Barry Melrose had a short stint behind the Bolts bench. (Getty Images)

Remember when Barry Melrose left his job at ESPN to become the head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning? If you do that's actually impressive because he lasted only 16 games behind the bench before he was canned and headed back to Bristol.

Without overstating things, it was one of the more bizarre coaching moves we can remember in any sport, at least in recent times. Most coaches don't go 15 years between coaching gigs like Melrose did. Many were perplexed by the Lightning's hiring at the time and it seemed like an all-too-expected ending when he was fired so quickly. There was never even a honeymoon phase.

What exactly went wrong, though? It's not like Melrose doesn't know about hockey or had never coached before. Besides his reluctance to play then-rookie Steven Stamkos very much, Melrose had other hurdles to get over as he explained in his book Dropping the Gloves with an excerpt going online at ESPN.com.

Having players friendly with owners is an unhealthy situation that upsets the chemistry in the dressing room. Maybe you aren't that friendly with the star who is having dinner regularly with the owner. Maybe you start to think he might be throwing you under the bus at those dinners.

Tampa Bay was an impossible scenario for a coach. The players knew it was a screwed-up situation, and I knew it was a screwed-up situation. The owners knew I wasn't going to change, and I knew they weren't going to change. After a short period of time, they decided I wasn't the type of guy they wanted to run their team. I think they consulted with the players. The players didn't really like the way I was doing things, either, so it was an easy thing for them to let me go.

Today's players are very powerful. When I coached the L.A. Kings in 1993, there was one millionaire on the team. In Tampa Bay in 2008, there was only one guy on the team who wasn't a millionaire.

...

You can't have it both ways as a coach. You can't be a disciplinarian and a buddy. You can't be disciplining guys, trying to convince them to do what you want, and have them out socializing with the owner. My termination was the right call because it wasn’t going to work and everyone could see that.

It all makes you wonder why he even took the job in the first place if the signs were so easy to see. The answer lies probably somewhere in the idea of competitive nature and a belief that he could be the one to change things. Of course, that didn't happen.

There are other explanations, too. Things like perhaps there was a reason why Melrose hadn't held a coaching job since he was on the Kings bench in 1993. All I'm saying is it can't all be attributed to the fact that players have changed a lot since he last coached in the NHL.

But it does certainly underscore a point, that players certainly have changed. The millionaire argument is slightly flawed in that inflation has changed the feeling of how rich a millionaire is today vs. 20 years ago. Put another way, a million bucks just doesn't go as far as it used to (that doesn't mean it won't get you far, however).

The culture has changed a bit and players have become slightly more insular -- like the rest of society, frankly -- but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The dynamics evolve and coaches have to evolve, too. Maybe Melrose wasn't able to do that or just didn't want to.

In the end, Melrose was right: It was probably best to end things soon so he could go back to TV, where he is pretty solid (when he's not being Barry Claus).

H/t to Awful Announcing

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