Tampa Bay Sports Blog

Ok, this is going to be a long one as I try to catch up with the mess that is the Tampa Bay Lightning but I’ll do my best to keep it short. I’ll do it in bullets to try and make it easier to follow my rambling. Before the bullet points I’ll point out that the Bolts lost again and the toll is now at 8 straight win-less games. This team does suck right now. Let’s get to it.

• Radim Vrbata requested to go back to his native Czech Republic for “personal reasons” and the Bolts are relieved of his duties and contract for this year. I don’t know what his personal reasons are and, as you know, I don’t get into that but I am left wondering if he would still want to do this if the team were doing well. In the linked article Vrbata’s agent explains good reasons for Radim to request this but it still leaves me dumbfounded. If the team were good I don’t believe this would’ve happened. It’s explained that this relieves the Lightning of the $3 million owed to Vrbata for this season but he gets re-assigned to the Lightning in the summer and they will need to deal with it then. Small problem within larger ones for this messed up squad right now so I won’t dwell on this.

Barry Melrose is a bitter, scorned woman. There’s no other way to put this. He sounds like a whiny bitch now. Let’s try to analyze what he said.

• First Melrose says that ownership fired him because he wouldn’t let them run the team. He says he wasn’t playing the right guys enough and other guys too much. Ok Barry, is ownership not supposed to question what you were doing with their team when you were losing?! You didn’t have anything going in the right direction and everyone, including you, knew that these were going to be hands on owners from the get go. Why shouldn’t they question your decisions when your losing? I’m not defending ownership completely here, but if Melrose claims ignorance here by implying that he didn’t realize that ownership would be involved, he’s dumber than I thought he was.
• Then he says that Rick Tocchet is a puppet for ownership and that they are actually coaching the team. Why aren’t they in the coaches box then Barry? We’ve all seen controlling owners in sports, Daniel Snyder, Mark Cuban, etc., but they don’t call plays. They don’t call line changes, teach defense and they damn sure don’t make in game adjustments. That’s all on the coaches. Now I’m not saying that Tocchet is doing a better job than you Barry, but how can you call him a puppet if you kept the job with them doing the same thing to both of you? Last I checked, you got fired. If you didn’t want to be a puppet you would’ve quit because they were interfering too much, wouldn’t you have tough guy?
• He says that Steven Stamkos isn’t ready for the NHL and he shouldn’t be playing. Again, how come you played him then Barry? It’s not like you said this while you were here. You were one of the guys praising him and his talent. I agree that Stamkos isn’t ready for the NHL, but you can’t say that if you played him and want to pretend that you weren’t a puppet for ownership at the same time. You did the same thing Tocchet is doing, you just have no people skills, which leads to the final point.
• Barry Melrose says that he never got close with any of the players here. Was that ownerships fault too? Did they tell you not to spend time with the players? Did they tell you not to have conversations with guys at practice? Did they tell you that you had to coach guys but never get to know them? No, Barry. This was completely your fault. I could see the owners being controlling, forcing the issue with the highly touted draft pick, even telling you to tread lightly with certain things. I can guarantee all of you that no one told this jerk to not get to know any of the players. That’s all you Barry, and that’s why you got fired. The players probably complained about you because you didn’t get to know any of them and that’s why you didn’t know what any of them were capable of. This is where the scorned woman thing comes in. You sound like the woman that can’t understand why her boyfriend cheated on her. Maybe it was you, maybe he’s just one of those assholes who has to do that, either way, there’s nothing to figure out. It’s over. Move on and find something better. When you got hired here there was a general feeling that you didn’t really want to coach again because you enjoyed being an analyst and were done coaching because you wanted to be. You’re telling us all now that you have always wanted to coach and are pissed off now because you can’t. You conned Oren Koules into believing that you were a good coach who just wanted to be an analyst now and it would take a lot to make you come back. We see now that no one wanted you to coach and that’s why you’ve been an analyst for all these years. If that’s not true then why do you care so much what a messed up ownership group did to you so early in a bad season? You know what Barry, I don’t care if the Lightning lose every game for the rest of the year (as you want them to do you petty bitch), I’m just happy you’re gone. I, Scott Brannelly, call you a bitch. You’re a sorry excuse for a man who wasn’t tough enough to play or coach hockey and I would happily tell you that to your face if you were man enough to meet me.

Ok, last points and I’ll be quick. Rick Tocchet and Steven Stamkos both responded to the idiot Barry Melrose but I’m not going to cover it. If you want to read them you can click here and here. Tocchet doesn’t need to respond because his reputation far exceeds Melrose’s and it doesn’t matter anyway. He’s the coach and he’s got to try and fix a very bad team, tough enough problem as it is. Stamkos doesn’t need to respond because he’s a kid and he just has to worry about playing as well as he can. They both had good responses but they weren’t necessary. Melrose is a stupid bitch and nothing he says matters now anyway. Nothing else really matters within all this, Melrose is a jackass and removing him was the right move. I’ll dog out ownership for the consistently stupid moves that they’ve made since arriving (Melrose being one) but at least they corrected that mistake. Tocchet may not be the right guy, but it doesn’t matter. Stamkos may end up being a bust, but that doesn’t matter right now either. The team sucks right now and I’ll continue bashing them for that, but Barry Melrose is gone and I know I’ll be happy about that regardless of the end result of this season. The woman who wears bad suits will probably not shut up, especially if the Lightning keep losing, but this is the last time I’ll talk about his sorry ass.

Technorati Tags: Barry Melrose, Daniel Snyder, Mark Cuban, Oren Koules, Radim Vrbata, Rick Tocchet, Scott Brannelly, Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning

   Man that was brutal. Olaf Kolzig got beat down quickly and the Bolts didn’t stand a chance from there. The Lightning looked bad in every way giving up 5 goals before answering with 3 quick scores in the second. Vrbata, St. Louis and Malone did what they could to get the Bolts back in the game, but it was too little too late. They were outshot again 45-29 and the Devils eased up on them late. There is no breaking this down, the Lightning absolutely sucked last night! The offense can’t hang on to the puck, they flail shots with no direction and mishandle the puck way too much. The defense is atrocious, leaving holes all over, not pressuring the puck handler and let Kolzig get beat up on. Kolzig looked slow and out of it and did nothing to secure his position as temp starter while Mike Smith is out. Kari Ramo came in and did an adequate job in mopping up this mess, but the rest of the team needs to fix itself before any goalie will be able to succeed here. Smith has been coming on and Kolzig knows what he’s doing back there, but if the rest of the team skates around like they’re in the Ice-Capades and not the NHL, we’ll all be praying for more OVERTIME LOSSES! It was an embarrassing showing at home and these guys should be ashamed to go out in public right now. Melrose and Torts are gone, can you play well for anyone!? Don’t get us excited with wins if you’re going to come out and get your ass whooped the next night out. This team has too much talent to get beat like this. Stop sucking and play some GD hockey!

Technorati Tags: Barry Melrose, John Tortorella, Karri Ramo, Martin St. Louis, Mike Smith, New Jersey Devils, Olaf Kolzig, Radim Vrbata, Ryan Malone, Tampa Bay Lightning

   The Lightning came out fired up and ready to prove something under new coach Rick Tocchet. They looked better but couldn’t pull out a win on the road, losing 3-2. It’s a tough go in Carolina as it is, and under a new coachthey did about as good as expected. The defense only allowed 30 shots on goal, of which Mike Smith stopped 28, in regulation and overtime. They dropped it in the shootout that Carolina took when Rod Brind’Amour slipped one past Smith and Jussi Jokinen couldn’t answer. I think Tocchet is the type of coach that can get the best out of this team and he should have the rest of this season to prove it. Vinny and Marty had a goal a piece which is a great sign, especially against a tough goalie like Cam Ward. There was also talk yesterday that Steven Stamkos could be moved to the front line along side Vinny and Marty which would move Vinny Prospal to the second line with Radim Vrbata. I would like that move a lot. Stamkos said the pressure would then be on him but I disagree. I think it would take pressure off of him and give Vrbata a more experienced player to help get his offense going. There only needs to be some minor tweaking offensively to get things going and I think this move would help dramatically. The Bolts play at home tonight against the Florida Panthers and we’ll see how they do in the Forum. I’ll get to the Barry Melrose situation later today.

Technorati Tags: Barry Melrose, Cam Ward, Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, Jussi Jokinen, Martin St. Louis, Mike Smith, Radim Vrbata, Rick Tocchet, Rod Brind'Amour, Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vaclav Prospal, Vinny Lecavalier

   In the last month the Lightning have gone from the least talked about team in the NHL to the most talked about. They have been bought by Oren Koules and gang (finally), hired the Mullet, traded Dan Boyle and oh god let’s stop for a second. I’ll list all the moves by date below but I want to hit on the Dan Boyle trade. There was a ton of reaction to this and I need to put my two cents in. I agree with everyone who said it was a shady move by the new group to lie to Boyle and turn around a trade him. That was an asshole move that we have seen all too often from some other guys in the area (rhymes with Gruden and Allen, oops) and is not something I want to see become a trend with these guys. That being said, it was a good move. Boyle was overpaid and overrated as a defender. He was a good player but the picks we got for him are worth more than he would’ve been to this team. He may be missed as a teammate but no where else. As far as the rest of the moves, I like the aggressiveness of the organization in trying to improve the worst team in hockey. They have not been shy in any way about free agents or trades. There isn’t much to rave about or bitch about either as we need to see how all these guys play together under “The Mullet” before anything can be said. Below are all the major transactions made over the last month.

• June 25th: Hired Barry “The Mullet” Melrose as head coach.
• June 26th: Bought out Marc Denis’ contract (finally)!
• June 28th: Acquired the rights to LW’s Ryan Malone and Gary Roberts from the Penguins for an ‘09 conditional draft pick.
• June 29th: Acquired the rights to RW Brian Rolston from the Wild for a conditional draft pick in ‘09 or ‘10.
• June 30th: Acquired D Janne Niskala from the Flyers for a sixth round pick in ‘09. Signed Gary Roberts to a one year deal, Vinny Prospal to a multi year contract and Ryan Malone to a seven year deal.
• July 1st: Signed RW’s Radim Vrbata and Adam Hall to three year deals and veteran G Olaf Kolzig to a one year deal (love this move by the way).
• July 3rd: Signed C Ryan Craig to a two year deal and D Janne Niskala to a one year deal.
• July 4th: Traded D’s Dan Boyle and Brad Lukowich to the Sharks for D’s Matt Carle and Ty Wishart and a 1st and 4th round draft pick. Also signed LW David Koci and C Wyatt Smith to one year deals and D Scott Jackson to a three year deal.
• July 8th: Signed RW Evgeny Artuykin to a multi year deal (finally), RW Brandon Bochenski to a two year deal and RW Marc Recchi to a one year deal.
• July 10th:  Signed D Andrew Hutchinson to a two year deal.
• July 11th: Signed C Zenon Konopka to a two year deal.
• July 12: Jay Feaster resigns immediately as GM. Signed C Chris Gratton to a one year deal.
• July 13th: Sign Vinny Lecavalier to an 11 year, $85 million extension.
• July 15th: Signed G Mike Smith to a two year extension.

   There are more things that took place as far as coaching changes and what not, but these are the more notable transactions. I’ll have some reaction to these over the next few days, right now we’re just catching up. Good day to you now as my fingers are numb.

Scott Brannelly

Source: ESPN

Technorati Tags: Adam Hall, Andrew Hutchinson, Barry Melrose, Brad Lukowich, Brandon Bochenski, Brian Rolston, Bruce Allen, Dan Boyle, David Koci, Evgeny Artyukhin, Gary Roberts, Janne Niskala, Jay Feaster, Jon Gruden, Marc Denis, Marc Recchi, Matt Carle, Mike Smith, Olaf Kolzig, Oren Koules, Radim Vrbata, Ryan Craig, Ryan Malone, Scott Brannelly, Scott Jackson, Tampa Bay Lightning, Ty Wishart, Vaclav Prospal, Vinny Lecavalier, Wyatt Smith, Zenon Konopka