Lightning promising things upon which it cannot possibly deliver
Swing by the Tampa Bay Lightning’s site and you will be treated with a wonderful flash intro.
OWNERS TO UNITE US!
A COACH TO IGNITE US!
PLAYERS TO EXCITE US!
My game. My team. My town.
Not only is the intro shoddily put together (you can see the click-and-drag cursor when they scroll over the shot of the arena), it’s also factually incorrect.
The owners, of course, will try to unite the team, now that they shipped out that big crybaby Dan Boyle.
Dan Boyle wanted it clear: He “absolutely loves Tampa” and wishes the Lightning “absolutely the best.”
But when it comes to the way Friday’s trade to the Sharks was handled by new owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie, Boyle said, “I was misled, lied to and completely disrespected.”
That’s a good way to start.
As for the coach to excite us, Barry Melrose is, by all accounts, an unsatisfactory coach. In two and a half years with the Kings, he went an outstanding 82-103-31 (a whopping .415 winning percentage!). Great news for a team that went 31-42-9 (.433) last year and finished dead last in the league and has terribly misused its money and resources so far this summer.
And the players to excite us? Vinny Lecavalier, Steven Stamkos and Martin St. Louis certainly fit the bill, and you can make an argument for Vinny Prospal. But I’m a big-time hockey fans, and still cannot possibly get excited about Gary Roberts, Olaf Kolzig and Ryan Craig. Cannot possibly.
The Lightning might be fun to watch this year, and there are certainly enough likable players on the team that we want to see them succeed, but I don’t think this flash intro is really going to stoke season ticket sales.
July 10th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
How can you not be excited about Gary Roberts. He’s somehow still playing 12 years after he retired that one time. I’m waiting to see if he can continue to play after he’s been dead for 12 years.
Roberts thought it was a good idea to retire the same year Sami Salo and Zedno Chara were drafted…