Tampa Bay manager Cooper apologizes for skirt comment

Tampa Bay Lightning boss Jon Cooper began his end-of-campaign news conference today by apologizing for making what he called an inappropriate analogy about putting skirts on goaltenders.

Respect that Jon Cooper opened by addressing this. He’s always been great to deal with, so his comment surprised me. Addressing it head on, with sincerity, is the right approach.
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— Rachel Doerrie (@racheldoerrie) May 1, 2024

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After the Game 5 defeat that eliminated the Bolts from the postseason at the beginning of the week, Jon vented about 2 questionable goalie interference rulings that led to the Panthers’ 6-1 victory. Tampa Bay had 2 goals disallowed when the league situation room deemed a player interfered with Sergei Bobrovsky in both episodes.

The NHL’s longest-tenured manager claimed he was sincerely regretful about his comment as a father of 2 daughters who play sports and as a fan of women’s hockey.

“It’s 1 of those episodes. If you could just reach back and grab the words, I would do it without a doubt,” the Lightning head coach shared. “To be honest, I made a mistake, and I’ve got to go and explain myself to my daughters. … I sincerely apologize for causing trouble. It is even worse than the actual matchup defeat itself.”