This just in: The NHL isn't Hollywood.  We're talking a real-life movie here, not fiction.

    One must say that the most recent move to fire Head Coach Barry Melrose 16 games into the season has some degree of entertainment value.  Then again, that depends on which side of the fence your sitting on.  For owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie, it's not funny, nor is it entertaining.  Two guys with a ton of cash, a passion for hockey, and now stuck with a team they though had plenty of scorers that are not scoring, and a defense that has basically taken the season off .

    Someone had to be the fall guy.  Melrose was the guy.  The players, to put it bluntly, quit on Melrose.  His motivational methods fell on deaf ears.  Now the X's and O's guy, Rick Tocchet takes over on an interim basis.  He said to me yesterday, "the players better come to play."  Yes, the Melrose firing is a wakeup call, but what I've seen so far from the Lightning front office would have any organization waiting, on a daily basis, for the next shoe to drop. 

    Here's the way I see it.  This Lightning team is not a team yet.  How they heck can they be with a mini-training camp, and an over-the-pond flight to Prague to get the season underway.  I don't care how you look at it, 16 games is nothing when your trying to develop chemistry with a bunch of guys who haven't played with each other before. 

   Tocchet, or any other coach, can only do so much.  It's up to the players to respond.  Some have, some haven't.  The situation is what it is.  Let's not get bogged down on why did they trade Dan Boyle, and why did they do this, and why did they overpay for that guy.  Deal with the hand you have.  From what I can see, if the players don't respond to the level ownership thinks this team is at, the fault will be theirs. 

   Tocchet has the acumen.  He has the ability to set this team up to succeed where many think the franchise, to now, has been "fantasy-league driven" to fail.  Like I said in my earlier blog: It's time to man-up men, even Steven Stamkos.  Eighteen-years-old or not, it's time to grow up.  The young kid was " Hollywood hyped "coming in.  But then again, he was hyped to the nth degree during the draft as well, by all the hockey experts!  All I'm looking for is progress from the kid.  Maybe a smile or two from the kid as well.  It's all in how you handle the pressure.

   That is all, for now.

   Tom Korun