I don’t think Melrose should have been canned as early in the season as he was, but the guy is a total douche.  15 years ago when the Wings hired Scotty Bowman over him, he spent his entire ESPN career trashing Detroit, saying they were too slow, too old, or just plain not skilled enough to win anything.  I find some comfort in knowing that it was a Wings slaughtering that led to his firing in Tampa Bay, but I hope he directs his ire toward the Lightning now and away from Detroit.  Seriously, dude...get over it.  No one likes a sore loser.

Posted by John from Pittsburgh, PA (Wings fan for life!) on 12/09/08 at 11:08 AM ET

Barry’s all class. No really, it takes a ton of class to go out an blame everyone else but yourself for failure. And it takes even more class to say “I hope they don’t win another game”. What a tool. I hope ESPN hires him back and one of their guests rips him apart. He was out of touch as an analyst, and completely out of touch as a coach.

Posted by wingsfanindenver on 12/09/08 at 11:46 AM ET

Me thinks the Tampa Mgmt. made their feelings about The Mullet equally clear. And they did it first, nah-nah-nah nannna boo boo Bary. The Get the Eff Out of Here wasn’t all that subtle.
We didn’t exactly slaughter them that game, but I do take pride in that being his last NHL game coached most likely the last of his “career” as a bench boss too.

Posted by MOWingsfan19 on 12/09/08 at 11:49 AM ET

I hope ESPN hires him back

ESPN did exactly that a couple weeks ago.

Posted by Alan from Atlanta on 12/09/08 at 11:57 AM ET

Not really defending Barry, as hiring the Mullet came out of left field, but it does sound like the Tampa Bay owners (Barrie more than Koules) want to run the entire show.  They put Lawton in the position of GM (no prervious experience) and players are coming in and leaving Tampa like it’s a bus terminal.  Has anybody talked to Dan Boyle, he’s gotta be thanking his lucky stars that he’s no longer part of the circus in Tampa Bay.

Posted by dash_pinched from Rumour Mill Bay on 12/09/08 at 12:01 PM ET

I hope they lose every game, too. Totarella was a great coach but he wasn’t good enough for them. They trade Boyle for basically Eminger. Nice move. Steve Stamkos....? I don’t see anything in this kid at all...he reminds me of....well...Brian Lawton. Awful GM… those two dope owners are clowns, too. Until they get rid of the two fly by nite owners they will always sucks

Posted by kevin from boston on 12/09/08 at 12:05 PM ET

kevin -

Don’t be ridiculous.  Stamkos IS a good player, and will get even betetr.  Will he be a franchise, #1-pick-worthy player?  Don’t know.  I’ve seen enough though to indicate that he’s not a real bust like Lawton was.  That team and org is a complete mess though.  THey have 43824903294 forwards, about 2 d-men, and their prospects aren’t very good at all if you take out Stamkos.

Barry hoped Tampa never wins another game this year?  Good for him.  I personally hope Barry never gets another paying gig related hockey ever again.  That’d be even better for the NHL and the sport…

Why is Barry so revered?  What did he ever win?  He took a REALLY good Kings team tot he FInals (a team that shoudl have been able to take the Cup IMO) and he didn’t get it done.  He won a Calder Cup with the “A” Wings in 1992, but he had a REALLY good roster to do it with so did they win it in spite of him, instead of him?

Posted by Primis on 12/09/08 at 01:19 PM ET

Lawton is brutal. Has no clue what he is doing-they should can his a**! Although, the hot blonde I saw him with at the rink upped his stock-He gets a zero for hockey. And a ten for the young hot blonde!

Posted by Jack from FL on 12/20/08 at 05:07 AM ET