Chip Carter's Newsroom

John Tortorella had the famous phrase shut your yap, thats what he and the entire organization needs to do about the officiating.

Here's the deal, my Dad was a college hockey coach, never complained publicly about the officials. He always said, when you complain about officiating, that line of thinking starts seeping through the team, it gives players a built in excuse......they get a woe is me complex.....

The Bolts are on a four game losing streak Brad Richards, Chris Gratton, Shane O'Brien all have made comments....were they right,? yes...were they necessary? .no...

Even in the broadcast booth Lightning analyst Bobby Taylor jumps on every missed or bad call....I know  part of that is his job, but really, its an over reaction to the call, not an analysis......the first comment you hear is "Are you kidding me?"

Torts needs to put a stop to it, stop the constant talk from the booth to the front office, especially on the ice and in the locker room......

Yes this losing streak  started with a bad call by the refs giving Atlanta a power play in overtime, but the Bolts gave up a three one lead, with defensive breakdowns like filip kuba and Paul Ranger, both on their bellies sliding like penguins across the ice......

The Bolts are now in a four game losing skid, are they getting bad calls, absolutley, but they've also given up 11 goals in four games....and here is the problem, 7 of those 11 goals were in the third period or overtime...thats not bad calls, thats bad defense...So Torts needs his team to shut their yap and play....