Jon Cooper, who coached at Lansing Catholic Central High School in 1999-2000, was named the 2026 Jack Adams Award winner as the NHL’s top coach.
Cooper led the Tampa Bay Lightning to a ninth straight playoff appearance with a 50-26-6 record for 106 points, finishing second in the Atlantic Division and tied for fifth in the NHL.
Tampa Bay also ranked among the NHL’s top teams in multiple metrics, including goals, goals against, goal differential, road wins, regulation wins, comeback wins and penalty-kill percentage.
Cooper, 58, is a first-time recipient of the award after being nominated three times and joins John Tortorella (2004) as just the second coach in Lightning history to win.
The other finalists were Dan Muse of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Lindy Ruff of the Buffalo Sabres.
Cooper, a two-time Stanley Cup champion with Tampa Bay, began his coaching career in the Lansing area in 1999 while attending Thomas M. Cooley Law School.
Michigan District Court judge Thomas Brennan Jr. needed someone to coach his son’s team at Lansing Catholic Central and Cooper, a Michigan lawyer who had never coached before and was handling Brennan’s court-appointed work for $1,000/month to represent clients who couldn’t afford legal fees, agreed to take over the team which won only 7 of 24 games the year before.Cooper led the freshman-dominated Cougars to its first regional hockey title in 25 years, highlighted by Jeff Swan’s winning goal with 36 seconds left in the first overtime period to beat Mattawan 3-2 in the Division III final at Southside Arena in Grand Rapids.
Hurricanes look to bounc back in Game 2
The Carolina Hurricanes know what it’s like to get hot during the Stanley Cup playoffs. They also know how to bounce back from a series-opening loss.
The Hurricanes also realize there’s still plenty of time to accomplish both heading into Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night in Raleigh, N.C.
Carolina began the postseason with eight straight victories before getting blown out, 6-2, in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals against the visiting Montreal Canadiens.
The Hurricanes bounced back with four straight victories against the Canadiens to win their third consecutive best-of-7 series but then lost 5-4 back home in Game 1 against the Golden Knights on Tuesday.
“It’s one game,” said Carolina forward Nikolaj Ehlers, who scored two goals in the first period of Game 1 to give the Hurricanes an early 2-0 lead. “Obviously, we would rather be up 1-0, but there are six games to go. We are fine with taking this to seven if we need to.”
Now, it’s the Golden Knights who have reeled off seven consecutive playoff victories.
They won Games 5 and 6 to clinch the Western Conference second-round series against the Anaheim Ducks, swept the top-seeded Colorado Avalanche in four games, and now have home-ice advantage against the top team from the East.
“We’re a really good team, and I think we have a really good locker room,” Vegas coach John Tortorella said. “I think (the Golden Knights) understand these types of situations because they’ve lived through them, and they’ve won, a lot of these guys. So, that’s what you rest on.
“For me as a coach,” Tortorella continued, “I have all the confidence in the world, no matter where those flows go, we’re not going to get into a panic mode by any means.”
Tortorella took over after Bruce Cassidy was fired with two weeks to go in the regular season. The Golden Knights have responded by going 20-4-1 under Tortorella.
One of the Vegas players who has caught fire at the right time is forward Tomas Hertl, who scored the tie-breaking goal with 3:24 left in Game 1. He also broke a 3-3 tie early in the third period of a 5-3 win against the Avalanche in Game 3.
Hertl had gone 29 games without a goal before scoring late in the Game 4 loss against the Ducks on May 10, the last time the Golden Knights were defeated.
“Once he scored a goal, his game kind of changed,” Tortorella said. “He was working at the other parts of his game, but we just needed more from him, and he’s come through at a very important time, and given us some consistent minutes.”
Carolina will no doubt harken back to its Game 2 performance against Montreal after getting run over in Game 1. The Hurricanes won 3-2 in overtime to even the series, won in overtime again in Game 3, and then overwhelmed the Canadians in Games 4 and 5.
“We’ve got to get up to speed on how this game and this series is going to go,” said Carolina defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, who scored a third-period goal to tie Game 1 at 4-4. “We certainly got a taste of that now. And similarly, we made a lot of mistakes in that first game (against the Canadiens). It cost us, but you can’t make them.”
Leafs interviewing Patrick Roy, Peter Laviolette
The Toronto Maple Leafs reportedly have conducted virtual interviews with 15 candidates in their far-reaching search for a new head coach, including Patrick Roy and Peter Laviolette.
Details of the ongoing quest to replace Craig Berube were first reported by Sportsnet on Wednesday’s edition of “32 Thoughts: The Podcast.”
Roy, 60, was fired as head coach of the New York Islanders with four games left in the season on April 5 and replaced by Peter DeBoer. The Hall of Fame goaltender compiled a 42-31-5 record in 2025-26 and is 130-92-24 as coach of the Colorado Avalanche (2013-16) and Islanders (2023-26).
Laviolette, 61, most recently coached the New York Rangers from 2023-25. He has won 846 regular-season games in 23 campaigns as a head coach with the New York Islanders (2001-03), Carolina Hurricanes (2003-09), Philadelphia Flyers (2009-14), Nashville Predators (2014-20), Washington Capitals (2020-23) and Rangers. He won a Stanley Cup with Carolina in 2006.
University of Denver coach David Carle also was mentioned on the podcast as a candidate for the Toronto job.
The Maple Leafs fired Berube after finishing last in the Atlantic Division and next-to-last in the Eastern Conference (32-36-14, 78 points).
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Jon Cooper, ex-Lansing high school coach, named NHL’s top bench boss
Reporting by The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
