Tampa Lighting Coach Tortorella fired

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Audino

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Lightning got rid of their coach. Link and first few paragraphs pasted.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=3424571

--TAMPA, Fla. -- John Tortorella was fired Tuesday as coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, four years after leading the team to its only Stanley Cup title. He had one season remaining on his contract.

(Lackluster Lightning

The Lightning haven't struck twice since John Tortorella led them to the Stanley Cup in 2003-04.
Bolts Last Four Years Points Playoff Results
2007-08 71 DNQ
2006-07 93 Lost in quarterfinals
2005-06 92 Lost in quarterfinals
2003-04 106 Won Stanley Cup)

The Lightning were 239-222-36-38 and made the playoffs four times in 6½ seasons under Tortorella, who took over a perennial last-place team in January 2001 and -- along with stars Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis and Brad Richards -- helped transform it into a championship contender in three years.

"He did something I think is very, very difficult for anyone to do, but certainly difficult for a coach to do. That's change the culture," general manager Jay Feaster said during a news conference.

"This was a country club, a retirement home. It was a place players came to retire, they just forgot to tell us they were doing it," Feaster added. "John came in and changed the culture, changed the way we do business, and the attitude. And in so doing, he raised expectations."

There has already been speculation about television analyst and former Los Angeles Kings coach Barry Melrose possibly replacing Tortorella.--


I always thought Tortorella was a good coach. I'll tell you what... if I was a Leafs fan, I'd be crossing my fingers riiiiiiiiiiiiiiighaboutnow.

And if the Melrose thing happens in Tampa, best of luck to you, Lightning, lol.
 
I was kind of depressed to hear about Melrose possibly taking this job, because I love him on Sportscenter ;;

Its a sad day for all 9,000 Hockey fans in Florida.
 
Tim Wakefield said:
I was kind of depressed to hear about Melrose possibly taking this job, because I love him on Sportscenter ;;

Its a sad day for all 9,000 Hockey fans in Florida.
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He seems to like his Sportscenter position, so I'm far from banking on him actually coaching. But if 9000 fans in Florida are Lightning fans, then I guess there's probably about 900 Panther fans, lol
 
Audino said:
He seems to like his Sportscenter position, so I'm far from banking on him actually coaching. But if 9000 fans in Florida are Lightning fans, then I guess there's probably about 900 Panther fans, lol
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Well, maybe that was a slightly short estimate haha, but you got the point. But hey, the Rays are finally putting people in the seats, and all it took was a run to 1st place and a name change to do so. Maybe sports in Tampa aren't completely dead yet?
 
Tim Wakefield said:
Well, maybe that was a slightly short estimate haha, but you got the point. But hey, the Rays are finally putting people in the seats, and all it took was a run to 1st place and a name change to do so. Maybe sports in Tampa aren't completely dead yet?
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Yeah, Rays are getting pretty good. Which sucks. The Yanks used to use all their games against them to get into the playoffs, lol.
 
ive met Tortorella, hes a great person as far as personality goes. im sad to see him leave
 
Looks like its going to be Ron Wilson for the Leafs.
 
Audino said:
Looks like its going to be Ron Wilson for the Leafs.
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Better than Melrose at least haha.

I wish the Pens would fire Therrian. Its widely known that most of the players hate playing for him and some of them have even spoke publically about it. Shero won't get rid of a coach who took us to the Finals though, unfortunately, because I also think he is a shitty coach and fails hard at maximizing his talent.
 
I was kind of hoping that the leafs were going to call up Mark Messier to be honest, now there's a guy who could really do something with Toronto... on topic, can't say i'm surprised to see Tort go.
 
Fuck, now who am I gonna get my 25 seconds of Hockey coverage on ESPN a day from?

Seriously though, I hope it works out for him because Barry Melrose is awesome. They just signed Lecavalier to a fat contract too.
 
On the bright side, Tampa Bay was dead last at the close of the season. Its not like they can do any worse, lol. Locking up Lecalvier was the right thing for that team to do, also.
 
And now they have Malone and Roberts. I'm slowly becoming a Tampa Bay fan haha.
 
Tim Wakefield said:
And now they have Malone and Roberts. I'm slowly becoming a Tampa Bay fan haha.
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lol. Maybe they'll get Orpik too! I saw he rejected an offer by the Pens. Sorry Tim :/
 
Audino said:
lol. Maybe they'll get Orpik too! I saw he rejected an offer by the Pens. Sorry Tim :/
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I figured (assuming the cap was going to go up roughly 6 million-ish), that the Pens would re-sign either Hossa or Malone, and probably Orpik. Now it's looking more and more like we're going to lose all three.

Malone is replaceable. He's gritty as fuck, but he benefited greatly from playing on a Power Play unit with arguably two of the best three players in the league. Hossa on the other hand, is a world-class talent, and I think it was silly of the Pens front office to not give him a slightly more enticing deal (7 years at 51 mil is roughly what he was making already). It still pisses me off that he said he would "Take less money to play with a contender" and "If he wanted to sign a big deal, he would've stayed with Atlanta". Double-Crossed, and he fucked us big time.
 
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