It is been widely speculated that former Los Angeles Kings coach Barry Melrose would like to return to coaching. He even stated on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption that he misses coaching. It appears that on Tuesday, he will get his chance.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have interest in Melrose and an announcement could come as early as Tuesday afternoon.
This will come as a relief to many NHL fans around the league who must rely upon ESPN to be their source of hockey information. 'The Curse of the Mullet' will be put to rest for at least one season. The Curse is based uppon Melrose's annual playoff predictions. If he selects your team, then you are more than likely not to win the championship. It happened to the San Jose Sharks this past season, the Buffalo Sabres last season, so on and so forth.
On a more serious note, it is nice to see Melrose getting another shot at the NHL level. In his first year of coaching, Melrose, with the help of Wayne Gretzky, led the Kings to a 39 win seasona and a Stanley Cup finals run where they would fall to the Montreal Canadiens, who were lead by future Hall of Fame goaltender Patrick Roy. Roy secured his second Conn Smythe trophy as his Canadiens defeated the Kings in 5 games.
Melrose lost his job after back to back non-playoff seasons that immediately followed the finals run in 1992-93. He then began a career in television by joining ESPN in 1996 where he has worked as color commentary on hockey games prior to the 2004-05 lockout, and has been an analyst since the lockout.
Good Luck, Mullet!
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