Jon Cooper drops truth bomb on Lightning’s performance in Game 3 loss to Canadiens

The Tampa Bay Lightning came up short in Game 3 against the Montreal Canadiens on Friday. Tampa is now down 2-1 in their series with their Atlantic Division rivals. It was a close game, but head coach Jon Cooper was not in the mood to give his team credit for keeping things close.

The Lightning took a 2-1 lead in the second period after allowing the opening goal. However, Kirby Dach tied the game for the hosting Canadiens. And in overtime, defenseman Lane Hutson sealed the deal a little over two minutes into the extra frame.

As mentioned, the score was kind to Tampa. But Cooper did not see a team that played well enough to win the contest. He was more than willing to tell everyone how he felt his players performed on Friday night.

“I thought of the three games, this was our worst game for us from start to finish. I think it was fortunate for us that we took this to overtime. We gave up three like full-ice breakaways in the game and so the goalie kept us in it,” the Lightning head coach said, via Eduardo A. Encina of The Tampa Bay Times.

Tampa is looking to make it out of the first round since 2022. The Lightning made the Stanley Cup Final that year in a losing effort to the Colorado Avalanche. Since then, they’ve lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs once and the Florida Panthers twice in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Cooper and his team will need to figure out what happened and how to fix it. They have a chance to even the series heading back to Florida when they hit the ice in Montreal for Game 4 on Sunday.

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