Nov 14 2008
Lightning Fire Melrose
Only 16 games into his return to a head coaching position in the NHL, former ESPN hockey analyst Barry Melrose has been fired as the head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Melrose was hired prior to the 2008-09 season as the team’s new head coach but has since been let go after a poor start to the season.
Melrose previously coached the Los Angeles Kings from 1992-1995. He replaced John Tortorella in Tampa, who led the Lightning to the Stanley Cup title only a couple of years ago.
Melrose had been out of coaching for 13 years and with ESPN for 12 of those years as an NHL analyst.
He is replaced on an interim basis by associate coach Rick Tocchet. Tocchet last coached for the Phoenix Coyotes on Wayne Gretzky’s staff before being implicated in a New Jersey betting ring.
He had a two year absence from coaching while the betting ring investigation was taking place.
Melrose is not the first coach to be fired in the NHL this season and not the quickest to go either.
The Chicago Blackhawks fired head coach Denis Savard only four games into the 2008-09 season.
