chuckdavies's blog

As we wait to see what the roster outcomes are to be, I must digress. It is not good (but necessary) to lose anybody, except maybe Prospal, Gratton, Boyle or Richards, maybe even Vinny. But what if we had changed coaches back in November, and were still in the hunt? Maybe brought the team together, appointed a captain, and rolled four lines conistently?

I was on board till Monday, with the coaching. Why did Torts bring back Boyle and plug him into the power play immediately? The 6th ranked PP; what are they now? Why didn't they send him to Norfolk for a week; couldn't he see in practice that he was not ready? This is the same coach that played Taylor last year. It seems Torts gets a system, then when things go wrong, he makes the wrong adjustments. Now what will he do; put them on a plane to Vancouver and scream at them the whole way? Maybe that's happenning while I'm trying to squeeze this in to my shrinking space. Tort's put us in this tailspin, and then tried to blame the players.

I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I need to keep this out there- I can't go through watching Taylor out there again knowing the impact (bottle-neck) it creates in our prospect system and deficiency it creates in our third and fourth lines. It's not Taylor's fault- ofcourse he wants to play. The problem is the coach would actually play him, as evidenced last year. Question: if Taylor didn't play for the Lightning last year, where could he have played? or next year? Imagine this scenario: Perrin goes to Montreal for a 2 year 1.5 million and we sign Taylor for 1 yr for 600K. That's w

With rumors of Montreal's interest in Perrin, I wonder how negotiations are going with Perrin. I'm afraid of losing him because his points don't indicate the importance he brought to this team! He played a big role as a forechecker and penalty killer, played top 6- 85 % of the time, and had he scored more early would have gained the confidence to score more. In other words, he almost had a great season. Remember the two big goals disallowed; the one where he "kicked it" and the one where he guided it with his hand? Both would have been game winning goals. This guy was close to crossing over: we need to keep Perrin!

Isn't it time for the Lightning to move on, and name a Captain that is the face of our team? With free agency approaching and the Lightning needing to attract talent looking to spotlight themselves and become part of a winning team, wouldn't it be better to have a one of our better players / leaders than a coach appointment? What ever happened to players voting for the captain; is this Vinny's or Tort's team? Take note what Spector says about Crosby being named captain of the Penguins, and the comparisons to Vinny.