Lightning fires Melrose after 16 games

Sports Digest

November 15, 2008

Barry Melrose's return to the NHL as coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning lasted 16games. The former television analyst was fired yesterday, less than five months after he left the booth to coach a team that finished with the league's worst record last season. Assistant Rick Tocchet was promoted to interim head coach. Tocchet was sentenced to two years' probation in August 2007 after pleading guilty in a gambling investigation into a sports betting ring. He said he never bet on NHL games. The Lightning has lost three straight games, dropping to fourth in the Southeast Division with 14 points. Despite the presence of Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier, Tampa Bay ranks last in goals in the NHL.

Et cetera: Brooks Laich, Tomas Fleischmann and Alex Ovechkin scored to lead the host Capitals to a 3-1 win against the Devils. Washington's Alexander Semin - the NHL scoring leader entering the night with 27 points - left the game in the second period with an undisclosed injury. The team said he is day-to-day. Jose Theodore made 32 saves for Washington. ... Emergency medical personnel acted properly in treating New York prospect Alexei Cherepanov, 19, after he collapsed during a game outside Moscow last month, a preliminary Continental Hockey League investigation found.

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Lightning fires Melrose after 16 games

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Lightning fires Melrose after 16 games

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