Jon Cooper takes a shot at Mattews, Tavares and O’Reilly!

Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper is focused on the next game, because, as he put it when he addressed the media after his team’s 7-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 2 on Thursday, this is a seven-game series.

Maybe that’s why he targeted his message to the Maple Leafs’ superstars Auston Matthews, John Tavares and Ryan O’Reilly when asked on whether the challenge changed against a team lining up Matthews – Tavares – O’Reilly down the middle. Cooper quickly chirped back:

“How did it change? So how many centers deep are we? Let me ask you that. Give me Point, Cirelli, and Paul all day against anybody in the league.”

While Cooper did not blink with his answer, he might want to take a look at the stats sheet to see that there might be an exception. And it is Game 2. Point, Cirelli, and Paul ended the night with a single point, an assist collected by Point, and an overall rating of -5.

On Toronto’s side, Matthews put up two assists, O’Reilly had one and the captain collected the hat trick.

Want another shot at that question, Cooper?

Game 3 and 4 shift to Tampa Bay, starting with the tie-breaking on Saturday as the series is square at 1.

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