As with almost every home game at AMALIE Arena, fans will almost certainly scream “Cooooooooooop” after the public address announcer introduces Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper before Wednesday’s game against the Washington Capitals.

Those fans may be louder than usual this week as they applaud the man calling the shots for the Bolts, and for good reason.

On Wednesday, Cooper celebrates his 900th game as an NHL head coach – all with the Lightning. Cooper’s 536 wins in 899 career games already give him the second-most wins of any NHL coach in his first 900 games behind the bench.

Only Scotty Bowman, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame who is often considered the greatest NHL coach of all time, had more wins (548) in his first 900 games.

Bowman, who was in attendance for Tampa Bay’s 8-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche at AMALIE Arena on Monday and whose 1,244 career wins are the most in league history, said Cooper’s success was no coincidence.

Bowman mentioned how Cooper worked his way through the coaching ranks and compared it to his own journey, spending 10 years in amateur hockey before reaching the NHL. Bowman said his background and experience helped Cooper.

“He’s not fazed at all and has a lot of good experience,” Bowman said of the Lightning coach. “He builds good teams.”

The construction of these teams predates Cooper’s NHL days. From 2003 to 2008, he won two Robertson Cup championships in the North American Hockey League (NAHL). He rose to coach in the United States Hockey League, compiling an 84-27-9 record in two seasons and winning the USHL Clark Cup Champion and Coach of the Year Award in 2010.

After that run, he was hired by the Tampa Bay Lightning as a coach for their then American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Norfolk Admirals.

Cooper’s Admirals rocked the AHL by winning 28 straight games during the 2011-12 season en route to winning the Calder Cup championship.

Cooper kept the job as the Lightning AHL team became the Syracuse Crunch in the 2012-13 season before being promoted to the Lightning’s head job in 2013 with 17 games remaining in that NHL season.

Cooper has helped the Lightning to four Stanley Cup Finals, won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021 and qualified for the playoffs in 10 of his 11 full seasons. He is 20 wins shy of tying Marc Crawford (556) for 25th place among all-time NHL head coaches.

Bowman said Cooper is “certainly” one of the best coaches the NHL has ever seen.

Cooper holds a record of 536-286-77 through Wednesday. He is currently the longest-serving coach in the NHL.

Bowman said he and Cooper were friends, and the retired coach continued to talk about similarities between the two earlier this week.

In some ways, Bowman called Cooper’s success more impressive than his own. Bowman pointed out that Cooper has a salary cap to consider, something he never had to worry about as a coach.

He praised the Lightning’s “continuity” of success and credited Cooper and management for developing later draft picks, making smart roster moves and maturing young talent into a squad that developed into consistent Stanley Cup contention and two championships.

“The fact that he won all those games and did it with a lot of different types of players, that’s something. I really admire him for what he’s done,” Bowman said. “They bring players, they.” He loses players and just keeps trampling. He doesn’t look back, but forward.

As for the future, Bowman believes there is much to come for Cooper – a coach he described as “multifaceted” – and the franchise.

“Tampa found him and he found Tampa, and I think he’ll coach as long as he can.”