Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper is expected to be back behind the Bolts’ bench on Saturday night when the Lightning host the Buffalo Sabres.
Cooper has missed the last two games as he returned to British Columbia to be with his family following the passing of his father.
"We'll get our guy back, Coop will get back in,” Rob Zettler told the Lightning’s beat writer Benjamin Pierce post-game on Thursday. “I think that will give the guys a little bit of a lift. He'll come back for Saturday's game, and I'm certainly not worried about it. It's the first loss in a little bit. They all sting, we don't love it, but we'll get back to our game."
The Lightning went 1-1-0 in Cooper’s absence, defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 on Wednesday at home, before then falling to the Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 in a hard-fought affair the following night on the road.
Cooper, the winningest coach in Lightning franchise history, has pushed the team into a Presidents’ Trophy race so far this season. Currently, they’re tied for the second most points in the league, 80, trailing only the Central Division’s Colorado Avalanche who have 85 points. The Lightning have 25 games left in the regular season to make up that gap.