Lightning mismanagement

There are already signs of the Lightning being mismanaged, and the regular season hasn't even begun yet. Will it get worse? Will it get better? Only time will tell, unfortunately.

Bad sign #1 - Free agent signings

It doesn't take a rocket scientist (and really, I've talked to a few, and you probably wouldn't want one running a team anyway) to figure out that you need a plan of attack in the off-season when your team was one of the last in the league last season. However, having 17 forwards doesn't seem like very good planning to me. It sounds more like "let's get as many players as we can and see who's willing to trade for what we have later on" or "we can always send some to the minors, right?" That sounds like flying by the seat of your pants, if you ask me. And a multi-million dollar business shouldn't be run like that if you want to be successful. It should've been more methodical, like "lets do an internal assessment, find out what our needs are, who fits what we're trying to accomplish and who doesn't, and then let's see what we can do to fill in the holes."

Bad sign #2 - Dan Boyle

This one was ugly in so many ways. Being told that you're a key element to the team, and then being forced out is a huge sign of mismanagement. Not to mention some serious miscommunication going on between ownership, coaches, and players. Not having everyone on the same page at all times is just bad managing and poor business sense. Not caring what people think about it is bad PR. Not doing some post-PR spin to help fix the public's perception is just a bad idea. Not one of the more steller moments of this new ownership.

Bad sign #3 - Jay Feaster

Not utilizing the people you have doesn't make sense. Ignoring them and hoping they'll take the hint so you don't look like bad guys for firing the GM who led the team to a Stanley Cup is even worse. Not only that, it sets a poor precedent for how people in the organization will be treated, and creates bad morale. I don't know about you, but if my boss was ignored by new upper management until he took the hint and left, I'd be looking for another job myself because I'd be thinking that I might be next.

Bad sign #4 - Chris Gratton

See #2, Dan Boyle. Personally, while I think they ought to keep Gratton, I don't think that they will. I think signing him was a PR move that came out of the Boyle mess. Fans like him, and teammates like him, so they decided to sign him. However, I fully expect him to not have a spot come training camp. Since André Roy was already on the outs with the previous coach, and therefore the public was already used to the idea that he probably wasn't going to be a part of the team anymore, they more than likely didn't feel like they had to do anything about him and left poor Roy hanging out in the wind.

I could probably go on, but you get the idea. So far, it's not so good. I'm definitely taking a wait and see approach with how this team goes. Intially, I was really excited about how things were going - right up until they traded Boyle, anyways. I don't have a lot of confidence in this new ownership group, tho, that's for sure.

I could be more philosophical if they were clueless, but they're not. Former hockey players are in charge, so you'd think that they'd have a better idea about how to run things. And, not only that, they're successful business men who are self-made millionaires/billionaires. So why aren't they running the team accordingly?

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