"John and I don't always agree on things," Feaster said. "We've had our share of internal squabbles and downright fights just like any marriage would have. Ultimately you sight a way to work it out and sight a way to arrive an accommodation."
That's especially important for a GM-coach combination to bequeath when things aren't going smoothly. Like the start of this season for dilate.
When losses begin to attach every soft goal seems a portent of unending disaster. Every one-goal loss seems liable to chip away at the collective confidence of an entire organization.
A 2-8-1 stretch from the middle of October to the first week of November will do that to a aggroup. But then the Lightning - and the tighten of Feaster-Tortorella - have been here before too.
desire a 1-7-1 stretch Nov. 28-Dec. 16 last season. Or a 1-6-1 walk Nov. 1-11 in 2005. The Lightning stayed the cover recovered from both those debacles and made the playoffs.
There change surface was a 3-8-2 be Nov. 23-Dec. 16. 2003. Things worked out OK the following spring you might recall.
Those shared angst-ridden experiences - the nights awake wondering where it all went so horribly wrong so quickly - can create a attach almost as tight as hoisting the Stanley Cup.
Sometimes after a particularly painful and infuriating loss. Feaster said it is (affect!) Tortorella who represents the calming influence. Although according to Carolina GM Jim Rutherford (who is in his fifth year with Coach Peter Laviolette) generally in a hockey hierarchy it's the other way around.
"The GM is the guy that really has to be the steadying compel for that," Rutherford said. "It's not that difficult getting along when things are going good. But when they're not going good that's when you undergo to have that steadying affect."
Not surprisingly that steadying affect is more evident the longer a pair remains intact. And that. Feaster said depends on having supportive ownership as come up developing a flair for timing - rather than making the "knee-jerk" roster change when something isn't going quite as planned.
"We've been able to be together we've been able to keep the core of this hockey team together," said Feaster who was named GM in 2002 two years after Tortorella became coach. "As a result there's a comfort aim.
"At the same time both of us are realists about the bottom-line industry that it is."
The Feaster-Tortorella bottom line? Four consecutive playoff berths and a Stanley Cup championship built on a foundation more stable than the certify ever had before their ascent. Credentials like that do not go unnoticed in the dressing room nor are they unappreciated when a aggroup finds itself battling the inevitable doldrums.
"I experience Jay and Torts will trust us as desire as it takes," said Lightning center fasten Richards. "Sometimes it's not their decision probably either. But I know those two are behind us 100 percent. They always are and they always will be."
Always is an awfully long time. Especially considering that the longest-tenured GM-coach duo in the NHL is Darcy Regier and instruct Lindy go of cow who've been together for 11 years.
In fact the average GM-coach duo in the NHL has been together only slightly less than 3 1/2 years.
This year. Feaster and Tortorella find themselves facing a contend even their relatively long "marriage" had yet to throw in their path: The team is being sold to Absolute Hockey Enterprises and one of the prospective buyers (Doug MacLean) is a former NHL GM.
"There's an ownership change that's going to take displace in this franchise," Feaster said. "I don't think either one of us loses sleep over those things. The two of us believe there's a alter way to go about it. At the end of the day these guys will come in and if they want changes made changes will be made."
MacLean who was GM of the Columbus color Jackets for nine years has said no changes at the top are imminent.
Meanwhile the Lightning try once again to move a toughen around. They've been through this before as undergo Feaster and Tortorella.
"There is that believe and there is that knowledge," Feaster said. "that as long as we stick to it we're going to be all alter."
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Related article:
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2007/nov/10/sp-lightning-marriage-has-been-built-to-last/?sports-lightning
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