John Tortorella had been out of hockey for a few months when he heard from his former boss Jay Feaster, the general manager and architect of Tortorella’s 2004 Stanley Cup-winning Lightning team.
Feaster had an idea.
As the Lightning’s executive director of community hockey development, Feaster was organizing Hockey Day in Tampa Bay, a full-day event of wall-to-wall hockey featuring street hockey, high school hockey, college hockey, sled hockey, amateur hockey and a watch party to see the Bolts’ road game in San Jose. Would Tortorella be open to coming back to Amalie Arena to be a coach?