Thursday, 4 a.m.
A thousand times, Jon Cooper has seen this. By now, he knows his way from the locker room to the bench. A thousand times, there have been triumphs, and disappointments, and injuries.
Still, when we see him guide the Tampa Bay Lightning to another win. you get the feeling the guy is pleased with his chosen profession.
For the 595th time in his career, Cooper led the Bolts to a victory. This time, it was a 4-3 overtime decision over the Anaheim Ducks in the Honda Center in his 1,000 game as coach.
The Bolts blew three one-goal leads, but defenseman Darren Raddysh ended things 2:47 into overtime with a tap-in goal from Brandon Hagel.
Tampa Bay also had goals from J.J. Moser, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov. It was Kucherov's fifth goal in three games and gave him 18 for the year.
Andre Vasilevskiy stopped 25 of 28 goals. He is 14-7-2 on the year.
For Cooper, a one-time lawyer, it has been a good ride on the Bolts' bench. The Bolts are 23-13-4 and, as of now, in first place in the NHL Atlantic Division.