Demers New Lightning Coach

Jacques Demers on Wednesday brought his reputation for turning hockey teams around to the Tampa Bay Lightning as their new coach.

The two-time NHL coach of the year replaced Rick Paterson, who led the team on an interim basis for six games after Terry Crisp was fired Oct. 26.

The team was 0-6 under Paterson and returned home after a four-game West Coast trip winless in its last 13 games.

“The fans here have been cheated by the players, and that’s the end of it,” said Demers, a Stanley Cup winner with the Montreal Canadiens in 1993.

“I like a challenge. How many games we’re going to win, I don’t know. . . . But we have a playoff team here.”

Demers, who lives in Jupiter, Fla., and was scouting for the Canadiens, had been saying for the past week he was the front-runner for the job. He said he expected to get it once Lightning General Manager Phil Esposito received permission to make the move.

Demers signed a three-year contract reportedly worth about $300,000 per season. He is the only man to win consecutive NHL coach-of-the-year awards.

The 53-year-old coach has a 375-372-113 record in the NHL with Quebec, St. Louis, Detroit and Montreal, and he was 147-152-22 in the World Hockey Assn. with Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Quebec.

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