Tampa Bay Sports Blog

I’ve been attempting to watch as many Lightning games as possible this season as I work 60 hours a week and I find myself wondering, why? If there were Rays, Bucs, Magic and Lightning games on all at the same time, they basically go in that order as I choose to watch them. My first love is baseball and so on, but I love my hometown teams and have stuck with them through thick and thin. I’m really having a hard time with the Lightning though. It’s not just because they’re bad, it’s because there is no direction. I gave the Rays too much attention under Naimoli because they were going nowhere and I knew it, but stuck with them. I give the Bucs too much attention now because Gruden gave me a Super Bowl and I try to pretend he’s not as big a piece of crap as he his because of it, but I stick with them. The Magic give me every reason to believe now, but those Grant Hill years were tough.

The Lightning aren’t giving me anything right now and I keep looking for the silver lining. The problem is that I’m having trouble holding on to it. I posted before that I’m optimistic about them, and I still am, but I’m having a real hard time keeping that attitude. They play well on some nights and that gets me a little. Rick Tocchet is a very likable coach who seems to be the type of guy we want here, and that’s good. The problems still linger though.

The first problem is the ownership. They have been a cluster fuck since they got here. The hiring and firing of the Mullet, the trade of Dan Boyle,the constant rotation of players in and out, and now more Vinny crap. I have no problem with ownership moving a crazy amount of guys if they’re trying to find their way, that’s acceptable. I do have a problem with them moving Vinny right now though.

If they pull this crap on Vinny it will destroy every relationship with the players they have, or could have in the future. Don’t sign a guy to big extension, tell him he won’t get traded, and then trade him. I already wonder if there is any ethics left in our society, please don’t make it any worse. I’m one of the few in the area that thinks Vinny has underachieved since his arrival, but I don’t see the need to move him now. If they would have done it in the off season, I could have accepted it, but to do it now is just dumb. You’re not going to get enough in return now to justify the move and make this team competitive, so please don’t do it.

I truly believe that Oren Koules and company could improve their standing here if they don’t move Vinny. We all know the circus that has invaded town since Koules got here and we know how bad this team has played, but if they go nuts and move the face of the franchise now, I don’t see how they recover. There’s no shot of them turning around and selling the team for more money either so that’s out. Maybe these are just rumors like in the past, but I believe them more now because our ownership is so stupid. We’ll see what happens, but I’m still clinging on for dear life with this franchise and I hope they give me something more to hang on to before I start recording Seinfeld reruns over Lightning games.

Technorati Tags: Barry Melrose, Dan Boyle, Grant Hill, Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Gruden, Oren Koules, Orlando Magic, Rick Tocchet, Super Bowl, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Tampa Bay Rays, Vinny Lecavalier

The Bolts have been a bad team for a couple seasons now and they have become a laughing stock inside the NHL with the circus that they created since acquired by Oren Koules. They are playing better lately but still aren’t anywhere close to the realm of contention and yet I still believe they will be soon. Why? I have come up with some reasons, though they may be lame, and I’ll lay them out for you.

• I like Rick Tocchet. He has the kind of personality that makes you believe he’s got things going in the right direction. He’s a disciplinarian but he seems to have a good relationship with his players and that shows the type of people skills you want in a coach and the team plays hard for him. We’ll see if his plan works, but I like him up top for now.
• We still have Marty and Vinny. Anytime a team has two scoring machines like these guys, they could get hot and jump into contention any minute. Vinny has been hampered with a bad shoulder and looks to have lost something, but he’s not old and I think we all believe he’ll take off at some point. The problem with that statement by itself is that we all have been sort of waiting for the huge season since his arrival. Vinny works hard and has a good attitude but it seems like he’s content with being a star and not a superstar. Vinny has never put together one of those seasons where he just completely distances himself from the rest of the pack and yet for some reason we still believe he will. Puzzler. Marty is Marty and there’s no denying what he is, the ultimate hockey player in someone else’s body. Hope carries us here.
• The defense and goaltenders have showed improvement. There have been a couple solid performances but it hasn’t been consistent enough yet to say they get it, but they look to be on their way. We’re all waiting for them to show more than flashes of it, but the spurts give us hope.

All in all, we may have just overrated this team the last couple years and that’s why we’ve been disappointed and they just are what they are, but I still take the road of optimism here. Even in laying these points out I’m not convinced myself, but every time I watch this team I think it’s coming. They head to Phoenix for a tough one tomorrow so maybe the good team will show and give us more hope. If not, maybe I just need to drink more when watching this club.

Technorati Tags: Martin St. Louis, Oren Koules, Phoenix Coyotes, Rick Tocchet, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vinny Lecavalier

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

Has it gotten so bad over at the Forum that we celebrate the ridiculous overtime loss? I heard a couple people tell me the other day “the Bolts aren’t doing so bad, we lead the league in overtime losses”. Holy shit! How has it come to this? This team has become a chaotic nightmare of players skating aimlessly around with no passion or direction, coaches being fired and management trading players like bad stocks. The Lightning were bad last year but at least we could take solace in the thought that coach Tortorella had been there before and could right the ship with time. His time ran out and Jay Feaster’s did as well. Wait, if you stop and listen very carefully, you can hear them laughing. Do you hear it? I hope that they don’t hurt themselves with the uncontrollable laughing fits that must take place when these guys watch the Lightning play. Oh, you know they’re watching and enjoying every minute of it. Can you blame them? They engineered our Stanley Cup championship and were shown the door like they were a bad one night stand. Oren Koules and his henchmen are off to a terrible start with this franchise and should be ashamed for all they have done to this point. I don’t recall much about the old Lightning team’s we had but this team is well on it’s way to competing with some of the worst we have ever had. I’m about ready to start taking bets that we’ll make more trades than get wins in the rest of the season. Anyone willing to take me up on that one? How ’bout more overtime losses than wins, oh wait, they already do. There’s a home game on Saturday followed by four road games in six days next week, that should be fun huh? Can’t wait!

Technorati Tags: Jay Feaster, John Tortorella, Oren Koules, Tampa Bay Lightning

   Barry Melrose appeared on Ron MacLean’s Hockey Night in Canada and tried to explain his dismissal from the Lightning. I’ve posted to video below and I encourage you to watch it and see if you find it as entertaining as I do. Thanks to Puck Daddy by the way for the heads up on this. Melrose sounds very bitter, as he should be, and blames the players by insinuating that they had to have gone to ownership and complain about him and that’s why he was “dismissed”. No shit, huh Barry? It seems that Mr. Melrose still doesn’t understand that you have to build relationships with players in order to succeed. Now let’s think about this, if things were so bad that the players had to seek out ownership to voice their displeasure with you after 16 games, you were not only NOT building relationships, you were alienating these guys. You did things so poorly that you had a revolt before you finished unpacking. There’s a lot to be said about that. This also screams poor management from the top as Oren Koules and company have created a circus in the Forum that may or may not continue. The first obvious mistake was bringing in Melrose without speaking to the players about it. Now I’m not saying every owner needs to consult with all their players regarding coaching decisions, but it’s wise to at least get a thumbs up from your stars like Vinny and Marty before forcing someone like Melrose, who hadn’t coached in 13 plus years, down their throats. It was ignorant on so many levels that it’s just funny. Let’s see, you remove a Stanley Cup winning coach who carried respect in the locker room in favor of a Hockey Analyst turned coach, nice. In doing this they traded away Dan Boyle, who also carried respect in the locker room, for a guy who you turn around and trade 12 games into his Lightning career. Ownership also GM Jay Feaster in favor of Brian Lawton and that looks to be a mistake as well. Things may not be done getting ugly, but at least the delusional Melrose is finally off the bench and can’t continue his nonsense. So long Mullet, maybe the four letter network will have you back.

Technorati Tags: Barry Melrose, Brian Lawton, Dan Boyle, Jay Feaster, John Tortorella, Martin St. Louis, Matt Carle, Oren Koules, Ron MacLean's Hockey Night in Canada, Tampa Bay Lightning, 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

   With everything being so busy I’ve been neglecting our Lightning. Well I’ve finally mustered up some recent news for the Bolts fans.

•    The NHL’s Board of Governor’s unanimously approved the sale of the Lightning to the new ownership group headed by Oren Koules. We all new this was coming, but the fiasco still isn’t over. There are some other things that need to be finished up by the purchasers, but this should be over with now. In the same article there were some rule changes, check it out here.
•    The Lightning acquired the negotiating rights to former fan favorite F Vaclav “Vinny” Prospal. The Bolts traded away Prospal last year for D Alex Picard, after feuding with coach John Tortorella. He is said to be seeking somewhere around $5 million, but with Torts gone who knows. The Bolts traded one of this years 7th round picks and, if he signs, next years 4th rounder to get Prospal back.
•    And finally, posterboy Vinny Lecavalier hauled in the King Clancy trophy last week. The award is given to the player who “best exemplifies leadership on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution to the community”. Just another day in the fabulous life of Mr. Lecavalier.

   That’s all for the Bolts for now, I’ll get you an update on the draft when it comes.

Scott Brannelly

Sources: Lightning Official Site, Lightning Strikes

Technorati Tags: Alex Picard, John Tortorella, Oren Koules, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vaclav Prospal, Vinny Lecavalier

   The Tampa Bay Lightning seem to be caught in a whirlwind of strange crap right now. The new ownership group headed by Oren Koules are giving a weird vibe with some of the stuff they’re doing. They apparently orchestrated the questionable Brad Richards/Mike Smith swap. Now there are rumors flying (out of Canada first again) that Barry Melrose will replace John Tortorella as head coach. Things are just strange with the Bolts now. First they trade Richards for a goalie that may or may not be good and the first to crack the story was the media in Canada. Now they are rumored to be replacing our Stanley Cup winning head coach with an ugly suit wearing mullet head who hasn’t coached in 13+ years. And they are doing all of this before they actually own the team. I heard something else today too. Apparently they don’t have enough money so they’re getting half of the money from the group they are buying the team from. Huh??!?! This is all just weird. I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised by strange behavior from the guy who does the Saw movies, but damn! Torts may be wearing on this team now but do we really want a guy who has never won more than a Memorial Cup, sports a MULLET and wears the most hideous pin striped suits you’ll ever see? Mr. Tortorella will not be on the market long as he’ll probably go from one screwed up franchise to another in Toronto. The Leafs don’t currently have a coach, GM or President. Perfect fit! I’ll try to pull my finger out of my eye now and sort this out later.

Scott Brannelly

Sources: Damian Cristodero, Damian Cox

Technorati Tags: Barry Melrose, John Tortorella, Mike Smith, Oren Koules, Tampa Bay Lightning