As brilliant as Anthony Cirelli’s individual effort was in last night’s win for the Tampa Bay Lightning over the Ottawa Senators, the big story will be around Jon Cooper’s decision to bench Nikita Kucherov for most of the third period and overtime. It was a move by a coach to showcase accountability on his team. The issue lies in the idea of, “why now?”
Why, after 32 games, does Cooper bench the league’s reigning MVP in a game that Tampa Bay dearly needed to win? Many will point toward Kucherov’s egregious turnover that led to Anthony Duclair’s 19th goal of the season, and there would be no argument in that regard.