You know, this isn't going to convince anyone that the folks running the Tampa Bay Lightning actually know what they're doing.
I mean there's no argument about dumping coach Barry Melrose after six weeks, especially after seeing how disinterested the Lightning have looked in three losses this week. The Bolts weren't even going through the motions convincingly, and they've been as rudderless all season as you might expect from a team that turned over about three-quarters of its roster.
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| 'You lose the hammer with these guys because they have big contracts,' Barry Melrose says. (Getty Images) |
And did we mention that he's never coached before?
Obviously the Lightning are hoping a shakeup will bring them the same results the Blackhawks got when Denis Savard was fired four games into the season. But the difference there is that Joel Quenneville had years of NHL coaching experience when he took over and was able to provide credible leadership immediately.
Maybe that's something Tocchet will do down the road, especially if he shows enough in the foreseeable future to convince Tampa Bay he's not a stopgap solution. He does have some street cred, which Melrose didn't in his first gig since the Los Angeles Kings in 1995. Then again, few people believed Melrose would after spending the last 13 years as a hockey personality on ESPN, especially taking over a team that was in such a state of flux.
Truth is, Melrose never really got the respect he needed from his players. In part that's because the positive vibes he was noted for with the Kings were nowhere to be found in Tampa Bay. Instead, Melrose got overwhelmed by the weight of unrealistic expectations this season for Tampa Bay and was rattled early. From the first weekend in Europe, Melrose took to calling out his players in the media, and according to some, he was blasting individuals by name in meetings. And there was an embarrassing report two weeks ago in Toronto that claimed one of the new owners was diagramming plays in the dressing room before a game. The report was vehemently denied by owner Oren Koules, who also insisted at the time that Melrose's job was safe.
But if it wasn't apparent then that the Lightning players weren't playing for him, it was when Melrose was dumped. That means Koules and co-owner Len Barrie probably won't get many complaints about firing the coach six weeks into the season. In fact, they might even get some kudos for finally facing reality. But they didn't figure it out until Melrose played his all-in card at an off day meeting this week.
The coach ripped his players a new one after an ugly loss in Washington and then he left them to figure things out on their own at a practice. It was a dramatic last gasp effort to motivate the players he hadn't been able to all season, but Tampa Bay then turned in a feeble effort, being shut out by the Panthers and then blew a lead to lose at home against Detroit the following night.
"That was concerning," admitted Lightning general manager Brian Lawton.
And likely the last straw. Lawton said he had been considering a coaching change seriously for about a week, but that he had been evaluating Melrose all season. Lawton said he was particularly disappointed with Tampa Bay's offensive output, and that he finally came to the conclusion that Melrose wasn't a good fit philosophically.
"He's a good man and I have a lot of respect for him, but I'm not pleased with where we are and not with the direction we are taking," Lawton said.
Melrose had been hired before Lawton joined the Lightning as part of the top-to-bottom overhaul engineered when Koules and Barrie bought the team in June. The brash new owners set out to be active and audacious and had a lot of people shaking their heads with their fantasy-like moves in signing free agents, making trades and filling key organizational positions.
But nothing stood out as much as the hiring of Melrose after so many years away from the bench. Melrose kept insisting that it was all like riding a bike, but in an interview this week before he was fired, admitted that he found it more difficult to deal with players making a lot more money than they used to.
"You lose the hammer with these guys because they have big contracts," said Melrose, who signed a three-year contract worth a reported $6 million with Tampa Bay in June. "You can't bench them or send them down. They're going to be there no matter what you do or say and you may not be. They know that."
Someone should have told the bosses.
