NHL coach suggests putting ‘skirts’ on goalies during press conference rant

After watching his team get eliminated from the NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 6-1 loss to the Florida Panthers, Cooper expressed frustration during his press conference over Tampa Bay having goals disallowed in the first and second periods of the game.

The Tampa Bay Lightning had two goals nullified for interference Monday night, prompting head coach Jon Cooper to suggest dressing goalies in skirts.

“We might has well put skirts on them then… I think we’re letting the goalies off the hook.”

Lightning coach Jon Cooper weighs in with his perspective on the two disallowed goals tonight and the impact those decisions had on the game. pic.twitter.com/FD1hewDsbC

— Bally Sports Sun: Lightning (@BallyLightning) April 30, 2024

“There was maybe incidental contact at most,” Cooper noted before posing a question to the room. “Net front battles aren’t allowed anymore? That’s part of everybody’s game, is like the boxing out that goes there. It’s like prison rules in the playoffs, but it’s not prison rules for the goalie? The second something happens, we might as well put skirts on them then if that’s how it’s gonna be. I mean they have to battle through stuff too…It’s a war down there and I think we’re letting the goalies off the hook. They’ve got way more pads on than everybody else does.”

Cooper began by making a reasonable argument about the way playoff hockey is officiated and having different rules for different players, but the execution of his argument fell short. It was an unnecessary analogy that ignored the physical nature of women’s hockey and overshadowed the NHL coach’s larger point.

Misogynistic tropes such as “you throw like a girl” and “you play like a girl,” or even Tiger Woods handing his opponent a tampon on the golf course, equates being a woman to being weak. It implies women are inferior to men and subsequently, the comments serve as a detriment to women’s sports. Ironically, Cooper’s blunder comes at a time where women’s sports are not only thriving, but in the example of college basketball, they’re surpassing men in some measures of popularity.

The other curious thing about Cooper’s comment is the fact that the Bally Sports Sun Tampa Bay Lightning social media team chose to promote the goalies in “skirts” analogy on Twitter. They must have recognized the comment had the potential to spark controversy, but the social media account handler opted to highlight it anyway.

We would be naïve to assume suggesting goalies wear skirts is the worst thing being said in NHL locker rooms. But that doesn’t negate the fact that Cooper’s analogy should have already been eliminated from public interviews and press conferences. It should serve as a reminder that attempting to slight an athlete by comparing them to women is a very outdated practice.

[Bally Sports Sun]