Tampa coach Cooper promises playing time for rookie Drouin
Jonathan Drouin is a victim of the rookie treatment so far this postseason. The young Tampa forward has been a healthy scratch in eight of the team's nine postseason games, but Lightning coach Jon Cooper told the Canadian Press that Drouin will see more ice time at some point.
"He’s an extreme talent and he’s getting better and better,” Cooper said to the Canadian Press. “This is a learning experience just as it was last year for Kuch or Palat or Johnson. But you put in your twenty (players) you feel, on this day, is going to give us the best chance to win. Probably, moving forward, he’s going to be in that 20 all the time. Just right now, he’s on the sidelines.
"Whether he has to wait his turn or we feel a matchup is best for him, but I can tell you, he’s going to play in this series at some point. We just have to see when."
Drouin played in Game 4 of the first-round series against the Red Wings, but he was on the ice for both of the Red Wings' two goals that night and took a penalty when he tripped Detroit's Brendan Smith in the first period of the game.
(h/t Pro Hockey Talk)
Photo by Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports
