Lightning coach big fan of Chicago Blackhawks' Quenneville

Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper knows there are about a million things that go into making a franchise successful over the long haul.

You need talent, good coaching, luck with injuries and - perhaps most important - an owner and general manager who don't panic at the first sign of trouble.

Especially when you have a coach who has won a Stanley Cup title … or three.

"He's got a really heavy hand doesn't he - with a few rings on it?" Cooper said when asked if he was impressed the Blackhawks stayed the course with Joel Quenneville after a last-place finish in 2017-18. "General managers (need to) let their coaches coach and understand that this is what happens in 82 games. Injuries and cap situations - there's so many things that go into it.

"The one thing is Chicago always plays hard. Usually that's a sign the coach is making that happen."

Cooper's Lightning, which defeated the Blackhawks 6-3 at the United Center on Sunday, lost a six-game Stanley Cup Final to Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Co. in 2015.

That was Cooper's second full NHL season as Tampa Bay's coach. Three years later, he and Quenneville are the longest-tenured coaches in the league.

The 51-year-old Cooper said Sunday that Quenneville has been "almost like a mentor" for him.

"First of all, he wins," said Cooper, who is 248-144-41 with the Lightning. "You've got to dive in a little deeper to see why. He instills a plan for his leadership group and brought those guys along. You watch the maturation of Toews and Kane and (Duncan) Keith and (Brent) Seabrook and (Corey) Crawford - they all came up together.

"That's the key - he built everything around those guys. Kind of a similar thing that we have going here. You just try to learn from the best, and he's one of them."

Busting with praise:

With 231 career victories, Corey Crawford ranks just 64th on the all-time list. That's not exactly a Hall of Fame number, but Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said the Blackhawks' netminder should be a strong candidate when the time comes.

"Having played these guys in the Stanley Cup Final, you can talk about (Jonathan) Toews, (Patrick) Kane, (Duncan) Keith, all those guys," Cooper said. "But it was Crawford that was the calming influence. Especially … in games where we could have (won) that we didn't, it was Crawford that stopped us. Then all the guys took over after that.

"You're going to look back at his resume and if he continues with a little bit more longevity here, it'll be hard to keep him out of the Hall of Fame conversation."

Decisions, decisions:

The Blackhawks don't want to keep three goalies on the active roster, but it sounds like they'll do so for at least a few more days.

"We still have a busy week (coming)," said coach Joel Quenneville. "We'll see."

Anton Forsberg has to clear waivers before the Hawks could assign him to Rockford, a risk they clearly aren't ready to take yet.

He said it:

"I don't want to give these guys any ideas."

- A laughing Joel Quenneville on whether he'd ever wear a bull mask during an interview as Nashville coach Peter Laviolette did after losing a bet Saturday