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Can Jon Cooper's 'cheating' argument ignite the Lightning?

Can Jon Cooper's 'cheating' argument ignite the Lightning?

When it comes to coaching rants and their effectiveness, hindsight is always 20/20. If your team wins, you’re a genius. If your team loses, you come off like panicky whiner who had to resort to certain types of off-ice antics.

How will history look at Jon Cooper of the Tampa Bay Lightning? It depends if his argument calling Detroit a bunch of cheaters actually does anything in Monday’s Game 6. Detroit has a 3-2 lead and can clinch at home.

Per the Tampa Bay Times, the Coop is up to some sort of lawyering Jedi type mind trick. Or just complaining about refs via reporters … which always looks sore. This was said Sunday.

"There are 30 teams in the league and nobody does (interference) more than the Detroit Red Wings, hands down," coach Jon Cooper said. "The old saying is, 'If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying.' They do it to a 'T'.

"My message to our guys is you've got to suck it up, got to fight through it. And if they're bringing it, you've got to bring a gun to a knife fight. That's how it has to go. So to get on them, we have to be better."

Many a media person have been easily charmed by Cooper’s oratory gifts, myself included. He’s a lawyer, and a smart dude. There has to be some reason why he would resort to such chatter with his team down 3-2, right?

ESPN’s John Buccigross took the Coop’s side with this tweet.

And then Cooper said this Monday via MLive:

"They're a savvy team. They've got a lot of guys who have been here before," Cooper said. "They're taking up space. There's no room in this series, I think, either way. This has nothing to do with the refs not making calls. If the refs wanted to they could ... there would be 25 penalties aside, or we're going to have four aside and let the guys play, and that's what's happening."

Savvy as in know how to get in an opponent’s way without it looking like a penalty?

This doesn’t change the fact that sniper Steven Stamkos has just two points in five games for Tampa. If he’s injured, those numbers still don’t look great. If he isn't, they're even worse.

If a team like Tampa, with a ton of talent, wants to take that next step, it does need to tune out officiating and all the other external factors going on in a series. If not, there is a cautionary tale in St. Louis.

And this whole time, Detroit coach Mike Babcock has just been chilling, and sticking by his Petr Mrazek goaltending decision, which looks better an better by the game. Every win by the Wings, I envision Babs laughing maniacally in the coach's office before talking to the media.

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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