It’s over for Barry Melrose. O-V-E-R. The mullet-rocking Lightning coach got clipped just 16 games into the season.

If you just traded for Vincent Lecavalier in your fantasy league, as Hockey Guy did, this news is welcome. Melrose is a great personality and wonderful analyst, but he wasn’t prepared to step into the New NHL and win.

Melrose watched a lot of hockey during his years as ESPN’s lead analyst, but his knowledge and charisma did not translate into good coaching.

Perhaps he has been away too long. Perhaps the game has changed too much.

His dream of building an entertaining puck-control offense in Tampa Bay turned into a nightmare. The Lightning staggered to a 5-7-4 start for its new owners and novice general manager Brian Lawton.

The last straw, it seemed, was a 4-0 loss to Florida after Melrose had taken a one-day break from leading practice.

The team is already on its second set of defensemen for this season and Lawton was threatening to make more changes. Melrose constantly shuffled his lineup, to no avail.

Wish Rick Tocchet well as he takes over as the interim coach. Rumors persist that the new ownership group is already in financial trouble.

Might more salary dumps occur? Rival GMs are lining up to fleece Lawton, a former NHL player and player agent.

This scenario will be fun to watch. Melrose had taken drastic action with his team, such as moving Vinny Prospal to center, splitting Lecavalier from scorer Martin St. Louis and moving No. 1 overall draft pick Steve Stamkos to right wing.

That was crazy stuff.

Now Tocchet will try to pick up the pieces. He did fine work for the Coyotes as an assistant coach before taking a gambling-related sabbatical from coaching.

On the comeback trail from that beef, he was assisting Melrose this season. This could become a fell-good story . . . if he somehow energizes the Lightning.

AROUND THE RINKS: Capitals winger Alexander Semin. Go here to read about the statistical surge by him and his Washington teammates . . . Brendan Shanahan is said to be edging closer to signing with an East Coast teams, likely the Flyers or Devils. Philadelphia cleared some cap room by waiving defenseman Lasse Kukkonen, although GM Paul Holmgren told Philly.com he was gaining some flexibility in case he needed to replace an injured forward . . . Here is some good stuff from Thrashers winger Ilya Kovalchuk, told to a Russian newspaper and translated into English. He has Semin’s back, that’s for sure . . . Here is some really good analysis on the potential Brian Burke/Maple Leafs marriage . . . Congrats to the Blackhawks for bringing Denis Savard back to the family as a team ambassador. Firing him earlier this season as coach was a painful decision for the revamped management team . . . Marian Gaborik’s latest disability, 12 games and counting with a “lower body injury” will cost him millions on the free agent marketplace. It also hindered the Wild’s ability to deal him for younger players before his contract expires. Will he ever play again?