NHL.com staff writer Mike Zeisberger has been covering the NHL regularly since 1999. Each Monday he will use his extensive network of hockey contacts for his weekly notes column, “Zizing ‘Em Up,” to preview the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.
TAMPA — If Jon Cooper needed a reminder of just how far his hockey journey has come, the 58-year-old needed only to look up at the stands at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday.
The Tampa Bay Lightning coach is a native of Prince George, British Columbia, a city of about 76,000 amidst seemingly endless evergreen forests in the guts of the northern part of the province.
A crowd of 64,617 jammed the home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers to watch the Lightning face the Boston Bruins at the 2026 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series — or what would amount to about 84 percent of his hometown’s population.
To watch outdoor hockey.
In Florida.
Specifically, here in his adopted hometown of Tampa, 3,256 miles from where he grew up.
In abnormally chilly temperatures in the low 40s Fahrenheit, barely a few degrees above the 37 degrees the residents of Prince George were experiencing Sunday.
You couldn’t make the scenario up.
Nor could you have anticipated the outfit Cooper wore for the game, a dramatic 6-5 shootout victory by the Lightning.
Paying homage to Tampa’s Cuban heritage, he was decked out in a white hat and suit, complete with a gold necklace. It was a the type of garb you would see in the classic Al Pacino movie “Scarface.”
It definitely wasn’t something that came off a rack in downtown Prince George.
“This event doesn’t come around often, and dressing like this probably doesn’t come around very often either,” Cooper said after the victory.
“So, it was part of this.”
Cooper had his fun. He embraced the Stadium Series full bore.
Now it’s time to turn the page.
Later this week, Cooper will leave to coach Team Canada at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. Canada’s first game is against Czechia on Feb. 12 (10:30 a.m. ET; Peacock, USA, CBC Gem, CBC).
Another dream assignment for him.
Truth be told, most people, at best, are lucky to have one experience where they can say it was a moment of a lifetime. In Cooper’s case, when you couple the Stadium Series and the Olympics, he will have had two of those within the span of several weeks.
Surreal.
“You talk about distractions,” he said. “I mean, I’m on a plane to Milan in [a few] days …”
He paused.
“And so, I was just thinking about that, about all the things that are going on that are so special, unique, once in a lifetime, go check all the boxes. And they’re all happening in the same month.
“And so, we’d love to spread them out. Can’t happen.”
It’s a lot to digest in such a short time. But Cooper knew beforehand that these events, these occasions, these special snapshots in time, were coming fast and furious.
As such, the best way to handle them, he said, was to savor them.
Which is what he continues to do.
* * * *
On Saturday, the Lightning practiced inside the enclosed structure the NHL built to protect the ice surface at Raymond James Stadium from the elements in the days leading up to the game.
“It felt like you were in a rural town in the north somewhere, like playing at a youth hockey rink,” Cooper said afterward. “That’s honestly how it felt.
“It was awesome.”
A flashback to those boyhood days in Prince George, perhaps.
In a recent interview with ESPN, Cooper recalled the family home being on a cul de sac “where the snow was higher than the house in January.”
It was a place where hockey was more than just a pastime. It was in your blood.
Frequently going to NHL games wasn’t really an option. The closest markets were Edmonton, 458 miles to the west, and Vancouver, 489 miles to the south. But the community did have a rich hockey tradition, dating to 1971 when the Prince George Spruce Kings made their debut in the Pacific Northwest Hockey League. In 1994, the Cougars of the Western Hockey League relocated from Victoria to Prince George and have been a staple ever since, featuring future NHL players over the years like Zdeno Chara, Dustin Byfuglien and Dan Hamhuis.
