The Trials and Tribulations of John Tortorella

Tom Jones chimes in with a little report on what Lightning Head Coach John Tortorella is up to during the lock out...

It ain't much.

Though I do have to bring up a point in this article that Tortorella makes as I had been thinking along the lines of the same thing yesterday:

But these days, Tortorella has no team to defend a Cup. Many are scattered throughout Europe playing what Tortorella calls "Ice Capades," leagues absent of contact but full of bad habits. He has no idea when the lockout will end, but he is worried that the team that won the Cup will not be the same team that shows up for the Lightning's next training camp.

"I'm scared," Tortorella said. "I think we're going to have to reteach our players. I think it's going to be an awful brand of hockey when (the NHL returns) because (the lockout) has gone on for so long.

"My guys are going to be retaught. They're going to be come at hard because I know the bad habits are going to be there."

The "Bad Habits" are the part of this quote that scares me the most becuase I believe it. There is no one monitoring player performance in Europe and, while I have faith in players like Fredrik Modin (who is playing in Sweden) and Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier and Pavel Kubina have been known to lapse when not held to Tortorella's rigorous standards.

Things will remain in doubt until the lockout ends... then we'll be able to start picking up the pieces and see where the Lightning stand.