TORT'S Influence

[Nuxfanabroad]

Lotsa Torts-lovin' threads goin'round. We were all starved for a personality behind the bench. Do the players actually get excited, as we have?

Tie this in with the twins $ talks. If the culture changes, & moods are buoyant, does this influence their decision? JT watched how a Cup affected the "big 3" in TBay. Seems Richards & LeCav chased the big $. Led to trade-talk(one moving on), & under-performance(I'm not saying big contracts were the sole reason). I think St Louis remained the most humble/hard working; & certainly best maintained his level of performance.

Maybe Torts learned lots from the experience. Certainly he & Richards have been through the gamut(coach/player drama). I see the twins following the example of a guy like St Louis, career-wise. Guy just hit 900 pts with TBay, & he's never been over 5.6 mill for cap. Perhaps his size held back the big payout(gm's maybe used this, negotiating), but I'd guess Marty was appreciative, humble, & just wanted to be a go-to-guy, on a winner.

We've been lucky to have such excellent players(Burrows, Lu, Kes, esp twins) accept comparatively underpaid contracts. I'm hoping Torts influence/team-culture will prompt more of the same.

[John.Tallhouse]

Are u a female Canucks fan? Or a fan from across the pond?

[Rick Grimes]

Sedins are Canucks/MODO for life.


Torts is a beast, I thought it when he was in NY coaching The Rags,and I think it now that he is here in Vancouver.


We hit the jackpot when he hired John Tortorella, I've said it from Day 1 that he is the kick in the ass that this team needs to get back to where they should be.

[Boudrias]

Everone loves Torts as long as they are winning. Lose against Pitt and watch out.

IMO the Canuck compete level looks much higher than last year. Torts brings a different attitude with what appears to be accountability. He is playing those players who are producing. Perhaps his coaching has more defined standards and roles which players can more easily understand than AV's. I never liked AV's apparent inability to change up his game plan when it was not working.

Torts might be the elixir the Canucks have needed to finally overcome the 2011 CUP defeat.

[SergioMomesso]

As long as this team shows passion when they win and lose I'm happy. Too many guys not caring enough after a loss with AV. Torts will make guys ride the pine if they ain't doing anything .

[Nuxfanabroad]

Well does having Torts coach here actually increase the chance that the twins stick around? It would be somewhat ironic, considering the supposedly rocky relationship he had with players on NYR. I recall(early in his TBay gig) he was rather confrontational(openly, using media) with stars like LeCav. Was it because he was a younger player, who'd been so highly touted? So if we had young stars here(eg:Horvat in a couple yrs), would he push them harder than vet-stars? Think it's more likely Torts thought he had to make his name as a demanding coach(cos' he had no "rep", as a player). Now he's established his rep(previous champ; hard-ass-coach in a top market), perhaps he's completely willing to shift gears, & truly employ a lighter approach. In this sense, we may have received the best of both worlds. He can quickly go "boot camp" if a player's attitude calls for it, but it's likely he'll resort to it much further down the line. Our team realized what we needed to change to find success. Maybe Torts feels the same way about himself as a coach/career-person in the game.