NHL Southeast: Tampa no longer Melrose's place
Sports Network | November 15, 2008
(Sports Network) - It's hardly a shocking occurrence when an NHL head coach gets fired, but few people could have seen the Tampa Bay Lightning's dismissal of Barry Melrose coming.
Melrose waited over 13 years to make his return to an NHL bench and only had 16 games to prove his worth to the Tampa brass.
Now, I wasn't a fan of the hiring in the first place considering how much the game has changed since Melrose last was a head coach with Los Angeles in the mid-1990s, but it's hard to blame him for the Lightning's 5-7-4 start to the season.
The Bolts have been on a downhill trajectory since winning the franchise's first and only Stanley Cup in 2004, and, despite numerous personnel changes over the summer, they weren't picked by many to make the playoffs this year.
The Lightning made matters worse by replacing Melrose with associate coach Rick Tocchet, who last garnered headlines for his involvement in a massive betting ring based in southern New Jersey. Tocchet is taking over the team on an interim basis and will be an NHL head coach for the first time.
Simply speaking, this is a terrible start for the new ownership in Tampa. New owners Len Barrie and Oren Koules took control of the franchise on June 23 and announced Melrose as the head coach the following day. General manager Jay Feaster then resigned on July 11 and Brian Lawton immediately took over as the team's GM and executive vice president.
Maybe Lawton never wanted Melrose as his head coach, but he should've at least given him a full season to try his hand at leading the Lightning, who are, after all, in a rebuilding process.
Tocchet may do better than Melrose with this team, but he'll also have more time to prove himself.
The decision to hire Melrose may have been a poor decision, but firing him after such a brief tenure was much worse.
CAPITALS: THE ALEX & ALEX SHOW
The Washington Capitals have won five straight and seven of their last nine games. They're also leading the Southeast Division with 22 points and appear to be on the right path to a second straight division title.
The Caps made the playoffs for the first time since 2003 last year as phenom Alexander Ovechkin carried the team with a 65-goal, 112-point performance that landed him the Hart Trophy.
This year, teammate Alexander Semin, a fellow Russian, helped Washington survive Ovechkin's slow start to the year. Semin has been superb and comes into Saturday's action as the leading scorer in the NHL with 27 points.
Ovechkin has been picking up the pace as well. He is on a three-game goal- scoring streak and has collected 10 points (3 goals, 7 assists) in Washington's last five contests.
Semin left in the second period of Friday's home win over New Jersey with an undisclosed upper-body injury and did not return. However, the injury isn't serious and Semin, who had a five-game point streak snapped, could be ready to on Saturday, when the Caps close a home-and-home series with the Devils.
Washington's main competition for the Southeast crown is expected to be Carolina and the Caps have handled the Hurricanes so far, winning the first two of six meetings between the clubs this year.
The Caps do have a tough task ahead of them as they'll begin a five-game road trip in Jersey on Saturday. Yet, that shouldn't pose too much of a problem if Ovechkin and Semin continue to play well together.
THRASHERS: SURPRISING STREAK
The Atlanta Thrashers are coming off a dreadful 2007-08 season that saw them take a big step backwards from the franchise's first postseason appearance in the previous season.
The Thrashers weren't expected to be much of a threat to make the playoffs in 2008-09, but the team's five-game winning streak has certainly turned some heads.
In fact, Atlanta will shoot for the first six-game winning streak in franchise history when they visit Philadelphia for Sunday's battle against the Flyers. The Thrashers did have a six-game losing streak early this year, but that wasn't nearly as surprising.
The Thrashers beat visiting Carolina on Friday to win five in a row for the fourth time in club history.
Another surprise for Atlanta has been the play of young centerman Bryan Little, who was the 12th overall pick in the 2006 draft. Little just turned 21 last week and leads the Thrashers with 16 points this season. The Edmonton native has eight goals and eight assists and is also first on his club with a plus-seven rating.
The next few weeks will be crucial for the Thrashers as they try and prove this winning streak isn't just a fluke.
HURRICANES: STILL CAN'T FIGURE OUT THE CAPS
The second-place Carolina Hurricanes aren't exactly off to a bad start to the season, but they certainly would've liked to have played better in their first two clashes with the rival Washington Capitals.
The issues against the Capitals is something that dates back to the end of last year, when Washington won its final seven games of the regular season to leapfrog Carolina for the Southeast title. That winning streak included a pair of victories over the Hurricanes and those setbacks were a big reason Carolina missed out on the postseason for the second straight season after winning the Stanley Cup in 2006.
The Hurricanes are 0-2 so far against Washington this year and were trounced, 5-1, in the most recent meeting with the Caps on Tuesday
Carolina hasn't been good against the division in general as it has just two wins in six outings against Southeast rivals this year.
The Hurricanes, who will next face Washington on December 7, has lost three straight and four of their last five games overall.
PANTHERS: CAN'T GAIN TRACTION
The Florida Panthers recently won two in a row, but followed that mini winning streak with a loss to visiting Detroit on Friday.
The Panthers have won back-to-back games on just two occasions this year and that lack of consistency shows in the club's 6-9-1 record on the season.
Still, first-year head coach Pete DeBoer wasn't expected to lead this Panthers team to the postseason. After all, Florida hasn't played in the NHL's second season since 2000, the longest current playoff drought in the league.
Florida's offense has been its undoing so far as the team has averaged just 2.29 goals per game. The Panthers also haven't been helped by their inability to win on the road, as they've posted a 2-6-1 away from South Florida this year.
But, there isn't a great deal of pressure to win right now for DeBoer and he should be able to avoid Melrose's fate. For now.
