VICTORIA - Former Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Barry Melrose, fired after just 16 games this NHL season, unloaded on Toronto radio Tuesday morning.

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Barry Melrose

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Lightning co-owner Len Barrie responded in kind when contacted later in the day.

Barrie said he was baffled by Melrose's assertions that "the guys in charge" were meddling in on-ice strategy decisions. Melrose did not mention particular names.

"The team had quit on him (Melrose)," said Barrie, speaking from his Victoria office.

"The only NHL coach to lose a team more quickly (in the dressing room) was Bill LaForge (who lasted 22 games with the Vancouver Canucks at the beginning of the 1983-84 NHL season)."

Melrose has a different take.

"I had guys in Tampa who wanted to run the team and I wouldn't let them," he told the Fan 590 AM radio station in Toronto.

"I was hired to coach and I coached. I wasn't playing the right guys. I was playing certain guys too much. I wasn't playing other guys enough. Every day was a constant battle. Finally the guys in charge decided they wanted to coach and they got rid of me. That's what it comes down to."

In the radio interview, Melrose said he respected and liked co-owner Oren Koules and wished him well in his hockey ownership future. Melrose, however, did not want to talk about Barrie when asked directly about the Kimberley, B.C. native.

"I don't meddle," said Barrie.

"Everybody here with the (Victoria) Grizzlies (the junior A B.C. Hockey League team he owns) knows that. I let the coaches coach. I maybe mentioned five to seven things to Barry (Melrose) over a two-month period. He was the one who coached Vinny (Lecavalier) to an average production of half a point per game and who wanted (2008 first overall draft pick) Steven Stamkos to hit more. It was just a disaster."

The handling of the wispy 18-year-old Stamkos became a flashpoint, with Melrose telling the Fan 590: "Steven is not ready for the NHL . . . right now he's just not strong enough physically to play against defencemen who are six-foot-three or six-foot-four that can skate as good as him."

Barrie completely disagrees with that assessment.

"There is probably only one person in hockey who doesn't believe Steven Stamkos is ready to play in the NHL and that person is Barry Melrose," said Barrie.

At 6-13-8, the Lightning have the worst record in the NHL and have continued to struggle after former assistant Rick Tocchet took over as head coach from Melrose 11 games ago.

"I hope Tampa Bay doesn't win a game in the next year," Melrose told the Fan 590.

"(The firing) obviously wasn't a hockey decision, because it's not like they've set the world on fire since they got rid of me. Now they've got guys in charge that let them do what they want and obviously that isn't working out very well, either."

Barrie said he owns up to his team's woes and doesn't need Melrose telling him the Lightning aren't playing well.

"Has it gone as well as we would have liked? No. We should be playing better. We're not running and hiding from that fact," said Barrie. "We're clearly disappointed with our record."

Victoria Times Colonist

cdheensaw@tc.canwest.com