This particular NHL season has a little more riding on the line in the early going, as countries prepare to name their rosters for the Olympic competition in 2010.
In the Western Conference, there is a clear group of contenders, followed by a small group of teams on the rise, with a group of pretenders in the caboose.
The Final Four is now set, but which players have had the greatest individual success through the first two rounds of the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs?
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The Barry Melrose experiment lasted only 16 games as Tampa Bay Lightning GM Brian Lawton gave the hook to their bench boss after a disappointing start to the season. The Lightning will now roll the dice on Rick Tocchet, whom they hired to lead their team on an interim basis.
The expectations were high for the Lightning entering the season after revamping the makeup of the team over the summer, including the hiring of Barry Melrose, his first NHL coaching gig since 1995. The hiring of Melrose was a bold move that many questioned due to his time away from the job and the fact that he has a dismal 79-101-29 record during his tenure with the Los Angeles Kings.
The Lightning’s blueprint for success has not gone as planned this season as Tampa Bay has sputtered to a 5-7-4 start, which ultimately has led to the termination of Melrose. The coaching change is a direct attempt to salvage the season, but was 16 games enough to judge Melrose’s performance?
Melrose becomes the second coach this season to get fired. The Chicago Blackhawks relieved Denis Savard of his services on October 16th, just four games into the season. The move has worked so far for the Blackhawks as they have posted a 6-1-4 record since Savard’s dismissal.
The Lightning now takes their chances on Rick Tocchet, who inherits a team that is dead last in scoring, with just 34 goals in 16 games and are currently in fourth place in the Southeast Division. If the season can be saved, Tocchet will have to use his NHL experience to guild a lost and, at times, unwatchable Lightning team. Besides playing in the NHL for 18 seasons, Tocchet has experience behind the bench as an assistant coach for the Colorado Avalanche, Phoenix Coyotes, and this season assisting Barry Melrose.
Tocchet has had some trouble away from the rink. The 44-year-old was out of the game for two years following an investigation on his involvement in a sports gambling ring. He pled guilty to the charges to avoid jail time and was given two years probation. Tocchet was reinstated by the NHL last February, resuming his position at the time as an assistant coach of the Phoenix Coyotes.
Tocchet will have to do an immense amount of work to make this team successful. With all the new faces in the lineup this season, Tocchet’s main concern will be connecting the pieces of the puzzle to make this group of players a cohesive team, something Melrose was unable to do.
The eight-man Lightning ownership group that is headed by former player Len Barrie and Hollywood producer Oren Koules, want to win now and have no patience to wait for success. Quite a sum of money was spent on assembling this team, and anything but the playoffs will be considered a failure.
The NHL is a high stakes game in which Barry Melrose went for broke. If the Lighting does not succeed soon, GM Brain Lawton and new interim coach Rich Tocchet will soon follow Melrose to the unemployment line.
