Lightning news, well not really news

It's been a little dull in the Lightning world since Saturday. Here's some newsy things about Saw VI, Oren Koules and James Wright:













Saw VI
Losing the #1 spot at the box office to Paranormal, Saw VI opened this past weekend in the #2 spot to a weak $14.8 million, which is a drop from the average $30 million openings for Saw II through V. But don't feel bad for Koules/Lionsgate or anything, the film only cost $11 million to make, so they'll see a profit. If you think this means the end for the Saw franchise, think again, it's already in pre-production for Saw VII.

Oren Koules
Q. Besides the Saw franchise, do you know what else Oren Koules is the exec producer for?

A. Two and a Half Men

No one talks about Two and a Half Men, only about Saw, which makes me wonder why. Anyways, so besides being busy during the opening weekend of Saw VI, he also threw an after party for Saw VI at his wife's newly opened restaurant "Wonderland". I like how he keeps the money in the family, which would make him the type of guy that would give out tickets to Lightning to his friends for Christmas (this may or may not be true).

Will he stay or will he go?
Thursday night's game is the 10th game of the season, which means that if the Lightning don't intend to keep Wright, then they would be sending him back to juniors before he plays his 10th game. Once he does play it, no matter how many games he ends up playing going forward, he is able to count one year of pro hockey played out of his 3 year entry contract, which will affect his FA status in the future.

Even if he plays his 10th game, the Lightning can still send him back down, but clubs rarely do. But from what I've read, which really hasn't been much, it seems like he will be staying.

Tocchet says that he expects to have Wright in the lineup for Thursday. Some gushing words from the coach:
"He's 19 but you wouldn't know it," Tocchet said. "He's a very mature kid. It's a credit to his family and his parents, he's such a mature kid. He doesn't get too high or too low, that's what I like about him. He's wide-eyed on the bench, and I'm telling you he's been a pleasure to coach."

Wrighter says he would be excited about staying: "If that's true, then I'd be ecstatic," Wright said of staying past nine games. "It's something coming to camp, you know it's a long shot, but it's something I've been waiting for. I've been working hard the whole time to try to stick with the A group."

I don't know if keeping Wright will hurt the Lightning in the long run, burning through the 1st year of his contract this fast, but the question for the Lightning should be:
Will Wright gain anything from being sent back down to play in the juniors? Or is the NHL the best option?

Oren Koules to take lead in ownership race

The St. Petersburg Times is reporting that Oren Koules, with real estate investor Jeff Greene is making a push to buy out Len Barrie. Bill Daly confirms that Jeff Greene has filed a league ownership application with the NHL. Green says that he has "the funds available to do this transaction".

Len Barrie has apparently been in talks with a St. Louis real estate developer named Anthony Sansone, but Sansone has not yet filed an ownership application.

Elliotte Friedman and Erik Erlendsson are both reporting that Len Barrie's window to buy out Koules has now closed. The best line out of Erlendsson's article is that "Apparently, nobody informed Barrie.", which actually seems very fitting with the Tampa Bay management saga. Barrie apparently thought he had until Wednesday to buy out Koules.

When informed later Monday of the league's confirmation he was out of the picture, Barrie responded in a text message to The Tampa Tribune: "We'll see. I guess I would be happy to get my $40 million."-TBO.com

Awesome. He sounds unmoved by the fact that he missed the deadline. But I guess I would be happy to get back my $40 million too if I thought I had lost it all. $40 million is better than no million. Maybe Barrie planned it this way, sounding like he was interested in buying out Koules long enough to get some other investor interested just so he can re-coup his money to get out of this money sucking black hole investment. If he did, genius.

Len Barrie on the outs?

The Globe and Mail today has an article about more trouble with Len Barrie's investments and according to a source, he was unable to put together a deal to buy out Oren Koules for ownership of the Lightning.

A financial accusation of misuse of funds was made by a former auditor of Bear Mountain Resorts. It says that Barrie used some company money to buy the Lightning, though Barrie denied it and said the money was repaid to Bear Mountain.

Also interesting:
"However, sources close to the executive committee and the auditor’s report tell a different story. One source with knowledge of the committee’s deliberations said Mr. Barrie may soon be replaced as CEO of Bear Mountain by an interim leader from a Toronto company that specializes in corporate rescues.

Mr. Barrie at first denied he was being replaced as soon as today but then said “a couple of different possibilities” were being discussed"

Barrie has until the end of September to put together a package to buy out Koules for ownership of the Lightning before Koules will a get a chance to buy out Barrie.

I think we are going to see the end of Len Barrie the Tampa Bay Lightning owner very soon, which is too bad, because I kinda like the idea of two guys playing armchair GM's for real. It didn't really work out for the team's success, but it was neat to see an ownership group who was touted as being passionate about hockey. Though incidents like this makes me question where the NHL was when they reviewed their application as owners. Another incident of failed ownership reflects badly on the NHL because most of us and news media haven't forgotten about 'Boots' Del Biaggio yet.

Would you be miffed if your friend owed you 3 million?

I bet you would.


















Does this man owe you money?

Len Barrie has repaid Oren Koules the 3 million that he owed, and I can assume that this will help smooth out their friendship.

I can't stand owing money to people. Even when I owe people $20 bucks for covering dinner or something I try to pay people back as fast as possible because I hate the feeling of owing money.

Imagine if you owed someone 3 million? I wonder how you bring that up... "Hey Oren, so buddy, I'm gonna need for you to cover my side of the payment to the NHL about the team that is currently loosing buckets of money....how much you ask? Well...just spot me 3 million..."

That conversation must have sucked. But now it has been confirmed, by text no less to Damian Cristodero that the sum has been paid back. It's nice to know that the beat reporter is on constant texting basis with Koules. Is this a cost cutting measure by the newspaper or are they just chummy? Will DC not get to go on the road with the team and instead just text the owner? It just seems to weird to confirm the information by referencing your text that you received from the owner. I guess I can be ok with texting as long as he doesn't reference twitter as a 'source' in the future. I will draw the line.

If you have ever wanted to read about how Len Barrie came to own/develop Bear Mountain Resort, there was a piece that was written in the business section of the Globe and Mail back in March. It's a little long, but interesting to read.

Trouble in Paradise...

So I wasn't going to write until tomorrow at the earliest since I have been enjoying my time off doing non blogging things...like reading and hanging out with my dad for father's day. It has also been pretty slow news-wise with the Lightning and I really didn't want to write another draft or Vinny post because really, they just seem pointless these days.

But then, via Lightning Shout, the St. Petersburg Times confirmed the rumours about the bickering going out between Lightning owners Koules and Barrie. Tomorrow, Bettman will hold a meeting with the two owners to give the authority to make decisions about the team to ONE of them.

Romano writes something at the end that I found really interesting:
But, today, the fissure seems wide. The talk is that Koules wants to keep Lawton as GM, wants to trade Lecavalier to get out from under his $85 million contract and wants to pare the payroll to the low $40 million range. Barrie is not as solidly behind Lawton, wants to build around Lecavalier and is in favor of signing some free agents to get the payroll closer to $50 million.

I've always thought that perhaps it was Barrie who made all of the early decisions about the team last year, and then Koules that just ended up taking over the day-to-day stuff when they hit the point that they really just couldn't fix the team mid-season (and Barrie was still up at Bear Mountain). Perhaps I was wrong. If Barrie is wanting to build the team around Lecavalier and spend more than just the salary cap floor, then I think this is a step in the right direction.

I mean really, could this year get any worse than last year? Or did I just jinx myself by asking that?

Lawton and Management Answer to Fans

Before the Ottawa Senators game on Sunday, Brian Lawton and Oren Koules took an hour during their Fan Appreciation Day, to speak with some "specially selected" fans. I think by specially selected, they meant season ticket holders who haven't yet renewed their tickets for next year. OK Hockey tried to step up and show accountability.

Not much has been said about how they answered their questions, or what was actually asked. A 'news' article was up on the Tampa Bay Lightning website today, but clearly was posted by management, so some nice media spin on it.

Lawton hopes to bring to the team: aggressiveness paired with a high IQ, and to strengthen the D. Tocchet the other day said he wanted guys who "push back", which are great ideas, but how we will achieve all this in the off season waits to be seen.

They also say that we are not in the rebuild phase. I think they realize they can't sell 'rebuilding' to Tampa fans like the Kings or the Leafs are able to.

I would love to hear what questions and what answers were actually said during this 1 hour session, but I haven't been able to find out much about it.

Although I'm pretty sure it wasn't this (spun by the Lightning writers):
"After answering every question with honesty, gratitude, and even a touch of humor, Lawton and Koules thanked everyone in the crowd for attending and listening to the organization’s blueprints for success, while also sharing their thoughts and feelings about the team." -from the Tampa Bay Lightning website

-Len Barrie was not part of the Q&A. I've heard some rumors about a possible falling apart between Barrie and Koules, but again they are just rumors. Barrie I'm sure is dealing with economic housing crisis as is everyone else in that market and the fact that his team sucking the first year didn't help their relationship. I don't think he skipped out on the Q&A, but rather didn't want to stir up trouble while Koules and Lawton tried to answer to the fans about the terrible season.