The Lightning and Barry Melrose saga continued yesterday as Melrose sounded off against his former employer and hopes "they don't win another game all season."  If you'd like to read some of the interview, check out TBO.com's synopsis.  I see problems on several fronts.

Ownership
The new owners want to everything they possibly can to put money in their pockets.  They made a huge investment in purchasing a team that was going nowhere with the hopes they could turn it around.  This is made all the more difficult with a fan base that changes allegiances when their "other team" comes to town.  So they go out and turn the roster upside down, bring in high profile free agents along with a high profile coach to try to put more fans in the seats.  How can you blame them?  They also pour a large amount of money into a marketing campaign to highlight their No.1 pick and expect him to be played.  Then they try to lend help to a coach that feels he doesn't need help and the friction begins.

Melrose
Here's a guy who has been out of coaching for over a decade.  He's only been analyzing the game on TV.  I'm sure he knows the game of hockey, he was a player before he was a coach.  But what was his resume before he got hired to be the Lightning head coach.  Coach of the L.A. Kings from 1992 to 1995.  During that time, he had players like Luc Robataille and Wayne Gretzky.  He comes to a team that has Vinny Lecavalier and the No.1 pick Steve Stamkos.  He tries to put in a system that is foreign to the players.  The players aren't getting the ice time they feel they deserve which is compounded by the fact that the owners went out and signed an overabundance of forwards in the offseason.  The coach tries to make everyone happy while he himself gets frustrated.   More friction.

Players
What happens when you sacrifice defense for offense and the offense doesn't show up?  Easy answer: you lose and look bad in doing so.  In a team sport, when the players aren't happy, it shows.  The Lightning had the same coach and the same system for a long time.  Along comes the new guy who tries to change the philosophy and is a little more old school, and it rubs some players the wrong way.  If you're the owner of a team, and your best player is complaining about the coach, how can you not listen?  There is also the issue of chemistry.  When you only keep 6 players on your team from the previous year, you have give them time to come together as a unit.  Then as they are starting to gel, you turn over the roster some more disrupting the chemistry again.

In my opinion, the everyone is to blame here and it's the fans that suffer.  The Lightning are just plain bad and I don't see them getting better this year short of a miracle.  I see two options for this team.  Option 1: they get rid of the dead weight and expiring contracts to clear cap space while obtaining draft picks or prospects.  Or option 2: stick with what they have and hope that a year together will mean a better season next year.