For the Lightning, it’s not the move it’s the motive

Posted Feb 27, 2010 by Erik Erlendsson

Updated Feb 27, 2010 at 11:13 AM

BRANDON - The Lightning still don’t resume their season for three more days, yet the drama of the season is already starting to peak. Unfortunately it has nothing to do with the fact that the team is only one point out of a playoff spot heading into Tuesday’s home game against Philadelphia.

In case you’ve been too immersed in the runs of the American and Canadian hockey teams, I’ll try to catch you up on the events of the past few days since the team resumed practice.

On Tuesday, general manager Brian Lawton essentially fired assistant coach Wes Walz after calling him into his office for a noon meeting. This move was done without the consent or any input or discussion with head coach Rick Tocchet, who was told of the move about 15 minutes before it happened. At the same time, Norfolk head coach Jim Johnson was added as an assistant coach to the staff, also a move done without input from Tocchet. Walz, in the meantime, was offered the position in Norfolk as head coach, an offer he turned down not wanting to uproot his family.

Johnson joined the team on Wednesday, but it would appear that Tocchet has little intention of fully integrating the former NHL defenseman into the staff. For the first three days of practice Johnson has been extensively looking over video and breaking down tape. He has yet to hit the ice with the team, and at this point, I’m not sure if he will if Tocchet has anything to say about it - and Tocchet has something to say about it.

So, here we are dead smack in the middle of an unnecessary melodrama that could have been avoided. All it would have taken was a five-minute phone call from Lawton to Tocchet at some point in advance of the decision. It shouldn’t have taken place 15 minutes before time. Like a day before the move was made. Or at anytime during the nine-day Olympic break.

I have no problem, in theory, of the move being made by the general manager. If he truly and honestly believes it’s a move that is going to help the team, then fine, that’s his right and duty to the success of the hockey team. Even if Tocchet was not going to be on board with the move, and in likely he wouldn’t have been no matter when Lawton spoke to him about it, at least the opportunity to have a say would have been presented to Tocchet. Then the head coach would not have essentially had his power usurped right out from under his feet.

Now, a line in the sand has been drawn and this now has turned into a game of chicken waiting to see who is going to blink first.

So what we have now (to steal a line from Cool Hand Luke) is a failure to communicate.

I can’t imagine the coach is talking to the GM nor is the GM reaching out to the head coach.

Meanwhile, others in the organization find themselves having to line up on one side or the other. And all of this coming with a pending ownership change, that is expected to become official sometime in the next seven days.

In my mind, it appears that the firing of Walz and doing it in a dictatorial manner is a strategic move and Walz was used as a pawn to some sort of bigger move. What that motive is, I’m not sure but one theory could be Lawton is protecting his job. If he makes a move the head coach doesn’t agree with, and the head coach in turn doesn’t integrate the new assistant into the game plan, then the general manager could go to new owner Jeff Vinik and say the head coach needs to be fired because he is not doing what is best for the team. Then, the general manager can put in his handpicked successor, Johnson, who will be on the same page as Lawton.

Clearly, Lawton and Tocchet are not in the same book right now, let alone on the same page. And that is not what is best for this team.

Look, there is too much at stake right now for this team and the franchise. They are one point out of a playoff spot with 21 games to go. Norfolk, meanwhile, was on a roll under Johnson who had the Admirals on track for a playoff appearance for the first time in three years, and it would be a first for a full Lightning AHL affiliate. Now both teams have been disrupted unneccesarily at a critical time.

But now, a distraction has been created. Tocchet said that it’s not going to be a distraction, but that’s impossible until there is some sort of a resolution. And this is going to come to a head, and it’s going to take place soon. What the resolution is at this point, I’m not sure, but I have a feeling that more jobs are going to be lost to some degree. This can not be allowed to linger. Either the fractioned sides have to be together, or changes need to be made.

And once again, the hockey world is taking notice of just how dysfunctional things are being run down here in Tampa in the past 24 months and waiting to see what happens next.