The Lightning will be without head coach Jon Cooper for their next two games following the death of his father earlier this week. Cooper just returned after serving as head coach for Team Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy. Assistant coach Rob Zettler said Cooper left Tampa on Wednesday morning to return to British Columbia to be with his family. “Spoke to him at length (Tuesday) night, but a lot of personal stuff,” said Zettler. “But thoughts and prayers, as always, to Coop and his family. That was the No. 1 thing, that he takes care of business back home.” Cooper has rarely missed time since taking over as head coach in March 2013. Prior to this week, he had been absent just twice — missing a Dec. 21, 2021 game at Vegas after entering COVID protocol and a Nov. 18 game for personal reasons, when assistant Jeff Halpern stepped in. Zettler expressed confidence in the group’s ability to respond in Cooper’s absence. “What I am really confident in is our guys," Zettler said. "They’ve been excellent in so many ways this year, including times like this, where Coop’s missing or something happens with one of the guys, the guys stepped up all year, whether it’s injury, whether it’s personal reasons, people missing games. And they’ve really done an excellent job of responding. We expect nothing less, and they expect nothing less of themselves.” “Coop’s a huge, huge part of this. He leads the way for us in so many ways. So we want to make sure we've got a good showing for him.” Cooper is expected to return by Saturday when the Lightning host Buffalo.
