Thunder in Lightning
Now that the Lightning have officially been handed over to the new ownership group and they have made good on their promise to be “very aggressive” in Free Agency, it is time to show some summertime love for my team.
With the laundry list of names that are coming in and going out (mostly coming in), I want to keep this post as short as possible to generally summarize the moves the team has made within the front office and on the roster.
Following is as thorough a list of incoming front office personnel as I could find:
- Oren Koules, Owner
- Len Barrie, Owner
- Russell Belinsky, Owner
- Mark Burg, Owner
- Jordan Zimmerman, Owner
- Dr. Richard C. Lehman, Owner
- Irwin Novack, Owner
- Craig Sher, Owner
- Brian Lawton, Vice President of Hockey Operations
- Mike Vernon, Special Assistant to the Vice President of Hockey Operations
Following is the incoming coaching staff:
- Barry Melrose, Head Coach
- Rick Tocchet, Assistant Coach
- Wes Walz, Assistant Coach
- Cap Raeder, Assistant Coach
And, last, following is a list of incoming players:
- Ryan Malone
- Radim Vrbata
- Matthew Carle
- Janne Niskala*
- Mark Recchi
- Olaf Kolzig
- Evgeny Artyukhin*
- Vaclav Prospal
- Brandon Bochenski
- Adam Hall
- Andrew Hutchinson
- Gary Roberts
- Wyatt Smith
- Ty Wishart
- Scott Jackson*
- David Koci*
Players with an asterisk are players that are not listed as part of the team by the NHL or the NHLPA, but have been listed in official articles or weblogs as having signed with the Lightning in some capacity.
The list of outgoing players and personnel is somewhat slim in comparison. No longer with the team are John Tortorella, Jay Feaster, Dan Boyle, Andre Roy*, Matthew Darche*, Andreas Karlsson*, and Karl Stewart*. Players with an asterisk denote players that were under contract through 2007 but have not been re-signed by the team.
So there’s been a lot of movement. The history of sports dictates that this can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing. Generally, when a new ownership group takes over, you expect a certain amount of turnover and collateral damage. This certainly seems to be the case here. Of course, those of you who know me know that I’m certainly not crying or losing sleep over John Tortorella’s departure and am only losing a very small amount of sleep over Feaster’s departure. You can’t put a last place product on the ice and expect to stay, particularly when there has been a measurable, steady and finite decline since winning the Stanley Cup four years ago. What I can say for sure is that this ownership group promised to be aggressive out of the gate and they have certainly kept their word. What I can’t say as of this writing is how that will translate on the ice this season or in seasons to come. But I can speculate from a fan’s perspective.
Before I get into speculation, I wanted to talk about the Town Hall Meeting held at the St. Pete Times Forum this past Tuesday. I enjoyed this event tremendously. Not only did it give the fans an opportunity to mingle with the new ownership group, the new head coach and the centerpiece of our team, it also presented opportunities to purchase merchandise and beer at a significantly reduced cost. About halfway through the community question and answer session, I decided I had heard enough of questions that were not going to be answered and wanted to lighten the mood a bit. I expressed to the ownership group that if there were any questions on having to sell hockey to the city of Tampa, they were unfounded and followed with a light-hearted request to have Melrose wigs offered at the home opener. To my surprise, Barry Melrose himself seized the opportunity to poke fun at my own personal “do”, asking how I managed to get it to stick up. This was almost the highlight of my day until the end of the event when the floor was opened up for fans to mingle with the owners, Melrose and Vinny. We spoke to Barry Melrose briefly and then Oren Koules sought me out to discuss my marketing question (I had also been approached by a young fellow in a suit that was apparently part of the marketing department). I won’t discuss the particulars of that conversation, in part because no definitive answers were provided, but also out of respect for the element of surprise. This event was more than worth the price of admission and my only regret is that I wasn’t in any position to put down funds on a ticket package at that time.
Of course, during the question and answer session, the questions that have been burning on everyone’s mind were posed:
1) What about the defense and are we going to sign this guy or that guy or the other guy? Honestly, I’m not sure what people expected them to say. It is well known fact that ownership groups, General Managers and Coaches don’t publicly discuss their personnel planning and were only going to give the glazed over broad response. Seriously. I got so sick to my stomach listening to people trying to fish for answers that weren’t coming it made me ill.
2) How do you respond to the allegations of mistreatment by Dan Boyle? Again, what was the anticipated response? Did we think they were going to come out and say: “Yeah, well we gave ole Danny Boy the shaft and we did it with intent and malice”. Judging by my brief interactions, these guys were cordial, inviting and down to Earth. Though I understand the disappointment Dan Boyle must have felt in being taken down a path he didn’t anticipate going down, the business of hockey (or any sport, for that matter) dictates that plans can change at the drop of a hat. Unfortunately, in this situation, his contract was far too great to share on a roster with Vinny Lecavalier, Marty St. Louis and down the road, Steven Stamkos.
3) (To Melrose) What about those comments about the Lightning in 2004? Now, seriously, did we have to go there? I’ve stated this in response to some of the local media blogs, but I will reiterate here: Barry Melrose was a hockey analyst for a major media outlet and was tasked in this position with providing concise, educated and objective hockey commentary. He did exactly that and he was wrong. Show me a sports analyst that is always right and I’ll show you a psychic. Seriously, these guys are wrong from time to time. I certainly enjoyed Melrose’s spin much more than the likes of a Howie Long or a Chris Collinsworth on the NFL side.
4) OMMFGROFLOL…..But what about Andre Roy? Seriously folks, Andre Roy is a highly entertaining individual and I, as much as any other fan of the Lightning have enjoyed watching him do his thing over the years. I’ve watched Andre hold his own in a fight with Donald Brashear….something few are able to do. But entertainment doesn’t win games. With the aggressive fourth-line players that have been brought together who also exhibit some level of pure hockey ability, Andre Roy simply doesn’t fit in. Granted, he has the hardest shot I have ever seen as much as Martin Straka has the fastest skates I’ve ever seen. But his shot has no control and rarely finds a home in the net. If Andre doesn’t come back, I will certainly be there with everyone missing the chants of “We Want Roy”, but I’m not going to say that I don’t think the team can and will be better without him. He’s not an asset in the purest hockey sense.
With those questions addressed, this brings us to the heart of the matter. New faces, new questions and what would seem like a major deficiency in talent along the blueline. I’ll touch on the Defense first.
From a casual fan’s perspective, I am not entirely convinced that we know what level of talent we have on this team along the blueline. Anyone who watched Tortorella’s system with any level of tactile analysis understands very well that our blueliners played deep into the offensive zone, often leaving the neutral zone wide open for the odd-man rush. Additionally, I’ve watched for the four years that I’ve been back in Tampa as players at all positions along all of the lines show a complete lack of fundamentals. Passing had a tendency to be sloppy and inconsistent, shooting sloppy and inconsistent and defense sloppy and inconsistent. Any expert in any sport will tell you that a team that lacks in fundamentals is going to have a hard time winning. Conversely, if our current lineup of blueliners are as dreadful as many fans and analysts are speculating, all the more reason to sign the great number of prospects that have been a part of this transition. Seriously. This year may NOT be a successful year, but if it isn’t the future sure as hell looks brighter than it did three weeks ago. And it most definitely looks more aggressive.
Of course, this touches on Feaster’s departure and his impact on the team. While Jay Feaster can be credited with building the team that ultimately won the Stanley Cup, he can also be credited with depleting the farm. In any sport that has a farm system, be it hockey or baseball or even basketball to a smaller degree, that farm system is going to be the future and direction of a franchise. This franchise has been short on NHL caliber prospects for quite some time. It is the responsibility of the General Manager to ensure that all player personnel moves and acquisitions are aligned with the direction of the franchise. Jay Feaster failed to maintain an adequate farm system to take us through the difficult transition from the pre-cap era to the cap era. Whether he was forced out, encouraged to get out or simply decided to leave, it was time for both him AND Tortarella to go.
From all appearances, we certainly seem to be more than stocked along our forward lines. Running three scoring lines deep where we were lucky if we had two just a few short weeks ago, this should certainly make for some interesting hockey. Add to that a fourth line that appears to be built with a dual-purpose of hard-nosed, bruised and bloody hockey while still retaining a certain level of scoring potential, and we should be in for a real treat in the Box Scores this upcoming season.
Much like my thoughts on the defense, I feel that the goal-tending situation has question marks all over it, based on Tortorella’s style. The addition of Olie should certainly provide a veteran presence that can only help with the development of Ramo and Smith, I think those two may have more in the tank than we were witness to previously. As the defensemen play deep into the offensive zone and increase odd-man rush opportunities, by default, they leave the goal-tenders out to dry. I’m looking forward to seeing how these players work under a new system and a new philosophy of hockey.
Change is in the air and I tend to like what I am seeing, though I will withhold final judgment until a product has taken the ice. Though I’m disappointed that the first two games are being sent to Prague and we’ll have to wait another week after to get our first glimpse on home ice, I certainly can’t wait to see what happens when they get back. I will be there in the stands cheering on our guys new and old. I hope to see my fellow fans filling every seat in the arena and cheering along with me, even if those cheers don’t rhyme with “She Punt Pa”………..