Lightning’s Jon Cooper has a winning personality. Just ask TNT

TAMPA — The Lightning received their first individual award of the season Wednesday night, and it’s not one you probably know too much about.

Nikita Kucherov might have stolen the show by becoming the fifth player in NHL history to record 100 assists in a season, but before the Lightning’s 6-4 win over Toronto, coach Jon Cooper took home a special honor.

Cooper is the second winner of the Mr. TNT award.

What’s the Mr. TNT award? Well, when Boston’s Brad Marchand won last season, it was described as going to the person “simultaneously being the most valuable to your team and the TNT broadcast.”

It’s selected by the NHL on TNT’s studio broadcast team, which regularly consists of host Liam McHugh and analysts Anson Carter, Paul Bissonnette and Henrik Lundqvist. The winner brings the most personality on and off the ice.

It’s a fun award that goes well with the laid-back, light-hearted studio presentation that TNT has offered hockey fans since becoming a national TV rights-holder three seasons ago. As McHugh told Cooper he had won, he said the Mr. TNT award is “super-serious” and “definitely not made up.”

“This is awesome, boys,” Cooper said after he was presented the award as a surprise during his pregame TNT interview by rink-side reporter Darren Pang, who even wore white gloves — just like the handlers of the Stanley Cup. Cooper pulled the pocket square out of Pang’s suit jacket and pretended to wipe his eyes with it.

Jon Cooper was awarded the Mr. TNT trophy, and then gave an ALL-TIME interview.

Just proving why he earned the prestigious honor 🔥 pic.twitter.com/1GlLbKGzYh
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 18, 2024

“This is going right in the middle of those two other trophies,” Cooper said with a smile, referring to the two Stanley Cups he’s won coaching the Lightning.

Carter asker Cooper whether he thought he’d win a Mr. TNT award before a Jack Adams Award. (Cooper amazingly has been slighted as the league’s top coach, despite a Hall of Fame resume that includes back-to-back Cup wins, four trips to the final and six conference final appearances.)

“You know what’s funny? I talked to Rick Tocchet today, we talked about this,” said Cooper, referring to the former TNT analyst who is now a Jack Adams favorite after leading the Vancouver Canucks to the Pacific Division title in his first full season as head coach. “It was hubris because I’ve been calling him Jack all day. So he’s not happy with me right now.”

“’I’m speechless,” Cooper continued, “And that doesn’t happen to me too often.”

Cooper certainly has a future in broadcasting — if he wants it — once he’s done coaching. He shows his personality in on-camera interviews and was even a guest studio analyst for Game 2 of last season’s Panthers-Hurricanes playoff series.