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Ultimately, Cooper added, the Lightning didn’t help themselves by getting physical, which he said made Keefe’s comments all the more confusing.
“Auston Matthews doesn’t kill penalties,” Cooper said. “That actually worked against us, to be honest. Now we ended up being shorthanded after that [fight], but I don’t think anybody thought that was going to happen at the time, so I don’t know. That [manipulating part] is a little different for me.”
The bigger concern for Tampa Bay now is any residual fallout from Rielly’s hit on Point. Rielly was initially assessed a five-minute major penalty for boarding on the play, but after an official review it was determined there was no penalty. Point went to the locker room but was able to come back and finish the game.
Rielly — who scored the game-winning goal for Toronto in overtime — said after Game 3 he thought the hit on Point was “clean.” Cooper noted Sunday that Rielly is a “super, super human being” and not a “dirty player” but said the hit clearly had a negative impact on one of the Lightning’s top skaters.
“Was the incident reckless? For sure, and it looked awful,” Cooper said. “When you see that, you’re thinking the worst. The fact [Point] came back and played? I was amazed [of that] in itself. But he went through so many different tests, and he was struggling. It looked like he was in a car accident the way he went into the wall. … Hopefully, he’s going to be OK to play tomorrow.”
One player who won’t be in the Lightning lineup for Game 4 is Erik Cernak. The defenseman has been sidelined since taking an elbow to the head from Leafs forward Michael Bunting in the second period of Game 1. Cooper did not rule out Cernak’s eventual return at some point in the series, which Tampa Bay now trails 2-1.
