Cooper: Penalty 'Stupidity' Cost Lightning in Game 1 Loss The Tampa Bay Lightning suffered a 4-3 overtime defeat to the Montreal Canadiens in Game 1 of their first-round NHL playoff series on Sunday, with coach Jon Cooper criticizing his team’s costly penalties as the primary factor in the loss. The Canadiens’ Juraj Slafkovsky scored a hat trick, including all three goals on the power play, to secure the victory. Slafkovsky’s game-winning goal came just 1:22 into overtime, capping a dominant performance for Montreal. The Lightning’s struggles were compounded by four offensive-zone penalties, which Cooper called “stupidity” rather than overaggression. Cooper’s frustration was evident as he addressed the team’s conduct during a post-game press conference. “We took four offensive-zone penalties. Just look at them. That’s not overaggression; that was stupidity on a lot of them,” he said. The penalties included a high-sticking call on Jake Guentzel with 21 seconds remaining in regulation, which extended the Canadiens’ power play into overtime. Slafkovsky capitalized on that opportunity, ending the game with his third goal of the contest. Cooper emphasized that the penalties were a critical turning point. “That was a game we just gave them an opportunity to win. This is the Stanley Cup playoffs. This is not Game No. 62. So, that was extremely disappointing in the way we conducted ourselves and the amount of penalties we took,” he added. The Lightning’s power-play struggles were evident, as they managed just two goals out of five opportunities. While Tampa Bay ranked third in the regular season for penalty killing (82.6%), their performance dipped to 79.8% since February’s Olympic break.#tampa_bay_lightning #montreal_canadiens #victor_hedman #jon_cooper #juraj_slafkovsky
