Olympic thoughts for Cooper, Tavares remain a stick length away – Toronto Sun

Jon Cooper figured he could get some homework done while he went about his daily business this season.

Instead, the coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning might have to do some cramming.

In August, when he was named coach of Canada’s men’s hockey team for the 2022 Winter Olympics, Cooper peered ahead and thought he could so some scouting each time a potential member of Canada’s team faced off against the Lightning.

“I go into every game thinking there’s players you want to evaluate, and I leave every single game thinking all I’ve watched is our own team,” Cooper said on Thursday. “It’s difficult when you’re coaching because you’re watching matchups, you’re so in tune to the game. It’s hard to pay attention to specific things that are happening with other players.

“We always have the ability to watch the game back and then you can watch it a little differently. To be honest, it’s more difficult than I thought to evaluate players on the other team when you’re coaching.”

That’s probably not a problem for Maple Leafs captain John Tavares, whose strong play through the first two months has put him in the Olympic conversation. Tavares has 29 points in 27 games, and as one might expect, his pragmatic approach hasn’t wavered even when considering the Olympics.

Tavares’ participation in the 2014 Olympics was cut short by a season-ending knee injury and the NHL didn’t take part in the 2018 Winter Games. At 31, this in all likelihood would represent Tavares’ last chance to represent Canada on the Olympic stage, but that has not crept into his mindset. He wasn’t looking at the game against Tampa and Cooper as a partial audition.

“I don’t put anything into it,” Tavares said. “I just want to focus on the way I need to play for the Maple Leafs and the challenge that the Lightning presents, let that take care of itself.

“If I just do my job here, it will give me my best chance to be a part of that when that time comes around.”

GAME ON

With a 5-3 loss to Tampa at Scotiabank Arena, the Leafs have bumped into adversity for the first time since going 2-4-1 in their first seven games. Toronto has lost three of its past four, with a home game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday on tap. The Leafs haven’t had to learn many lessons this season, but they got one against the defending two-time Stanley Cup champs: Don’t give the opposition opportunities they have not earned. The Leafs’ sloppiness caught up to them, never mind that Tampa didn’t have Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point or Anthony Cirelli. Andrei Vasilevskiy was sharp in the Lightning net, though he did have some puck luck as well … We’re willing to bet that veteran Leafs defenceman Jake Muzzin has had better weeks during his NHL career, and yes, we’re being sarcastic. It was last Friday that Muzzin and Mitch Marner collided in practice, resulting in a shoulder injury for Marner. Against Tampa, a pair of Muzzin turnovers helped lead to both Lightning goals in the first period. Muzzin probably would be the first to say his overall play this season has not been up to his standard … Before Tampa’s third goal, at 4:02 of the second, Muzzin couldn’t handle a bouncing puck after William Nylander sent it across the ice. The Lightning scored not long after, when Ondrej Palat’s pass went in off Nylander’s stick … Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe broke up the Muzzin-Justin Holl pairing, putting Muzzin with Timothy Liljegren and Holl with Kristians Rubins … After Taylor Raddysh increased Tampa’s lead to 4-2 at 9:11 of the second, a frustrated Tavares broke his stick on the goal post … Morgan Rielly, also vying for a spot on Canada’s Olympic team, recorded his 20th assist of the season on Ondrej Kase’s power-play goal at 1:44 of the first. Rielly became the 21st player (and eighth defenceman) to play in 600 games with the Leafs … Kase had his first two-goal game since Jan. 7, 2020, when he was with Anaheim in a game against Columbus … Jack Campbell twice said he had to make “a couple more saves.” Any he was focusing on? “Yeah, four of them.”

LOOSE LEAFS

Keefe’s theory on why elite players, including Auston Matthews, don’t draw more penalties: “They’re so good that they skate through a lot of crap. There’s a lot of players that when you can get a stick on them or you get a body on them, they fall off a stride or they lose the puck or they fall down.” … Ilya Mikheyev had a medical appointment on Thursday, two months after he suffered a broken thumb and subsequently underwent surgery. He’s not far from returning. The Leafs want goalie Petr Mrazek (groin) to get through a practice or two before he gets back in the net, while defenceman Travis Dermott (shoulder) is expected to start shooting again soon … The Leafs acquired defenceman Chad Krys from the Blackhawks, sending forward Kurtis Gabriel to Chicago. A 23-year-old native of Philadelphia, the 5-foot-11, 185-pound Krys has spent the past three seasons with the Rockford IceHogs of the American Hockey League. He has yet to play in an NHL game. Gabriel never did get into a game with the Leafs after signing a one-year contract in July. In 13 games with the Toronto Marlies, Gabriel had two points.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

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