List of Tampa Bay Lightning head coaches

The Tampa Bay Lightning are an American professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. They play in the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Hockey League (NHL). Often referred to as the Bolts, as seen from their third jerseys[1], the team joined the NHL in 1992 as an expansion team, and won their first Stanley Cup championship in 2004.[2] Having first played in the Expo Hall[3], and later in the ThunderDome (now known as Tropicana Field)[4], the Lightning have played their home games at the St. Pete Times Forum, which was first named the Ice Palace, since 1996.[5] The majority of the Lightning are owned by Oren Koules and Len Barrie, Brian Lawton is their general manager, and Vincent Lecavalier is the team captain.[6][7][8]

There have been eight head coaches for the Lightning franchise. The team's first head coach was Terry Crisp, who coached for five seasons. John Tortorella, the only American to head coach the team, is the franchise's all-time leader for the most regular-season games coached (535), the most regular-season game wins (239), the most regular-season points (552), the most playoff games coached (45), and the most playoff-game wins (24). Tortorella is the only coach to have won the Prince of Wales Trophy[9], the Stanley Cup[2], and to have been awarded the Jack Adams Award with the Lightning, all of which happened in the 2003–04 season. Rick Paterson, Steve Ludzik, Rick Tocchet and Guy Boucher have spent their entire NHL head coaching careers with the Lightning. Guy Boucher has been the head coach of the Lightning since the 2010–11 season.

Contents

Key

# Number of coaches[a]
GC Games coached
W Wins = 2 points
L Losses = 0 points
T Ties = 1 point
OT Overtime/shootout losses = 1 point[b]
PTS Points
Win% Winning percentage
* Spent entire NHL head coaching career with the Lightning

Coaches

Note: Statistics are correct through the end of the 2010–11 season.

# Name Term[c] Regular season Playoffs Achievements Reference
GC W L T/OT PTS Win% GC W L Win%
1 Terry Crisp 19921997 391 142 204 45 329 .421 6 2 4 .333 [10]
2 Rick Paterson* 1997 6 0 6 0 0 .000 [11]
3 Jacques Demers 19971999 147 34 96 17 85 .289 [12]
4 Steve Ludzik* 19992001 121 31 67 23 85 .351 [13]
5 John Tortorella 20012008 535 239 222 74 552 .516 45 24 21 .533 2003–04 Prince of Wales Trophy winner[9]
2003–04 Jack Adams Award winner[14]
2004 Stanley Cup championship[2]
[15]
6 Barry Melrose 2008 16 5 7 4 14 .438 [16]
7 Rick Tocchet* 20082010 148 53 69 26 132 .446 [17]
8 Guy Boucher* 2010–present 82 46 25 11 103 .628 18 11 7 .611 [18]

Notes

References

General
Specific
  1. ^ "Lightning Unveil Third Jerseys vs. Devils". NHL.com. Lincoln Hockey and the National Hockey League. 2008-11-23. http://lightning.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=394050. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
  2. ^ a b c "2004 Stanley Cup Champions". NHL.com. Lincoln Hockey and the National Hockey League. http://lightning.nhl.com/team/app?service=page&page=NHLPage&bcid=tbl_content_1378. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
  3. ^ "1992-93 The Fun Begins". NHL.com. Lincoln Hockey and the National Hockey League. http://lightning.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NHLPage&id=7084. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
  4. ^ "Tropicana Field History". MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media, L.P. http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com/tb/ballpark/ballpark_history.jsp. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
  5. ^ "History". St. Pete Times Forum. http://www.icepalace.com/content.cfm?category=6&pageid=1108. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
  6. ^ "Front Office". NHL.com. Lincoln Hockey and the National Hockey League. http://lightning.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NHLPage&id=17047. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
  7. ^ "Hockey Operations". NHL.com. Lincoln Hockey and the National Hockey League. http://lightning.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NHLPage&id=17031. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
  8. ^ "Lightning Name Center Vincent Lecavalier Team Captain". NHL.com. Lincoln Hockey and the National Hockey League. http://lightning.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=382347. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
  9. ^ a b "Prince of Wales Trophy". NHL. Lincoln Hockey and the National Hockey League. http://www.nhl.com/trophies/wales.html. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
  10. ^ "Terry Crisp Coaching Record". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. http://www.hockey-reference.com/coaches/crispte01c.html. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
  11. ^ "Rick Paterson Coaching Record". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. http://www.hockey-reference.com/coaches/paterri01c.html. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
  12. ^ "Jacques Demers Coaching Record". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. http://www.hockey-reference.com/coaches/demerja99c.html. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
  13. ^ "Steve Ludzik Coaching Record". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. http://www.hockey-reference.com/coaches/ludzist01c.html. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
  14. ^ "Jack Adams Award". NHL. Lincoln Hockey and the National Hockey League. http://www.nhl.com/trophies/adams.html. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
  15. ^ "John Tortorella Coaching Record". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. http://www.hockey-reference.com/coaches/tortojo99c.html. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
  16. ^ "Barry Melrose Coaching Record". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. http://www.hockey-reference.com/coaches/melroba01c.html. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
  17. ^ "Rick Tocchet Coaching Record". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. http://www.hockey-reference.com/coaches/tocchri01c.html. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
  18. ^ "Guy Boucher hockey statistics & profile at hockeydb.com". Hockeydb.com. Hockey DB. http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=63890. Retrieved 2010-08-06. 
  19. ^ "Official Rules" (PDF). NHL.com. Lincoln Hockey and the National Hockey League. http://www.nhl.com/ext/0708rules.pdf. Retrieved 2008-12-21.