Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper questions if Colorado Avalanche center Nazem Kadri's OT winner should have counted

TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper held a short, tense news conference after their Stanley Cup Final Game 4 loss on Wednesday night during which he questioned the legality of Colorado Avalanche center Nazem Kadri's game-winning goal in overtime.

Cooper rambled for a minute on his love of the NHL and his team's journey to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships before focusing on Kadri's goal at 12:02 of overtime, which gave the Avalanche a 3-1 lead in the series.

«This one is going to sting much more than others, just because it was taking on… it was potentially… I don't know… it's hard for me. It's going to be hard for me to speak. I'm going to have to speak. I'll speak with you tomorrow,» he said. «You're going to see what I mean when you see the winning goal. And my heart breaks for the players. Because we probably still should be playing.»

With that, Cooper excused himself after a single question.

Speculation after the game was that the Lightning thought the Avalanche had six skaters on the ice before the game-winning goal was scored. There were camera angles that showed six Colorado skaters on the ice as Kadri collected a pass, skated into the zone and beat goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy for the 3-2 win.

At issue was whether Nathan MacKinnon was close enough to the Avalanche bench to be considered a «retired player» when his teammate jumped on the ice and became engaged in the play. Skaters have to be within 5 feet of the bench and out of the play before a change is made.

«A too many men on the ice penalty is a judgment call that can be made by any of the four on-ice officials,» NHL Hockey Operations said in a statement. «Following the game, Hockey Operations met with the four officials as is their normal