TAMPA - Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper, whose team won the Eastern Conference championship last season, has a lot of respect for his opening-night opponent, the Flyers.
The teams will meet Thursday at Amalie Arena at 7:30.
“Claude Giroux, to me, is a top-five player in the league; he’s just a threat all over the ice,” Cooper said after the Lightning’s morning skate Thursday. He said Wayne Simmonds was a “very hard player to play against” and that Jake Voracek was always a “really good player, and now he’s turned into a great player. And their power play is dazzling.