Jon Cooper's assistant reveals the real reason behind the Lightning's anger

Since his special press conference yesterday:

Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper has been pretty quiet.

Well, in the last few minutes, regarding the famous controversy surrounding Nazem Kadri and the Colorado Avalanche's winning goal, Jon Cooper's assistant Derek Lalonde decided to say more about the real reasons behind the Lightning's anger.


As Marco Normandin reports, see what Lalonde had to say, on behalf of the Lighting:


Beyond the number of players on the ice at the time of the goal, Lalonde's main focus is on distance.

In his opinion, and that of other experts, Kadri comes off the bench so quickly that he's already in position to receive the pass and break away on his own in front of Vailevskiy, while Nathan MacKinnon (the player he was switching with) is a long way off his team's bench.

According to Tampa, this is what gave the Avalanche a huge advantage and is what frustrates them to no end.

To explain his point, see the following photo. The two players circled in red are the ones who switch together (Kadri and MacKinnon) :


Another angle here that speaks volumes:


On the other hand, despite Cooper's accusations, Kadri had a clear message for him:


In any case, this is not a game that was eligible for video replay so, unfortunately for Tampa Bay, as they say, "it's part of the game."

Credit: HABSolumentFan