, 458 miles to the west, and Vancouver, 489 miles to the south. But the community did have a rich hockey tradition, dating to 1971 when the Prince George Spruce Kings made their debut in the Pacific Northwest Hockey League. In 1994, the Cougars of the Western Hockey League relocated from Victoria to Prince George and have been a staple ever since, featuring future NHL player over the years like Zdeno Chara, Dustin Byfuglien and Dan Hamhuis.

Those were the days of playing hockey outside until sunset, of hot chocolate, of frosty fingertips, of “next goal wins.” If you lived where he did in Canada, you were accustomed to those things.

Not in Tampa.

Which is why Cooper marveled at how fans here got to experience just a little bit of those conditions he did as a kid. In fact, he said in his 13 years of living in this area, he wasn’t sure he’d ever felt temperatures become this frosty.

And that, he said, wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“This game was meant to be played in cold weather,” he said, adding that he was happy for the locals “because this is what we’ve experienced our entire life, on the frozen ponds outside, playing until dark.”

Many people at the game Sunday hadn’t before. This was their chance to get a taste, as small a sample size as it was, of the things that made Cooper fall in love with the game all those years earlier.

“And that’s super cool,” he said.

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Of course, through all the hoopla, the festivities, the enormity of the Stadium Series, the Gasparella Pirate Fest event on Saturday that drew hundreds of thousands of revelers to downtown Tampa, the Olympics weren’t far from Cooper’s mind.

They never are.

As such, he points to the experience of coaching Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off one year ago as guidance. His country ended up winning the best-on-best tournament on an overtime goal by Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers) in a 3-2 victory against the United States, a championship game that could have gone either way.

“What I learned at 4 Nations is you’ve got to do everything possible to give these players on this team a chance to succeed and then get the hell out of their way and let them go,” Cooper said.

In other words, there’s only so much you can tell superstars like McDavid, Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins) and Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche), players who wear the Canadian crest on their chests and their hearts on their sleeves. You don’t have to remind them what’s at stake in Milan.

They already know.

“The 4 Nations was a precursor to these Olympics and gave us a little bit of familiarity and leg up on what’s coming,” Cooper said. “So, that’s really helped.”

So, too, has the fact that assistant Pete DeBoer already was scheduled to head to Milan this past Friday to pre-organize details like the conditions in the Olympic Village where the team will reside, where the coaching staff can do its best pregame work, set up computers, all things that will make Team Canada’s preparations more seamless.

For someone as busy as Cooper, any such help is invaluable. After all, there still is plenty of work to do with the Lightning on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Consider that the Lightning (34-14-4) entered the Stadium Series game against the Bruins on a sizzling 16-1-1 run that had them in first place in the Atlantic Division with 72 points, yet only led the second-place Detroit Red Wings by two and third-place Montreal Canadiens by three. Prior to the upcoming Olympic break, their two remaining games are against divisional opponents, the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; HULU, ESPN+) and rival Florida Panthers on Thursday.

With the standings so scrunched, he said, it was important that his players stay in the moment and not look too far ahead.

Yet, in his own situation, it’s been very difficult not to.

Last week, for example, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman traveled from Toronto to Tampa to spend a portion of a day at Cooper’s home doing a lengthy in-depth feature interview with Canada’s coach as part of the upcoming in-depth coverage of the Olympics. The clock is ticking quickly towards the tournament, and fans north of the border are eagerly anticipating the first time NHL players are participating in the event in 12 years.

Cooper is well aware of the pressure. He’s lived it Tampa Bay, which he’s coached to two Stanley Cup championships (2020, 2021) and reached the Cup Final with on two other occasions (2015, 2022).

Such success sets the bar high, just like Cooper does for himself and any team he coaches, whether it be in the NHL or internationally.

“It’s exciting, whether it be an outdoor game, the Olympics, all of it,” he said. “That’s the fun part. You want to enjoy these experiences.

“… There does come a price and prices; you're representing a country and a team where there’s some, what do you say, expectations of how you’re going to do. For me, I’ve lived it for almost a decade here of what expectations people put on our team, and I get it. But it’s not going to take away from the joy and excitement for me to participate in the Olympic Games.”

In other words, Cooper has and will continue to embrace those special moments that have and will transpire this month. Because as a kid growing up in Prince George, who would have thought, in your wildest dreams, you would ever have the chance to be part of a series of experiences like this, let alone in a matter of weeks?

* * * *

OLYMPIC STOCK WATCH

Each week we’ll look at a candidate who’s catching our attention heading into the Olympics.

Brady Tkachuk , F, USA (Ottawa Senators)

The feisty forward, who was one of the original six players selected along with brother Matthew Tkachuk (Florida Panthers) back in June, is heating up at just the right time. The 26-year-old has two goals and five assists during a three-game point streak, including three points (one goal, two assists) in a 4-1 win against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday. Just as important is the fact that he appears to be relatively healthy after undergoing thumb surgery back in October. Brady was one of the U.S.’ best forwards at the 4 Nations Face-Off with a team-leading three goals (tied with Jake Guentzel), and will be looking to have the same impact in Milan.

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QUOTE/UNQUOTE

“It’s going to be a quick turnaround. This week, guys like Victor Hedman (Team Sweden), Brandon Hagel and (Anthony) Cirelli (Canada), guys like that, they’re your teammates. Then, next week in Milan, they’re your potential opponents and you’re trying to beat them. That’s how quick the turnaround is.” -- Team USA forward Jake Guentzel of the Tampa Bay Lightning

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THE LAST WORD

Given the rash of injuries sustained by players selected to various Olympic teams the past few months, one in particular to keep an eye on is Lightning forward Brayden Point (Canada).

Point sustained a lower-body injury on Jan. 12 and has been considered week to week. But the 29-year-old skated with his teammates during practice at Raymond James Stadium on Saturday, an encouraging sign for the center who was selected as one of Canada’s first six players back in June.

There are obviously no guarantees moving forward, but it was a positive step in his hopes for participating in Milan. Point has 30 points (11 goals, 19 assists) in 37 games for Tampa Bay this season.