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Bolts' Melrose Denies Report

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON

eerlendsson@tampatrib.com

Published: October 28, 2008

Updated: 10/28/2008 12:23 am

TORONTO - Throughout the summer, the Lightning were the high-profile team that captured headlines on a seemingly daily basis in the hockey world.

So with the season not off to a good start, Tampa Bay is now the lynchpin for controversy.

During Saturday night's telecast of CBC's Satellite Hot Stove, an intermission favorite during "Hockey Night in Canada," reporter Al Strachan claimed that Lightning co-owner and former NHL player Len Barrie was in the team's locker room while in Europe diagramming power-play and penalty-kill plays. Strachan indicated his source was a player from the Lightning locker room.

The report, however, was dismissed by Lightning coach Barry Melrose.

"Al is sort of like a spaghetti salesman. He just throws so much against the wall and hopes something sticks and it usually doesn't stick," Melrose said. "It's B.S. and Al thrives on B.S. It's total lies."

Strachan, who used to work for the Toronto Sun and currently does work for FoxSports.com, failed to back up his report when speaking with the Sun on Monday.

"I don't know if it's true or not, I wasn't there," Strachan said. "But he should talk to his players. They are the ones who are saying it."

Earlier this year Strachan reported on CBC that Lightning captain Vinny Lecavalier wanted out of Tampa and wanted to play in a bigger hockey market, which proved untrue when Lecavalier inked an 11-year contract in July. Strachan, however, was one of the first to report new Lightning ownership was interested in hiring Melrose.

Melrose, though, expressed some concern about the credibility of Strachan's alleged source inside the Lightning locker room.

"If it is coming out of the locker room, then I have some liars in the dressing room," Melrose said. "If that's the case then I am worried about that, but at the same time I can't worry about that. If a guy is a liar, he's a liar. I can't worry about that."

Reporter Erik Erlendsson can be reached at (813) 259-7835.

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