Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper Has Classy Tribute For Retiring Rangers Broadcaster Sam Rosen

Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper shared a very cool moment with legendary broadcaster Sam Rosen on Saturday before the Rangers and Lightning play each other in Tampa.

Rosen — the iconic voice of the Rangers — is calling it a career at the end of this season, and Saturday night will be his final game in Tampa.

So, Cooper decided to take a moment to acknowledge the legendary play-by-play man during his media scrum.

The Athletic's Peter Baugh caught it on camera and shared the very classy moment on X.

"So this is the Rangers' last one here," Cooper began. "This is his last one, so Sam is going to do the press conference with me.

"He may be the greatest hockey announcer."

Rosen was modest, but the two agreed that he's at least in the top three.

"Well, we’ve had some really great ones," Rosen said.

I'm with Cooper. I've talked about it before, but growing up my family had NHL Center Ice cable package, but the local broadcasts were blacked out, so for years I watched Flyers games via the other team's broadcasts. 

A few voices stand out like Doc Emrick, the late voice of the Buffalo Sabres Rick Jeanneret, and, of course, Sam Rosen.

All iconic voices, which I don't think we have as many of these days. Certainly some, but not as many.

Cooper also gave Rosen a bottle of wine as a token of his appreciation for all that he has done for the sport.

"It will never make up for everything you’ve done but thank you," Cooper said, per NHL.com.

Cooper is a class act, and it's always neat to see players and coaches recognize that there are plenty of people off the ice who make the sport of hockey and the National Hockey League as great as they are, and Sam Rosen is certainly one of them.