Post by Goldash on Jun 23, 2008 22:47:05 GMT -5
The Tampa Bay Lightning have called a media conference for Tuesday where the team will announce Barry Melrose as its new head coach.
New team owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie will be on hand to make the announcement, which has been expected for the past several weeks.
Melrose, who has been working with ESPN since 1996 as an analyst, coached the Los Angeles Kings for 2 1/2 seasons (1992-95). Under his guidance, the Kings posted a record of 79-101-29.
During the 1992-93 season, Melrose and the Kings, who were led by Wayne Gretzky, marched to the Stanley Cup final, eventually falling to the Montreal Canadiens in five games.
Melrose replaces John Tortorella, who was fired on June 3 after 6 1/2 seasons behind the Tampa bench. In 535 games under Tortorella, the Lightning posted a record of 239-222-36-38, winning the Stanley Cup in 2004.
Melrose, who turns 52 next month, played 300 NHL games during his playing career with Winnipeg, Toronto and Detroit.
He began his coaching career in 1987-88 with the Western Hockey League's Medicine Hat Tigers, who posted a 44-22-6 record and captured the Memorial Cup championship as Canada's top junior team. He moved to Seattle of the WHL the following season before becoming the head coach of the Adirondack Red Wings of the American Hockey League (1989-92).
During his final season with the Wings, the team won the Calder Cup championship.
This may be going into the "what were they thinking" category, but it's too early to tell at this point. With that being said, I have pretty low expectations for the Lightning this season.
