Tocchet has time - for now

Tampa Bay Lightning interim coach Rick Tocchet has been given the blessing of general manager Brian Lawton, according to an interview in The Bradenton Herald. Following Tampa Bay's 7-3 loss to New Jersey on Sunday night Lawton commented that Tocchet has done "a good job" through his four games in charge and will get the time he needs to change things round.
"When you make a coaching change, obviously, the ownership is going to come to me and say, 'OK, what do you expect to happen?'" Lawton said. "And the history is very strong that, typically, not much for the first 15, 20 games.
"So far, I think we've played harder. I think we've been more organized and more structured. But I still think history is probably accurate - we have a lot of things to work on still."
That Lawton said this after Sunday night's demoralising display might go some way to convincing all but the most hardened cynic. The complete no-show will not be tolerated again, however. "I think we've got a professional enough group to realize that that's not the kind of effort we want to have," Lawton said.
Melrose, hired by Tampa Bay's new ownership before Lawton's arrival, was fired after 16 games and Lawton has a quite straightforward mission statment for his new man to follow. "I think for me it's very simple," Lawton said. "I don't like our forwards skating backwards through the neutral zone. I like to see our 'D' continue to be activated more - just to be more aggressive. I like to see more puck pressure in both directions. Those are things Rick tracks with."
He will be hoping to see more of this in tomorrow night's home game against New York Rangers.
Meanwhile, according to the club's official website, former Lightning associate coach Mike Sullivan has returned to the team and will serve as associate coach to Tocchet. In addition, assistant coach Cap Raeder will become goaltending coach and oversee the development of the organization’s netminders in Tampa Bay, Norfolk of the American Hockey League and Augusta of the ECHL, as well as unsigned prospects in the system. Wes Walz remains as an assistant coach on Tocchet’s staff.