It’s difficult for the Tampa Bay players to focus on the ice with so much going on off it.
I had the opportunity to take in a Tampa Bay Lightning game Wednesday night.
They don't look entirely like a broken team, just a very beaten down one and therein lays the problem.
The Lightning, judging by their performance against the Buffalo Sabres in a 4-2 loss in the HSBC Arena, haven't quit on themselves and their constantly-revamping coaching staff. They played a reasonably good road game, took an early lead and lost it on some big-play mistakes and some miscues in their own end. They did play hard and with an edge and were pretty much in a tight, one-goal game until very late in the contest. It seems more a case of just not being able to put all the pieces together what with the never-ending changes regarding player rotations and the changing coaching staff. Still, they appeared to have a game plan and their problems were of the sort that could resolve themselves over time.
"When things go the wrong way, you have not so much to play a perfect game, but you have to play a smart game," interim coach Rick Tocchet said. It was a bit of a step back from a previous statement where he said the team needed to be perfect to win. It was a kind of unspoken concession that he might be putting too much pressure on his team to win and that he's learning as he goes along.
But the problem is, that time when controversy is a thing of the past will never come unless some people who don't wear the once-proud uniform of a Stanley Cup champion shut the heck up and let the players find their way.
I'm not just singling out deposed coach Barry Melrose in that regard (though there are rumours that Lightning ownership may go to the courts to quiet his criticisms regarding possible violations of his contract). Melrose is a spurned coach and a scorned former employee and his frustrations, though not always warranted, are at least understandable. He got 16 games to prove he was on top of his game after being away for over 13 seasons. It wasn't fair and I've stated before in this space it wasn't right. There's a reason Melrose was banished to the broadcast booth after his time with the Los Angeles Kings and those who do the hiring and firing in the NHL know it. He never should have been hired in Tampa in the first place.
But continuing the feud in public as ownership has shown a tendency to do is clearly a distraction on the team.
In the most recent exchange, Melrose, now back as an analyst with ESPN, said in a radio interview that he hopes the Lightning lose every game and that No.1 draft pick Steven Stamkos (first overall in the 2008 Entry Draft) isn't ready for NHL play. He has said that before, but this time he upped the ante by saying that Tocchet is a tool, essentially on management's string.
Tocchet, who because of previous gambling infraction is on a short string, normally keeps a low profile, but he has taken exception to that remark insisting he is his own man.
"I take it personally," Tocchet told the St.Petersburg Times just before the team arrived in Buffalo. "I'm not a puppet. Ownership doesn't tell me who to play."
Tocchet went on to say: "I'm not a fan of people who go to the mic all the time to air their dirty laundry. You have a problem, it should have been done before."
Tough talk, but that adds more distractions to the team and they were compounded by ownership that has to walk the fine line between defending itself and keeping the controversies alive.
General manger Brian Lawton insisted the organization wanted to get past Melrose's "classless" statements and it should have stopped there, but co-owner Len Barrie jumped in and said Melrose's preparation before the start of the season was akin to "total negligence."
Saying he wanted to respond "for the team" Barrie said he was never as close (read: on board to hiring) to Melrose as his partner, Oren Koules. "But my thing is you're paid to do a job, and he didn't do it from day one," Barrie said. "How he came in and prepared for this job was total negligence."
Comments like that are likely to keep the feud out in public for days to come and while it makes for a great story, it isn't helping the Lightning.
Stamkos is just 18 and though he says Melrose's criticisms don't bother him, it's hard to imagine that a teenager can't be set back by pointed criticism from his coach behind closed doors let alone via a public platform across hockey's broadcast world.
For the rest of the team, well, it's like waking up to a bad dream over and over and over again.
"Each game is a new day," Ryan Craig said, "and it seems like we're getting the same results. We can't have that."
True, but it's darn near impossible to change it when every day the primary focus on the team is exactly the same as the last one and the one before that and the one before that.
