Lightning coach Jon Cooper catches Darren Pang off guard with bench interview gag

Jon Cooper has a new way to needle Darren Pang.

According to a post on X from the account GinoHard, the Tampa Bay Lightning coach asked a trainer for a step stool so Pang could stand on it during an interview behind the bench.

Pang is listed at 5-foot-5, which makes him the second-shortest goaltender in NHL history, behind only Roy Worters.

Cooper has gone after that before. During a Lightning game in Anaheim some seasons back, he poked fun at Pang's height in another bench interview, so this looks more like a recurring bit than a one-off.

Pang, a former goaltender turned color commentator, is widely well liked in hockey circles, which helps a good-natured jab like this land.

Cooper has leaned on humor for years.

Back around the 2015 Stanley Cup Final, he was known for opening press conferences with small bits, like squinting into the lights and pretending he could not see.

That looseness sits alongside a résumé that earns him some room.

Cooper won back-to-back Stanley Cups with Tampa Bay and was named the 2026 Jack Adams Award winner, so an interview gag from the bench is not going to change how anyone views his work.

Bench interviews are short by design, usually a coach summing up how the game is going.

A coach who can turn that window into something fans share does the broadcast a favor, and it keeps the Lightning in the conversation even when the story has nothing to do with the standings.

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