“We’re tight with our guys. We’re not looking to give them away. If people are going to make meaningful offers to move this organization forward, we will act. But we won’t act for the sake of acting. We’re going to make deals if they make sense for the organization.”

–Brian Lawton, General Manager.

With the track record of OK (not really) Hockey, I can’t say I believe Mr. Lawton one iota. Especially after reading that he plans on being at the office at 6 A.M tomorrow morning.

Deals will be done, trades will be made, and the only place they make sense will be on paper. Or, the wise moves will be the small ones that don’t seem to have significance until later on when a young player grows into his role… The Lightning under Koules/Barrie/Lawton have a habit of going with the former: great on paper, lousy on ice. The latter would require a long term blue print that does not sacrifice the nucleus of the roster.

Mike Chen can’t look away at the train wreck here in Tampa, and who can blame him? Ooh, blame… Good subject for an article Mike! Have at it!

The real culprit? I can see why people can point fingers at one guy or another (though Stamkos is absolved of everything other than simply being an 18-year-old rookie learning the ways of the NHL) but when it comes down to it, everyone is at fault here from the wacky ownership duo of Len Barrie and Oren Koules to Melrose and his then-assistants to veteran leaders like team captain Vincent Lecavalier.

Yep, you’re all guilty and you should feel bad because the fan base that slowly built up from the early 2000s is now disintegrating as the team becomes one of the biggest sideshows in professional sports.

Mike goes on to break down the X’s and D’oh’s of the Lightning, post-Palace Sports, like an ESPN analyst without a bone to pick with a former employer. Blame lies from the top down, and from the bottom up. As a fan, I’ve focused on the top-down side instead of looking at the players, the lock room and the atmosphere generated by team leaders…

Just to tickle my fancy on the blame heirachy, lemme highlight the one paragraph that stands out for me:

The thing that I don’t get is that even though moviemaking (Koules) and real estate (Barrie) are completely separate businesses than running a pro-sports franchise, the basic tenants of “get good people/have a plan/work hard” are still in place. Here’s how any organization, pro sports or otherwise, should work: leadership at the top has a vision and a plan. They bring in supervisors (coaches) to create strategy for that plan, then the supervisors motivate the workers (players) to properly execute the plan with a good attitude and strong work ethic while providing feedback about what’s working and what’s not. I don’t see any of this here.

Some people really hated Palace Sports ownership… I mean, seriously despised “Dollar” Bill Davidson and outside-the-area ownership. They didn’t care for Rick Dudley or the types of players he brought in at the get-go of Palace Sports tenure of ownership.

But — this is inarguable — Davidson, Tom Wilson, Bill Campbell and the rest of Palace Sports had a plan and a vision of all facets of the operation. On ice, the venue, the administrative organization… They assigned a well-versed individual into a role and let them work.

With OK Hockey? It’s been anarchy without a general MO of the moves, without a definition of the how or why.

Mike goes on to dissect coaching and then throwing some blame the players ways… Not everyone, just the C and A’s of the team. The article is certainly worth a read and a thought or three.

In essence, it comes back to the volatility of the off season as a foreshadowing of the season so far. A new administration does indeed have a right to put who they want in positions of power… But these people need to know what the plan is, spread the plan down the chain of command and get everyone on message and in sync on that.

Right now, we’re still devoid of that vision / message from any level of command.

…which has contributed to the Bolts being run straight into the ground.

“Steven is not ready for the NHL,” Melrose stated on the Fan 590. “Steven is going to be a good player…right now he’s just not strong enough physically to play against defencemen who are 6′3″ or 6′4″ that can skate as good as him.”
– Barry Melrose

You are an 18 year old hot prospect that is thrust into a team that is making a volatile transition of it’s roster, from speed and an offense-driven-defensive system to… well, to Fantasy Hockey. You’re paired up with big names and you’re listed as a big addition to a club that is in transition and changing chemistry.

Do you thrive under that as you learn the NHL game? Do you reach the high expectations?

Lemme throw you another what-if: What if ownership hadn’t changed? If Palace Sports were still calling the shots, if Jay Feaster were still in the front office (or Bill Barber for that matter, or someone else picked out by Ron Campbell or Tom Wilson) and John Tortorella was still behind the bench… What if that Lightning franchise drafted Stamkos #1 overall? Where would Steve be playing right now?

Odds are, back in the CHL for another year of maturing.

That is not pissing on Steven Stamkos or his game. This is not an attempt to undermine the kid or his future. The point is that, in a different scenario or situation, Steven would not be in the NHL this season or not pressed in the way he has been. Of course, in the aforementioned scenario, this would be a very different Lightning team.

As for the rest of Melrose comments (and Len Barrie’s retorts) — I’m just going to take the high road and dismiss this pissing match. Barrie has a track record of mouthing off and bad blood is being spread from somewhere in this organization… Tortorella, Dan Boyle and now Barry Melrose have expressed displeasure with their departures from the club. This is a very different atmosphere than what this fan is used to – where a transaction for the club did not generate such hostility.

Yes, bad blood and hurt feelings happens in sports or the business world when there is an abrupt change, but this is a grand departure from a classy face the Lightning used to operate under.

As for the rest of the Lightning roster… Maybe this is all playing out in order to light a fire under the players? A fictional drama? One can dream, right?

You are not making the most of first impressions in hockey circles. Just saying.

I don’t know how far and wide this has carried since I saw it first mentioned in a St. Petersburg Tiems article last week, but Vincent Lecavalier wants to stay in Tampa. That isn’t news (though our friends in the province of Quebec would tell us otherwise)

What is news is Kent Hughes telling the world it’s not a short term deal. It’s a long one. To paraphrase: rest of his career.

And nwo Erik Erlendsson at the Tribune gets a money quote from Vincent:

Despite a pending change in ownership and a certain change in head coaches, Lecavalier said he intends to discuss signing a long-term deal that could keep him with Tampa Bay his entire career.

“I want to. I just think they want to wait to be officially in charge before we talk about it,” Lecavalier said Tuesday. “I’m looking forward to the new owners. They have a passion for the game. Oren Koules and Len Barrie have played the game. I’m encouraged about the new owners, and I’m excited about things.”

There’s no time line. There’s only the talk…

And right now I am still wondering what to make of the direction of the Lightning, as they transition to OK hockey from Palace Sports.