Head Coaches of the Tampa Bay Lightning

The Tampa Bay Lightning are an American professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. They play in the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Hockey League (NHL). Often referred to as the Bolts, as seen from their third jerseys, the team joined the NHL in 1992 as an expansion team, and won their first Stanley Cup in 2004. Having first played in the Expo Hall, and later in the ThunderDome (now known as Tropicana Field), the Lightning have played their home games at the St. Pete Times Forum, which was first named the Ice Palace, since 1996. The majority of the Lightning are owned by Oren Koules and Len Barrie, Brian Lawton is their general manager, and Vincent Lecavalier is the team captain.
There have been seven head coaches for the Lightning franchise. The team's first head coach was Terry Crisp, who coached for five seasons. John Tortorella, the only American to head coach the team, is the franchise's all-time leader for the most regular-season games coached (535), the most regular-season game wins (239), the most regular-season points (552), the most playoff games coached (45), and the most playoff-game wins (24). Tortorella is the only coach to have won the Prince of Wales Trophy, the Stanley Cup, and to have been awarded the Jack Adams Award with the Lightning, all of which happened in the 2003–04 season. Rick Paterson, Steve Ludzik and Rick Tocchet have spent their entire NHL head coaching careers with the Lightning. Tocchet has been the interim head coach of the Lightning since the firing of Barry Melrose.
==Key==
# 	Number of coaches
GC 	Games coached
W 	Wins = 2 points
L 	Losses = 0 points
T 	Ties = 1 point
OT 	Overtime/shootout losses = 1 point
PTS 	Points
Win%	Winning percentage
* 	Spent entire NHL head coaching career with the Lightning
==Coaches==
Note: Statistics are correct through the end of the 2008–09 season.
#	Name 	Term 	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Regular season	Playoffs	Playoffs	Playoffs	Playoffs	Achievements 	Reference
#	Name 	Term 	GC 	W 	L 	T/OT 	PTS 	Win% 	GC 	W 	L 	Win% 	Achievements 	Reference
1	Terry Crisp 	1992–1997 	391 	142 	204 	45 	329 	.421 	6 	2 	4 	.333 	 	
2	Rick Paterson* 	1997 	6 	0 	6 	0 	0 	.000 	— 	— 	— 	— 	 	
3	Jacques Demers 	1997–1999 	147 	34 	96 	17 	85 	.289 	— 	— 	— 	— 	 	
4	Steve Ludzik* 	1999–2001 	121 	31 	67 	23 	85 	.351 	— 	— 	— 	— 	 	
5	John Tortorella	2001–2008 	535 	239 	222 	74 	552 	.516 	45 	24 	21 	.533 	2003–04 Prince of Wales Trophy winner	
6	Barry Melrose 	2008 	16 	5 	7 	4 	14 	.438 	— 	— 	— 	— 	 	
7	Rick Tocchet* 	2008–present	66 	19 	33 	14 	52 	.394 	— 	— 	— 	— 	 	
==Notes==
* A running total of the number of coaches of the Lightning. Thus, any coach who has two or more separate terms as head coach is only counted once.
* Before the 2005–06 season, the NHL instituted a penalty shootout for regular season games that remained tied after a five-minute overtime period, which prevented ties.
*Each year is linked to an article about that particular NHL season.
==References==
;General
*
;Specific
Category:Tampa Bay Lightning coaches
Category:Tampa Bay Lightning
Category:National Hockey League lists