Rick Tocchet not consulted on letting Wes Walz go

Posted Feb 24, 2010 by Erik Erlendsson

Updated Feb 24, 2010 at 11:02 PM

Just another day in covering the most Dynasty-esque franchise in pro sports today. All that’s missing is a cameo by Joan Collins, who may or may not be in line to be the next assistant coach on Rick Tocchet’s coaching staff.

The drama started on Tuesday night when Darren Dreger of TSN sent out a tweet saying Tocchet being fired was a bad rumor. Later, Dreger mentioned that assistant coach Wes Walz was heading to Norfolk. After chasing that one down late last night, things started to heat up again early in the morning, even before I could get done dropping off the kids at school (and actually in between dropping off two at elementary and then one at middle and another at Pre-K). As I started to check around, got a cryptic message telling me to “stay tuned’’ when asked about rumors swirling about possible coaching changes.

That’s when word started to trickle in that Jim Johnson was not with Norfolk in Binghamton, instead was in Tampa getting ready for Lightning practice. With Johnson in, it meant Walz was out, possibly to Norfolk. Then I’m told that nothing is set in stone and to be wary before moving forward with reporting what I was hearing. So then I show up for practice, there is no Jim Johnson on the ice. There is no Wes Walz on the ice. The team, minus four Olympians and injured Zenon Konopka, was on the ice as were Tocchet, associate coach Rick Wilson, Adam Oates and goaltender coach Cap Raeder.

About 45 minutes into what was a rather upbeat and enjoyable practice, a member of the PR staff comes over to let us know that Jim Johnson was about to be officially named as an assistant coach and that Walz was contemplating the head coaching job at Norfolk. Meanwhile, once practice was wrapping up, general manager Brian Lawton would come over to discuss the move with us. I’ll give you the low down on exactly what he said in my next post in a few minutes, but essentially he said a couple of things that stood out in my mind:

* First, he said Jim Johnson has basically earned this chance after working with the prospects/rookies in the summer, then with the defense and penalty kill in Norfolk and finally with a tremendous run as head coach of Norfolk after taking over in mid-January that has a team that was six games under .500 in a playoff position right now.

* Also, he mentioned that making the playoffs are the most important thing right now and nothing else matters. (Which is a bit of a different tone than earlier in the season when being in contention and building things were paramount)

* And finally he indicated that others were consulted about making the change with Walz and Johnson, but that the decision was entirely his.

Now, when we went to talk to Rick Tocchet, he seemed to contradict what Lawton stated, suggesting that he had no input in the decision and wasn’t told about the change until noon on Tuesday. He didn’t really say it, but he didn’t have to, but he was not on board with the change or that fact that he wasn’t brought into the decision making process.

This really is not a good situation any way you shake it. First of all, Walz has come a long way as a coach in a short period of time, and spending time so much time with Jacques Lemaire in Minnesota will do that to a player. He was respected in the room, which he earned, and had a big role in helping Steven Stamkos through a tough first half of last season, not so much from a technical aspect, but as an amateur psychologist and mentor to talk him through some of Walz’s experience as a young player in the NHL battling high expectations and poor results.

Secondly, Norfolk was rolling under Johnson and to me, it’s just as important for the minor league team to make the playoffs, especially since the situation has been so poor the past two years with Norfolk as the Admirals have struggled on the ice. There needs to be some good will between Lightning management and everything Admiral - taking away the head coach that was leading the charge to the post season won’t help.

And let’s not forget that Tampa Bay is one point out of the playoffs with 21 games left in the season, and to shake things up at this point can be a distraction and a disruption. Lawton said he wasn’t happy with the way the team was playing the past month, and that includes when they were on a hot streak, and was really discouraged by the three-game losing streak heading into the break. Fine, but is this the way to shake things up? I would think the trade deadline might be a better way to address the situation by injecting some life into the team rather than drawing some of it out of the coaching staff.

Who really knows, this might all turn out to be a genius plan and Jim Johnson can be a key factor in helping out the penalty kill down the stretch and gets the Lightning into the playoffs. Or maybe it causes a major distraction and everything falls apart and the team flames out. I left my crystal ball in the shop today so I can’t predict the future.

Either way, the whole situation just appears to be more unneeded drama.