Jon Cooper counters Sheldon Keefe’s ‘manipulating the officials’ dig during Game 3 of Stanley Cup playoff series
Jon Cooper responds to Sheldon Keefe’s sneaky remarks on the Lightning team following the Game 3 victory on Saturday.
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Sheldon Keefe and Jon Cooper [Image Credit: Oddschecker/Grantland]
Toronto Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe and Tampa Bay Lightning’s Jon Cooper start a verbal war during the postgame interview. Both defend their players and team as they believe there were some unjust situations on the ice on Saturday.
Sheldon Keefe ironically praised the Lightnings for taking advantage of NHL rules and sneaking in to pick a fight with Leafs’ top player. Prior to Monday’s game, Cooper responded to Keefe’s accusations stating he was not aware of what he is talking about. Cooper himself is quite upset with NHL referees as they disallowed a Lightning goal.
Without the official’s intervention, the Lighting would have gotten a boost to their points rather than falling to Leafs in a 4-3 record. Cooper commented how “shocking” it was to hear the whistle before Brayden Point buried a non-goal through Ilya Samsonov’s legs, “You go through the league of quick whistles, that has to be the No. 1 in the league.”
Jon Cooper fires back at Sheldon Keefe following comments on Game 3 scrum
![Jon Cooper and Sheldon Keefe [Image Credit: NHL/Editor in Leaf]](https://firstsportz.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Untitled-design-11-38-1024x768.png)
The verbal brawl started when Leafs’ coach Sheldon Keefe spoke about the Lightning “manipulating the officials” during the Game 3 scrum. Leafs’ top player Auston Matthews was pulled in the bout by Lightning’s Steven Stamkos after Morgan Reilly’s collision with Brayden Point.
Keefe said, “The fight itself, that’s a classic example of a veteran championship team like Tampa Bay manipulating the officials and taking advantage of a situation, right. I mean they know that we’re basically already going on the power play because of the Kucherov situation so it’s a free-for-all.”
“They can do whatever they want and they just know that the way the games get called they’re not going to get another penalty. I mean you watch that sequence back and say that we shouldn’t get a 5-on-3. The officials literally holding Steven Stamkos with one arm and his other hand with no glove on is punching Auston Matthews.”
“Not the linesman, the referee who calls the penalty was holding Stamkos while this was happening. Credit to Tampa for recognizing that situation, it’s a free pass to do what you want. Not only do they get out of it unscathed, but they take Matthews and O’Reilly with them to the box. Brilliant play by the Lightning there.”
The high-speed collision was indeed a scary scene as Point went head and shoulder first onto the boards. “It looked like he was in a car accident, the way he went into that wall. Really scary situation”. “Hopefully, he’s going to be OK to play (Monday) night,” Cooper stated.
He responded to Keefe’s dig by commenting, “Manipulated the referees? I’m not sure what that means”. “But I would say this: When that hit happened, I think everybody watching at home and everybody in the building, including us, thought we were going on the power play.”
“Our two best power-play players (Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov), I don’t think they would ever sit there and take themselves off a power play unless they thought something unjust happened.”
“Auston Matthews doesn’t kill penalties. That actually worked against us, to be honest. Now, we ended up being shorthanded after that, but I don’t think anybody thought that was going to happen at the time. So, I don’t know, that’s one’s a little different for me.”
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