Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper Speaks On Historical Significance Of Using All-Black Forward Line On Monday Night

The Tampa Bay Lightning made NHL history with their lineup to start Monday night’s game against the Florida Panthers.

Lightning head coach Jon Cooper sent out Mathieu Joseph, Gemel Smith and Daniel Walcott as his forwards for puck drop. It was the first time that an all-black line had been used to start a game in the long history of the NHL.

Tampa makes history! #HockeyIsForEveryone pic.twitter.com/94MwLN1msh

— NHL (@NHL) May 11, 2021

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Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper spoke on the cool moment after the game.

“First of all, they’re all in the NHL for a reason. They deserve to be here and have worked their tails off. To have them all together, they had a little chemistry. Moving forward in the league, you hope it isn’t a story anymore and will be the norm. It was a pretty cool moment for all those guys,” Cooper said per NHL.com’s William Douglas.

The Tampa Bay Lightning's Mathieu Joseph, Gemel Smith and Daniel Walcott became the @NHL's first all-Black starting forward line.

Head coach Jon Cooper:

“Moving forward in the league, you hope it isn’t a story anymore and will be the norm.”pic.twitter.com/D5Mxzxzgqb

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 11, 2021

Mathieu Joseph has now appeared in 56 games for the Lightning this season, and spoke on what it meant for him to be growing the game of hockey in the right direction.

“It’s a step in the right direction. My goal, and the goal of players of color in this league, obviously want to showcase their sports to your families or other people of color. It’s definitely awesome to be one of the guys who were for that, and it was all from the coaching staff that did that tonight, but it’s a great recognition, for sure.”

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