Barry Melrose, Head Coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning was fired Friday afternoon after leading his team to a 5-7-4 record. Lightning GM Brian Lawton said the decision had little to do with"wins and losses" and more to do with the direction in which the program was headed.
Melrose, who has been involved with professional hockey for several decades and winner of the 1993 Stanley Cup Championship, has never changed his view on the game of hockey. As such, this talk of "direction of the program" seems to fall on deaf ears. Lawton knew exactly the type of Coach that he ws hiring in Melrose. The issue in Tampa Bay is that the players and others in the organization could not handle him.
Throughout his career, he has been a hard-working, demanding, and tough hockey coach who does the one thing that got him fired: he holds everyone accountable. In modern sports today, athletes as well as the front office do not like the term accountability, and Melrose went south to Tampa to make everyone hear the music.
I am not an advocate of Melrose as much as I am suspicious and disappointed in the Tampa Bay Lightning organization. Firing a coach after less than 20 games into an NHL season is an obvious masking to a much greater problem in the franchise.
This team won the Stanley Cup in 2004, hockey's greatest prize, the hardware of champions, and, if this firing shows me anything, it is that Tampa fans have a long way to wait before they can think about winning it again.
With that being said, I missed the Melrose Mullet on pre-game and post-game hockey shows and will thoroughly enjoy having him back on TV if he so desires. Hockey missed its greatest voice, with the exception of Don Cherry, and the fans will welcome him back with open arms.
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about 1 month ago
At least Matthew Barnaby is out at ESPN.
about 1 month ago
artistic differences, wtf give the guy a chance , the firing was shady...Melrose would have had an impact with more time...Tochet will get the time I'm afraid, but they wont make the playoffs.....
about 1 month ago
he did not win the 93 championship the Kings lost to the Canadians.
about 1 month ago
Melrose himself said players didn't want to play for him. When Pat Burns got fired from the Leafs, he put it best - "You can't keep on trading foot soldiers all the time. Sooner or later, the general's got to go."
If a coach goes toe-to-toe with a franchise player, the player will win. Guaranteed, every time.
(Just ask Kevin Constantine.)
That said, I do think Tampa Bay is a big ball of chaos right now. If you want to know when ownership groups get overly involved in the day-to-day workings of teams, look at Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders.
There are cash issues, ice-time issues, motivation issues - it just sounds like a disaster. A bad year to be a Lightning fan, that's for sure.
about 1 month ago
Well said Jennie. I agree, I do not think Melrose was the right fit for Tampa Bay, but I think him being fired is a representation that there are bigger problems in Tampa. Thats my guess anyways.
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