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Tocchet has tag lifted

News Channel 8 photo by BOB HANSEN

The Tampa Bay Lightning announced Rick Tocchet as the new head coach for the team Monday afternoon at the St. Pete Times Forum.

By ERIK ERLENDSSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 12, 2009

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TAMPA - While doing a thorough review of the 2008-08 season and evaluating the job of the coaching staff, Lightning general manager Brian Lawton kept coming back to one person - Rick Tocchet.

So on Monday, Tampa Bay officially removed the interim tag and signed Tocchet to a multi-year contract - believed to be two years - and named him head coach.

Tocchet took over Nov. 14 after Barry Melrose was fired. Lawton said that even though the process took time, naming Tocchet the head coach was the right thing to do, a feeling that was verified in his end-of-the-season interviews with players and staff.

"The information on Tocchet kept coming back as positive, positive, positive," Lawton said.

This marks the first official head coaching job for Tocchet, who also served as an assistant coach in Colorado and Phoenix before coming to Tampa Bay before the start of last season.

"I'm on the clock now. I want that pressure," Tocchet said. "I'm excited and I'm ready to go."

By signing a two-year deal, Tocchet is on the same schedule as the rest of the coaching staff, including assistants Wes Walz, Cap Raeder and video coach Nigel Kirwan. Associate coach Mike Sullivan, while on the same contract schedule, has been given permission to talk to other teams about head coaching positions as well as assistant jobs that would keep him closer to his family in Boston. That could open the door for Sullivan to join former Lightning coach John Tortorella with the New York Rangers.

Lawton said they should know if Sullivan will return to the team within the next two weeks.

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

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