Lightning fire Barry Melrose

That's because I clearly live in fear of you.

 

Um, OK?

 

Good one.

 

I was watching SportsCenter after work tonight, and they had a sound bite from Melrose about the firing. FWIWS, he didn't seem to be very surprised about the pink slip and pretty much fell on his sword, saying he takes full resposibility for the slow start.

 

Decent column on the situation:

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/nov/15/sp-circus-doomed-from-start/sports-columns/

 

So does Carrie Milbank record the same NHL.com commercial with Rick Tocchet?

Along with just about any goalie, I've never been a John Tortorella fan, but I'm guessing he's enjoying this from afar.

 

Scott Burnside of ESPN weighs in.

Three ring circus doesn't begin to describe this.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=burnside_scott&id=3703290


One Lightning player told ESPN.com Friday night that Melrose was incredibly easygoing and personable. But he did not come to camp with a plan that was going to help a team that had undergone a dramatic overhaul of personnel in the offseason.

It was, the player said, like shinny hockey with a few fights thrown in for good measure.

 

So....what's the problem?? LOL, seriously, if that was the case, why was he hired in the first place?

 

Ron MacLean interviewed Barry Melrose on the HNIC preshow. Lot of interesting stuff from Melrose, including:

• Melrose saying that he knew it was coming when people within the organization who "don't (normally) talk were talking" and people "not making eye contact" with him.
  
• He said that the firing was player driven because they don't want to "be held accountable."
  
• Finally, he said that the biggest problem was that the team wasn't scoring.
  
  

 

I don't want to say that a soccer coach sits on the sidelines and sleeps, but if you took the other major sports, I would still say soccer coaches rank fifth in terms of game-time involvement.

Does a soccer coach change the course of the match with their decisions more than a football, basketball, hockey or baseball coach? I'm going to say no.

Now swimming and track, once the meet starts, those guys can go to sleep.

 

You should pay attention to a top level coach during a game. They're very similar to a hockey coach, minus the rolling subs. Constantly tweaking the formation, making adjustments on the fly, especially defensively.

There's a heck of a chess game going on out there, but the fluidity of the game makes it seem the bulk of it is coming from the players own minds.

 

GB, thanks for the heads up on that.

To be honest, I never paid attention to the coach during the 2-3 soccer gamers I was asked to write.