Lightning strikes--and hits Melrose in the mullet

The Tampa Bay Lightning fired coach Barry Melrose Friday, 16 games into the season, leading to the question...

...What took them so long??

It was clearly a mistake to hire Melrose, who hadn't been behind an NHL bench since he spun the Kings out of control 13 years ago. He did some bizarre things, including giving miniscule amounts of playing time to No. 1 overall draft pick Steven Stamkos and skipping practice last week because the team supposedly needed to hear another voice.

If you're 52 games into the season, that might make sense. Melrose's game total had barely reached the teens.

Gary Shelton had a prescient take on the whole mess in the St. Petersburg Times after the Lightning's 4-3, come-from-ahead-loss to the Red Wings on Thursday.

To Melrose's successor, Rick Tocchet, we say: good luck. You'll need lots of it.

--Helene Elliott

Comments

[billy bouy]

Will Tocchet do his own bets now or still be the bag man for Mrs Gretzky too? What a joke---replacing the TV announcer with the Gambler.

[John Husek]

I don't know what the real reason is for Melrose being fired, but 16 games into the season, he wasn't given a fair chance.