Lightning coach Jon Cooper goes back to school at World Cup

MONTREAL — Jon Cooper is blaming a revamp of the Florida school system for his almost invisible summer. That’s his story, he says with a laugh, and he’s sticking to it.

Cooper, coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, is one of four assistants for Team North America at the World Cup of Hockey 2016. He’s thrilled to be dipping his toe into these international hockey waters, describing himself as a sponge for all that has washed over him after three days of training camp here.

As for his summer that was almost a rumor?

“I’m blaming it on my kids, whose school in Florida this year started on Aug. 10, which was awful. Push the blame!” Cooper said Wednesday after practice in an empty locker room that normally is home to the Montreal Canadiens.

“The World Cup isn’t a yearly event. This may be a one and done. You hope the tournament continues every four years, or whatever it’s going to be, but you don’t know. And I can’t look into the future and say I’m going to coach in the NHL for 20 more years. When you have an opportunity to do this, something that you love, you can’t pass it up.”

The Lightning gave the Pittsburgh Penguins all they could handle in a seven-game Eastern Conference Final that ended May 26. Then came the NHL offseason, which is a bit of a misnomer even in a normal summer that doesn’t involve a high-profile World Cup tournament.

“Everybody thinks you have this long summer,” Cooper said. “But you don’t even have the time to digest the season when you play until darn near June, then your players leave and all of a sudden you’ve got [the] NHL Draft, then development camp, and by then it’s the middle of July.

“August used to be the break for you, but it wasn’t this year because of the World Cup. I had a little bit of time in July then my mind …

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