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| Steve Yzerman |
By Jim Bleyer
The
sudden departure of Tampa Bay Lightning’s General Manager Steve Yzerman only
three weeks before the National Hockey League’s 2018-19 season was the subject
of much speculation with no definitive answer.
At the
time, observers focused on possible Yzerman health problems or his wearying of
the frequent commute to Detroit where his family lives. Both theories are
plausible but no solid evidence to buttress either claim has surfaced since his
resignation as GM last September.
But
there is an even more logical scenario as to why Yzerman, architect of a team
that this season tied the all-time record for wins, decided to trim down his
role with the Lightning: disagreement with owner Jeff Vinik over the retention
of Coach Jon Cooper.
To many local hockey aficionados, including Tampa Bay Beat, Cooper’s resumé was fraught with
playoff failure. Last year, with a superior lineup, Cooper was clearly
outcoached as the Lightning were eliminated by the Washington Capitals in the
Eastern Conference finals.
Cooper
was coaching the Lightning’s minor league affiliate when Yzerman tapped him to
lead the big club in March, 2013. Following five seasons of
underachievement, Yzerman surely pinpointed the problem.
The
firing of a coach with a favorable image in spite of his woeful postseason
resumé, usually requires an owner to sign off on such a move. Vinik,
ultra-sensitive to public perception, would have vetoed the idea instead of
deferring to a highly esteemed hockey executive.
Yzerman’s
imprint on the ice and in the front office blazed a trail of excellence.
When he arrived, the Lightning were scraping the bottom of the league.
Now Tampa unquestionably possesses the most potent lineup in the NHL but with
an albatross of a coach who embarrassed the franchise with a first round loss
to the eighth-seeded Columbus Blue Jackets.
Sportscasters
and hockey writers around the country are using the 2018-19 Tampa Bay
Lightning as a punchline for jokes that will morph into comedy club fodder for
years to come. Yzerman may not have predicted the extent of the
Lightning’s failure but he obviously had no faith in this season’s outcome and
did not want his name attached to it.
Yzerman
was an effective and diligent general manager. He consummated shrewd
trades to shore up weaknesses; he negotiated contracts to keep key players in
the salary cap era. The Hall of Famer was well served by apprenticeships
in the Detroit Red Wings front office and Team Canada.
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| Jeff Vinik |
Despite
Tampa’s 62 wins and never losing more than two games in a row, they were
swept in four games by the last-seeded Columbus Blue Jackets. It will forever
be the defining professional sports collapse but without Yzerman’s fingerprints
at the crime scene.
With
one more year remaining on his contract, Yzerman, a gentleman, fulfilled his
contract by acting in an “advisory capacity.”
Vinik,
who is all about projecting a positive image at any cost, managed to obfuscate
the disagreement and appear magnanimous. He virtually owns the area’s
only daily paper who has never printed anything negative about Vinik, never
reported his indiscretions, or uncovered payoffs
to
local officials and special interest groups to support his investments.
Now
Vinik is paying the price. He lost a top tier general manager. He
lost millions of dollars when his team got knocked out of the playoffs in the
first round. For the first time in his ten-year tenure, he has a
restless, disenchanted fan base.
Vinik,
with the aid of the Tampa Bay Times, can use deceit and misdirection to cover
up his ignominious gaffe or he can do what he should have done 11 months ago:
fire Cooper.
Cross Posted
with permission from: Tampa Bay Beat
This post is
contributed by Tampa Bay Beat. The views and opinions expressed in this post
are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of Bay Post Internet or
the publisher.
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