NHL and Hockey Rumors for Nov 15, 2008

The Tampa Bay Lightning have fired head coach Barry Melrose. Associate coach Rick Tocchet has been named interim head coach. Brochu's take: The Lightning franchise is a complete joke right now. It looks like Al "The Spaghetti Salesman" Strachan was right after all. I'm looking forward to hearing all the humble pie that Mike Milbury and the media are going to eat once Strachan goes on The Hotstove tomorrow.

Anaheim Ducks CEO Michael Schulman filed paperwork with the National Hockey League earlier today that would grant all teams permission to speak with former GM Brian Burke.

Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune reports that scouts from the New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, Vancouver Canucks, Pittsburgh Penguins, Chicago Blackhawks, Dallas Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Nashville Predators and the Toronto Maple Leafs" attended the Tampa Bay Lightning-Detroit Red Wings game on Thursday.

There have been a lot of rumblings and rumors that the Dallas Stars will make some major changes if the team does not improve their play in the next few weeks.

According to Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun, there were three Colorado Avalanche scouts at the Ottawa Senators-New York Islanders game. Senators GM Bryan Murray wants Av's defenseman Jordan Leopold and the Avalanche are interested in Antoine Vermette. Brochu's take: The Sens have been looking for a puck moving defenseman for quite some time now. Source