by MARTIN FENNELLY, mfennelly@tampatrib.com , Tampa Tribune

mfennelly@tampatrib.com

TAMPA - All told, he scored 492 goals and countless TKOs in 18 memorably ferocious NHL seasons.

"I had a black eye all the time," Rick Tocchet said.

Tocchet, interim Lightning head coach, is counting in his head, adding up the scars on his face. Most have faded. Some you can still see. "Definitely over a hundred," he said.

Hey, the guy was born in Ontario in a place called Scarborough.

He's 44. He still looks like he could go.

Meet the man out to stop the bleeding on Channelside Drive.

Barry Melrose is gone. Was he ever here? We're still not sure about the new owners. But Lightning players, even if they haven't turned it into wins, can feel a change. The circus has left town.

"It's feels gone," Lightning winger Mark Recchi said.

"The dust has started to settle," Marty St. Louis said.

They feel they're moving in one direction, just like Rick Tocchet once did as he charged the net or threw his fists.

"He's a straight-up guy, the same guy he was on the ice," said Recchi, who was once traded for Tocchet and later played with him. "He helped stabilize things. We're well prepared. We know where we stand. There's no gray area."

"We're finding our way," Tocchet said.

This franchise finished 30th out of 30 last season, and this club hasn't started much better.

"Yeah, the odds are against us," Tocchet said. "But we can do this."

Tocchet knows about Can Do. He knows about beating the odds and fighting the fight. And he knows about circus and dust settling after a two-year absence from Hockey in and around pleading guilty to conspiracy and promoting gambling. His probation ended a few months ago. Now he's back, with a chance to take the "interim" off his Lightning title.

"No question," Tocchet said with a smile. "That's why when I get angry after games, I tell them, 'Hey, guys, this is my shot, too.'"

He's one of only three NHL players to score 400 goals and have 2,500 penalty minutes. He's a great team guy, a tireless worker who maxed out on his talent. He won a Cup with Pittsburgh in 1992 after coming over from the Flyers for Recchi. Tocchet played on a line with Mario Lemieux.

"My stuff was all around the net," Tocchet said. "Muck and grind."

He protected Lemieux from all comers. "He was giving me tap-ins, so the least I could do was take a few stitches for him."

Tocchet's fighting always made him a crowd favorite. He had legendary bouts with Cam Neely and Wendel Clark. Tocchet eventually made it back to Philly, with Recchi as a teammate. Recchi recalled Tocchet's final season, 2001-02, and a fight with Devils granite defenseman Scott Stevens.

"They were throwing everything," Recchi said. "It was amazing."

Rick Tocchet laughed and recalled a time around 10 years ago when a young Calgary Flames gnat, name of Martin St. Louis, tried to mess with him.

"He was sticking me off the draw," Tocchet said. "When the puck was dropped, I just drilled him as hard as I could."

Knocked Marty flat.

They didn't fight.

"That would be a Chihuahua against a pit bull," St. Louis said.

The pit bull admired many of the coaches he played under, and he played for some of the best, like crazy Mike Keenan, or Mr. Stanley Cup, Scotty Bowman, or Jim Schoenfeld - or a Phoenix assistant, name of John Tortorella.

"I really loved playing for him," Tocchet said. "He's a [heck] of a coach. He'll be back somewhere soon."

Tocchet became an assistant coach in Colorado before joining Phoenix under head coach Wayne Gretzky.

Then it fell apart. Tocchet was accused of financing a sports gambling ring based in New Jersey. Gretzky's wife, Janet Jones, also was implicated. Tocchet, who never bet on Hockey, took a leave of absence "to let the dust settle."

"I didn't know the dust was going to take two years," he said.

The league let him rejoin Phoenix last February, two years after he took his leave.

"You're an extension of the NHL. You've got be careful," Tocchet said. "Yeah, I bet a few football games. I wasn't part of any gambling ring, like people think. It's done. It's over with."

He's still a fighter when you come down to it.

His players can feel it.

"This season has been reeled back in," Mark Recchi said.

It's going to be a long, hard road.

Bumps, bruises and, yes, maybe a few scars.

A pit bull might come in handy.

Photo credit: Getty Images

Photo: Rick Tocchet is happy to be back in the NHL after a hiatus stemming from a legal issue.

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