NHL countdown: No. 25 Tampa Bay Lightning

Luke DeCock, Sporting News Yearbooks Leading into the Oct. 1 season openers, Sporting News will preview one NHL team per day, counting backward from our preseason No. 30 ranked team to No. 1. A year ago, the Lightning were spewing enough hot air to melt the ice at the St. Pete Times Forum. With new owners in movie producer Oren Koules and ex-NHL player Len Barrie, a new coach in ESPN analyst Barry Melrose and money flowing like cheap beer, the season opened to tremendous expectations and fanfare. The good times lasted about a week. Melrose was fired in November, after only 16 games. Koules and Barrie got into a dispute over control of the team that required the intervention of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. And the big moves flopped as the team improved by just one spot: from last in the NHL to 29th. This summer, general manager Brian Lawton—Bettman's choice as the man who would make all hockey decisions for the franchise—is singing a different t...