Bolts VS. Melrose

A month after being fired by the Tampa Bay Lightning, Barry Melrose sounded off on his former club and the people who own it.

Melrose was a guest on Toronto's Fan 590 radio station and didn't hold back his feelings about why his stint as head coach of the Lightning only lasted 16 games. Melrose said that he dealt with constant interference from people in the organization.

"I had guys in Tampa who wanted to run the team and I wouldn't let them. I was hired to coach and I coached," Melrose told the Fan 590. "I wasn't playing the right guys. I was playing certain guys too much, I wasn't playing other guys enough. Every day was a constant battle.

"Finally the guys in charge decided they wanted to coach and they got rid of me. That's what it comes down to. It obviously wasn't a hockey decision, because it's not like they've set the world on fire since they got rid of me. Now they've got guys in charge that let them do what they want and obviously that isn't working out very well either."

Melrose, who pointed out that Stamkos was now playing fewer minutes than he had when Melrose was coaching, gave a very frank assessment of the 18-year old.

"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."

Just days after Barry Melrose's harsh critique of his coaching situation in Tampa Bay, it was time for the Lightning to strike back.

Melrose's former players let it be known that weren't impressed by his comments made to a Toronto radio station on Tuesday saying he hoped the Lightning wouldn't win another game in the next year and that rookie forward Steven Stamkos was not ready for the NHL this season.

"It wasn't a very classy comment to make," Lightning goaltender Mike Smith explained. "All the guys in the room don't have that much respect for him now. We respected him when he was here - guys played hard for him when he was our coach, but for him to go on like that shows how much he disrespects our team."

Lightning co-owner Len Barrie, who was part of the decision-making process in Melrose's firing, said the coach's treatment of the rookie was the breaking point.

"The way Steven was treated early in the season, he was pretty close to being yanked out of there by his agent and his family - and that's how bad it's gotten," he said. "Telling him to hit and go out there physically - that's not Stamkos' kind of game. It was just a disconnect - he (Melrose) said it right, it wasn't his kind of team. There wasn't enough fighting and enough penalties."

Lightning captain Vincent Lecavalier who had his issues early on with the club after being taken first overall in 1998, told reporters that he didn't pay much attention to what Melrose said after the firing.

"He got fired - it's a tough situation when a team loses and usually the first person to go is the coach and I understand that," he said. "But it's part of business and that's the way it goes. He was frustrated, but sometimes you should stop talking."

Much like the Melrose/Bolts relationship being over and done with, so is the coaching career of Barry Melrose. Not only with the teams poor performance in his first coaching job in well over a decade but throwing his former employers and star rookie under the bus on his way out. It is safe to say the only coaching Melrose will be doing is the thirty seconds of NHL coverage on Sportscenter while splitting time with Barnaby. Next story? The Mullet VS. The Punching Bag.