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Staying Patient Continues To Pay Dividends

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 12, 2007

TAMPA - When things appear to be heading south and there's no screaming sign of things turning back northward, the outside world tends to start calling for a change.

It's all been said before, but fortunately for the Lightning in recent seasons, it's never been done.

There's no doubt that at some point in time it will be time for a change and the Lightning will have to dismiss both Coach John Tortorella and General Manager Jay Feaster - not necessarily at the same time.

But that time certainly isn't now.

History has shown that the tandem of Tortorella and Feaster work very well together. Each are emotional individuals capable of snapping with each number that piles up in the loss column. Yet, both are rational decision-makers and don't make knee-jerk decisions - even when things don't appear to be going right.

In each of the past three seasons, the Lightning have stumbled, tripped and even fallen flat at times.

Last year featured a pair of four-game winless stretches within a nine-game span in which Tampa Bay went 1-7-1 and dropped the Lightning three games below .500 on Dec. 16. In November 2005, Tampa Bay had a six-game losing streak, followed by a four-game skid just before Christmas. And during the 2003-04 Stanley Cup season, the Lightning endured a 4-12-4 stretch from just before Thanksgiving through Jan. 2 that all but wiped out an 11-2-3 start to the season.

In the middle of each of those bad stretches, Tortorella and Feaster preached patience and allowed things to try to work themselves out. In each instance, the team got back on track without making any type of drastic changes to either the lineup on the ice or the two men most responsible for putting the roster together.

So this season, as Tampa Bay went through a rough patch, losing seven straight on the road to start the season and going through a six-game winless streak, the same vultures began to circle, looking for a change.

Something has to be wrong with this team! Maybe it's time for a coaching change, or get rid of both the coach and the GM! Time to shake up the roster and trade one of the Big Three!

I've received enough e-mails, read enough message boards and held enough conversations to know that sentiment is out there, even though it's just over a month into a long season.

Yet there were Tortorella and Feaster, preaching the same thing they always have during tough stretches - stay the course. The Lightning ended a stretch of 11 games in 18 days Saturday with a 5-2 win against Washington, Tampa Bay's third consecutive since going 0-5-1.

These two work together so well, they demand the opportunity to keep things moving forward for the franchise until it becomes obvious a change is needed. That moment hasn't arrived.

And if I were Doug MacLean and the other members of Absolute Hockey Enterprises, one of the first orders of business when they assume ownership (assuming they actually do take control) would be to look at the contracts of the coach and GM and extend them.

Don't you think if both were on the open market, there would be plenty of interest of bringing them in as a tandem?

Well, Tampa Bay's got them and the longer they stick around in this area, the better this team and this community will be for it.

NUTS AND BOLTS: LW Jan Hlavac suffered a broken nose in the third period Saturday when he got hit by a high stick during the win against Washington. He is not expected to miss any time. ... The Lightning are off until Wednesday when they host the Carolina Hurricanes. ... In an oddity of the schedule, Tampa Bay will not play on Saturday this week, just one of two Saturday nights - not including the All-Star break - in which the Lightning will not play. The other occurs on March 8, a travel day before Tampa Bay faces Columbus.

Reporter Erik Erlendsson can be reached at (813) 259-7835 or eerlendsson@tampatrib.com.

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