What happened to the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2008?

[Jdes91]

They won in 2004, made that playoffs in 2006 and 2007 and then fell off the face of the earth in 2008. What happened exactly?

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[HoseEmDown]

They won in 2004, made that playoffs in 2006 and 2007 and then fell off the face of the earth in 2008. What happened exactly?

Ownership

 

[Jdes91]

Ownership was a big part but I'm sure but goaltending wasnt the same over khabibulin left. Also Torts probably lost the room. I have a sense that 2007 kind of ended their mystique...

 

[Todd1a]

They won in 2004, made that playoffs in 2006 and 2007 and then fell off the face of the earth in 2008. What happened exactly?

ownership and lost there number one goalie with no good replacement

 

[Hoek]

The lockout voiding Khabibulin's final year was such BS and is basically what undid the whole thing. Crappy new ownership taking over and exiling Dan Boyle and Torts was the final nail in the coffin.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

Ownership didn't want to spend money, we couldn't draft/develop players, and we could never replace key guys, especially Khabibulin in net. Star power and a very weak SE division had probably kept us afloat for a little bit but we were never going to challenge for a cup again like 2004. Super frustrating.

2008 was us finally hitting rock bottom. Dan Boyle was injured throughout the season. His own skate fell out of his stall and cut him. Tortz lost the lockerroom. I specifically remember two things, 1: him dismissing Andre Roy, a big locker room guy from the team. Marty and Vinny plead for him to return but to no avail. And 2, Tortz doing something with the team bus, I think letting them off, driving around, and then picking them up again to symbolize them not showing up for games. I believe Jay Feaster said he would have fired him even if the new owners didn't in the 2008 offseason. Matt Cooke changed Lecavalier's career forever. Insult to injury, nobody came to Vinny's defense and that pissed off Tortz on the bench. And then the new owners, before they were officially in charge, made the move at the deadline to trade Brad Richards. By July 2008, new co-owner Len Barrie forced Boyle off the team in a trade to San Jose, threatening to bury his career with the Atlanta Thrashers if he didn't accept. Such a terrible year. Only positive thing looking back was drafting Stamkos. But even that whole thing caused some drama on these boards. I remember the fan base here on HF being split between those actively cheering for us to lose to have better draft odds, and those who didn't like that.

 

[BoltSTH]

The underlining reason is the Cowboys. They borrowed 50% of the purchase price from PSEG (the seller), as the best with could do is come up with 25% each, so had a crippling debt load, and did not have enough liquidity to run a team. Once Bear Mountain development collapsed (pyramid schemes always do), and the Saw movie franchise ended, the team was on a downward spiral. The Japanese mafia were better owners.

 

[HoseEmDown]

The salary cap coming in 05/06 hurt as well. We had something like 40% of it tied up in just Lecavalier, St. Louis and Boyle alone. Khabibulin got 20% of the cap from the Blackhawks that summer which would've took us to 60% in just 4 players and killed any depth. Depth we really didn't have because we drafted poorly and made moves to win it all in 04. In 06/07 Richards was due a new contract too and he went out and killed it in 05/06 which forced them to pay him, he got 20% of the cap. We were a top heavy team with weak depth, no prospects, Richards fell off a little after the big payday, Lecavalier got injured, the Boyle problem and the coach losing the team. Just a recipe for disaster but it got the team to truly bottom out instead of hovering around the playoff building which allowed them to rebuild properly and get the team sold.