GM to Lightning: Turn it around or else

Lightning general manager Jay Feaster says if things don't turn around by Christmas, ownership might start cutting -- perhaps even the team's core group of players, headed by Vinny Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis.

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO, Times Staff Writer
Published December 1, 2007

Lightning general manager Jay Feaster on Friday had a simple yet chilling message for his struggling team.

"Being sub-.500, being 13th or 14th out of a 15-team Eastern Conference isn't cutting it, given the money we lose, to think we're going to keep payroll where it is and not make changes," he said.

Feaster said if things don't turn by Christmas, ownership might start cutting and that could mean breaking up the core of Vinny Lecavalier, Marty St. Louis, Brad Richards and Dan Boyle that eats up about $24-million in salary.

Feaster said he has no official mandate from owner Palace Sports & Entertainment as he did in January when the team faced a similar crisis and responded with a successful playoff push.

"But I know what my payroll is and I know the financial losses that we project right now," he said. "It doesn't add up unless we start to win hockey games."

A tall order lately as Tampa Bay (10-13-2) has lost six straight to fall to 14th in the East.

After a 3-0 start, the team has won just seven of 22 games. It is a league-worst 2-10-1 on the road. And with Feaster saying he is solidly behind coach John Tortorella and his staff, "Clearly, this falls on the players."

"With a $44-million payroll, we're not some middle-of-the- road or bottom-of-the-road type of team," he said. "We expect the players to work their way out of this."

Feaster and Tortorella said December, starting with tonight's game against the Bruins at the St. Pete Times Forum, is an opportunity with eight of 12 games at home, where the team is 8-3-1.

"The approach we have to take now is, what happened is past," Feaster said. "There's nothing we can do about it. The milk is spilled."

"Home or away we need to try to wipe this clean here, the mind-set we're in, and try to get some sort of fresh approach," Tortorella said. "When you start a new month, that's how you have to approach it; not look ahead and take each day for what it is and rehabilitate ourselves."

Feaster said the coaching staff has done "everything it can and is working hard to put the guys in a position to have success. I know what they do in practice. I know what they do by way of film and video preparation. There's no doubt in my mind they're doing a heck of a job."

Feaster said the Lightning is "too talented to have this up-and-down roller-coaster we constantly seem to be on."

He said he wants players to better finish off opponents. Had Tampa Bay added to two-goal leads against the Thrashers and Hurricanes instead of collapsing into losses that contributed to the current losing streak, "We would not be having this conversation."

The Atlanta game was frustrating, Feaster said, because Tampa Bay, up 3-1, failed on two third-period power plays against the league's worst penalty kill.

"We have over $20-million out on the ice," he said of the power-play unit. "If we finish it there and go up 4-1, that's all she wrote.

"We have to get back to our work ethic. We're not going to be able to be cute and get our way out of this. We have to get back to working. I think we have forgotten that a little bit."

That could lead to some tough decisions.

"By Christmas time," Feaster said. "Yeah, for sure."

Damian Cristodero can be reached at cristodero@sptimes.com.

[Last modified November 30, 2007, 23:27:17]