Lightning head coach Jon Cooper arrives at the 2019 NHL...

Lightning head coach Jon Cooper arrives at the 2019 NHL All-Star Red Carpet on Friday in San Jose, Calif. Credit: Getty Images/Thearon W. Henderson

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Considering that Jon Cooper has his hands full coaching the best team in the National Hockey League, it was a doubtful reporter who hesitantly asked Cooper if he happens to follow college basketball, at least a little.

“Do you mean do I know what team has the longest winning streak? Of course, I know about that,” he said.

Bullseye. Right on target, just like a jump shot by Justin Wright-Foreman of Hofstra, which improved the nation’s longest active streak to 16 games Saturday, further earning the pride of alumni such as Jon Cooper, Hofstra Class of 1989.

Cooper always has had a sharp eye for detail, which has helped him complete the improbable journey from college lacrosse midfielder to coach of the Lightning, which is by far the NHL frontrunner at the All-Star break. His work this season earned him the right to coach the Atlantic Division squad in the All-Star Game at SAP Center Saturday night, which did not stop him from thinking blue-and-gold and Hempstead.

“This is funny. The Hofstra lacrosse team, which I played for, was just at War Memorial Arena in Syracuse today getting a tour,” Cooper said after the Skills Competition Friday night. “So I was following them because they’re playing Syracuse in an exhibition game. And I’ve got my eye on the basketball team and their little run here. Pretty exciting.

“Hey, I graduated there. I’m a proud alum. I do have a lot of things on my mind, but I do follow.”

No kidding about having things on his mind. Coaching in the NHL is a distinct responsibility. If we have learned anything this year from the work that Barry Trotz has done in producing the sea change with the Islanders, it is that coaching has a bigger influence in hockey than it does in at least a couple other major sports.

Major league baseball is driven by analytics experts and upper management. The NBA is largely a players’ league (with Kenny Atkinson’s impact on the Nets a big exception). But coaching in hockey is a huge deal. Cooper, who directed the Lightning to the Stanley Cup Final in 2015, does it through a blend of strategy and personality. His communication skills allow him to draw out the talents in a deep roster while keeping egos in check.

He does it in an environment that would exasperate old-school autocrats.

“I’m going to use this in the most positive sense: The players have a positive arrogance when they come into the league. They feel that they can do anything, and they try it. That’s what makes them so good,” he said. “Are they a little different now? It sounds like it. You’ve got to let these players breathe. Let them play to their strength let them play to their confidence.”

Cooper’s most significant all-time victory was winning players’ confidence in spite of his unusual background. He is definitely not “a hockey guy.”

Cooper was a box lacrosse player in Saskatchewan who took a shot at playing outdoors at Hofstra. His college teammates thought he would become a player agent, given the way he devoured the Newsday sports section and visited with so many countrymen at Islanders games at Nassau Coliseum. He did get a law degree in Michigan and began coaching hockey as a favor to a judge who had a son on the team. Cooper proved to be good at it. He coached in juniors and the minors and was promoted to the Lightning when general manager Steve Yzerman fired Guy Boucher in March, 2013.

Cooper loves the details, the philosophies, the give-and-take. He admires people who do it all well, such as John Danowski, the Long Island native who coached him at Hofstra and now heads the lacrosse program at Duke. Before a road exhibition game against the Carolina Hurricanes in September, Cooper got together with Danowski. “Dino brought his son Matt [who is his assistant coach] and we had a chalk talk between our coaching staff and theirs,” he said.

In a few months, the Lightning might seriously be talking about the Stanley Cup. And Cooper might be in a tight race with Trotz for the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year. It would be one to remember, another source of Pride on Hempstead Turnpike.

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