from Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now,

Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper laughs when he is asked whether he sees the Lightning influence that coach Derek Lalonde brought to today’s Detroit Red Wings.

“(Lalonde) would be upset if I called him the Baby Bulls,” Cooper said. “But he’s brought much of our influence to Detroit. Now in saying that, Derek had a lot to do with that influence. It wasn’t just a Jon Cooper thing. It was Derek Lalonde, Jeff Halpern, Rob Zettler – it was the whole crew.”

Seeing Red Wings playing Tampa Bay systems makes perfect sense to Cooper, considering the Lightning won back-to-back Stanley Cups. They came close to a third.

“We had a lot of success with it,” Cooper said. “To me, he would be remiss if he didn’t bring something.”

But it isn’t an exact copy.

“There are tweaks – you can tell,” Cooper said. “There is a little Bob Boughner influence in there and Alex Tanguay. They have taken a blueprint and tweaked their own way and we have tweaked it our way. But I would say their solid base is very familiar to us.”

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