For Jon Cooper, nobody is off limits from being held accountable, not even if your name is Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov or Steven Stamkos.
The Tampa Bay Lightning head coach proved that on Saturday after he benched his trio of offensive stars for the third period of a 5-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
Cooper’s reasoning was simple: he was trying to win a hockey game.
“As coaches, you got to put your team in the best position to win, 99.9 per cent of the time, those guys give us the best chance to win when they’re on the ice. Just felt for the third period, they weren’t giving us the best chance to win,” he told reporters.
The Lightning entered Saturday’s game on a three-game losing streak. So, when Buffalo took a 4-1 lead in the second period with Kucherov (minus-1), Point (minus-2) and Stamkos (minus-3) all on the ice for goals against, that was a good enough reason to switch things up.
Star defenceman Victor Hedman also played under 20 minutes for the first time since Dec. 8.
And as for star goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, well, he started the game on the bench and didn’t leave it as backup Brian Elliott got the nod.
With Stamkos, Kucherov and Point on the bench, Tampa Bay did score twice in the third to give itself a chance, but ultimately fell short.
“Those guys are an extremely important part of our team. But no, for 20 minutes tonight, we thought the other guys could get it done and they almost did,” Cooper said.
Rookie Jack Quinn scored two goals for the Sabres, who gained two big points as they chase down a wild-card spot in the stacked Eastern Conference.
Despite the recent losses, Tampa Bay has a strong hold on third place in the Atlantic Division with 79 points to Buffalo’s 68.
Stamkos, Point and Kucherov will have a chance to prove they give the Lightning their best chance of winning Sunday against the Carolina Hurricanes.
