TORTS Interview

[nuck nit]

This team has one win in the playoffs in what will now be three seasons.

Half of Gillis' tenure(six years) has been a playoff nightmare and/or no show.

In his first year he made the playoffs but in reality,it was a team he inherited.

The Sundin signing was a disaster and ditching Brendan Morrison was a mistake to begin his tenure.

So,we are left with two years of accredited success(33%) in a weak division that has now been realigned.

That's his record and here is how his record culminates:

28th place PP

27th place GPG

29th in team shooting %

13th in GAA per game

[chrisbanks]

i find it really hard to put any fault at torts... this team has been on the decline since the finals vs boston....year by year our core guys production slipped as they aged and the supporting cast around them got worse ( gillis's problem) ... this team playing in the style they wanted to play last year was barley good enough to make the playoffs ( 4 points better than 9th place) and then got swept..... but alot of people including gliis thought torts would be some magic wand that with a flick of the wrist he could turn this team back into cup contenders... their is a difference between under achieving (which most fans think our core did ) and flat out not being good enough anymore.... torts was brought in to apply pressure to these guys who had gotten complacent under AV and see what they really had left in the tank ... and it turns out not much....what makes gillis think going back to the old style will change anything?? they played that style just last year and were lucky they were in a crap division or else they wouldnt have been in the playoffs last year.....people can rag on torts for over playing out top guys but if he didnt do that chances are we dont even have a good start to the season....

[Honky Cat]

agreed.

This is on Gillis.

Time to get Bob Nicholson in here to help Mike out.

No disrespect to Bob Nicholson,but he cherry picked (not traded,drafted or signed) the best Canadian players and came first at the Olympics..I fail to see how that translates into NHL success

[IamHomer]

No disrespect to Bob Nicholson,but he cherry picked (not traded,drafted or signed) the best Canadian players and came first at the Olympics..I fail to see how that translates into NHL success

And Mike Gillis was a player agent. "I fail to see how that translate into NHL success" :D

[coryberg]

No disrespect to Bob Nicholson,but he cherry picked (not traded,drafted or signed) the best Canadian players and came first at the Olympics..I fail to see how that translates into NHL success

No disrespect to you but he cherry picked Yzerman and then Yzerman cherry picked the team.

[BI3KSA-]

I love Torts, he's not a bull crapper. He owns his mistakes and is blunt and straight up. In this line of work where PR and politics are so prevalent, this kind of attitude is very rare. That being said, I believe depth was a serious issue when we had injuries. You cannot expect him to play a puck possession game with Dalpe has our second line center. Add to that the Sedins not producing crap all even when they were healthy and Kesler being mediocre at best, and you get what we got this season. It's a miracle we were even close to making the playoffs.

[Canuck Surfer]

Torts had a worse team then AV with less depth in a harder division and Gillis didnt do a thing to help him out, just let him twist in the wind then throw him under the bus in a presser

Hey, Torts knew the "re-set"was coming and the realities of the cap post CBA when he signed on. He was given as good a team as he should have expected.

Torts was effective through Decemeber, lost the team in Jan / Feb and is in recovery mode now. As he is in recovery, I'd give him some rope. But not too much.

I also do not like our collapse back to the net and block shot defensive system. Block shots fine, but do it attacking the puck versus sitting back. Create turnovers, tempo and use team speed. We have players like Hansen who are very good at creating pressure but did very little of it following the system. Nor dump and chase versus possession game. And we score very few transition points as a result.

We do need a PMD, but that was not in the cards with this years budget.

I'll take Torts if he maintains the recovery and reverts to an attacking defence. Good on Gillis for demanding it publically (and FTR I had posted same before the topic came up).

Torts handled himself better than Gillis, which is surprising after the cloaked insults flung at him by Mike.

My interpretation:

Gillis is honestly gunning for a aggressive forechecking puck-possession team. That's why he sat AV down for a talk before he kept him on. And AV responded in order to keep his job.

Injuries forced Torts to fall back on what came naturally to him, pull back and play more defensive. And he admitted he should have re-instated that aggressive style earlier in the new year. And basically he is willing to follow MG's edict. He wants to keep his job.

I think after this whole media circus is done both will remain with the team.

It isn't as easy as it sounds.

There is no "TOP 6 FORWARD" shop on the corner. And teams will try to rob you blind in the process...so it's about striking a balance between getting what you want/need and not giving up everything in order to do so. (And now I'm starting to sound like Mike Gillis, sigh). But I believe it.

He's done ok.

He's done OK? Here is, IMO, a fair assesment of MG over 5 years, chronologically;

In 2010 we had cap money and used $10 mill of it on Sundin. Also Samuelsson paid big dividends and Demitra helped the team in spite of critque. I believe we could have spent $10 mill better, but not to the point of a complaint on my behalf. A team of young players was given a chance to get past Chicago which they nearly did. Had they, probably would have been a contender that year? I am complimentary but not effusive in praise.

In 2011 Gillis was near perfect. Could be argued in hindsight the Lou deal was an elephant in the room. But extremely effective use of funds that aside, trades etc. to fill out roles near perfectly to build our SCF finals team. Malhotra, Torres, Hamhuis, Brilliant!

Not happy with 2012 performance by MG. Deadline trades, Booth acquisition nor pre-season moves did nothing to intellectually to re-fill roles from our SCF run or build a better team. Acquisitions were good on face value but did not actually fill roles we had lost from the prev season, or did not work out. Booth could have been good. However we were loaded at left wing and did nor replace the passing and composure Samuelsson offered on the right. There were signs the Lou / Schneids thing would surface NY. Rumours are we could have had Carter for Schneider before he went to LA. That would have seen us as a better team in every way from that time through now. Could have made a different trade for CoHo or maybe him Carter and Higgins would have been great? Possibly the Lou issue would never have surfaced if vision had seen what it should? Should have cut losses on Ballard if AV did not use him in finals. MG spent heavily, wasted money and did not pull correct triggers.

Extremely unhappy with 2013 performance. Kept Ballard again? WTF... I did not like the Garrison signing. Not complaining about contract value or that he is a bad player, but we were loaded at LHD and we really needed a PMD and a RHD. Wasted money because we needed something different to elevate us. Booth became a red herring. Booth, Ballard and Schneider were over $12 mill in money tied up. The Lou / Schneider thing! MG was waaay too reluctant to tinker when it was patently obvious the money he was spending was not going in the right direction.

Curiously, considering the venom of my 2012/13 assessments; I thought Gillis did a pretty darn good job in 2014. Jury out on Torts, but jury also out on if thats on him? Only modestly behind my expectations for this years performance, blame to the Calgary debacle and over hyped responses in LA, Anaheim and Phoenix that set us up for our Jan / Feb slide. On coach more so than injuries and personnel IMO. MG salvaged value in the Schneider trade, set a new course which was, and is wise in the long run and legit considering circumstances. Made good value pickups who successfully filled needed roles on the team in Stanton, Richardson and Santorelli. New farm team. Salvaged value in Lou. New hope on horizon with young guns on way. Spent and positioned the team well and is probably offering us a better future by making decisions (that worked) in the face of criticism.

I think we all wish the Lu thing had been handled differently.

As my middle response suggests; the time to deal with the Lou issue was well before this year. I personally believe Lou asked out first after the finals. Just speculation on my part. no true basis. IMO its why he kept Schneider and let the whole thing blow up.

These are the tidbits on my intuition. Lou's wife apparently did not move over till this year. Lou complained about excess criticism over the finals. Lou had a history of manipulating best case scenarios for himself. He got his $50 mill contract, took the fat front end money and still felt it was justified to try and force a move to Florida. Again, no basis, just my opinion / speculation, but it explains a lot.

Of course he thought he would get better for Lou earlier..., but misjudged the market. Hey, gauging the market is an executives job! And made it worse rubbing (a whiner's) nose with first with Schneider, then with Lack at the HC. If that through a guy making $6.75 mill out of joint, good riddance. I'll take our SCF run and the recent salvaging trade with Florida and hope we get back on track!

[Honky Cat]

And Mike Gillis was a player agent. "I fail to see how that translate into NHL success" :D

Gillis has had success as well as failure..As a player agent he dealt with NHL GM's ..He also won GM of the year award.

[Honky Cat]

No disrespect to you but he cherry picked Yzerman and then Yzerman cherry picked the team.

Well what exactly did Bob Nicholson do?

[Dr. Hockey]

The Canuck culture is truely amazing!

MG has made mistakes, and he has done a few amazing things as well. FA should hire a President of Hockey Ops, and let MG concentrate on GM-ing alone. A shorter leash so to speak. I'd say hire Gretz. FA and Wayne are friends. As a former agent MG does attract players, (except Schultz, and that was because of Gretz.). He takes care of players very well. Handling the goalie situation was interesting. The Eastern media did serve up Kool-Aid and a lot of us drank it. We had two starters and they turned it into a curse. I actually blame AV for a lot of it. When TML had two 'good' goalies the articles were night and day different.

I love how MG sticks it to the eastern media and sometimes hints at the NHL bs.

Torts is slowly turning our team. Our Dec was amazing and then injuries. This year there has been less talk about us being winers, divers and what not. Two reasons: we are not dominating and Torts is influencing us to play the right way. Honest and straight up.

He charged the Flames dressing room and a lot of us were impressed at his willingness to go to bat for the players. Then months later sheeple look for excuses and point to that. Or the shot blocking or the physical play. History of the game hints that those teams win championships. Even the Oilers had McClelland, Semenko, Messier (puke) and other big tough players. Who is leading the NHL; BIG SKILLED TEAMS. Our ship is in port, but its being rebuilt! I think this course is right but we need a year of patience.

Now who is the perfect winger for Kes so we have a second dynamic duo? lol

[Dogbyte]

Wouldn't I have had to of posted something of value at some point for us to "argue" about it...?

I think we all wish the Lu thing had been handled differently. Would it have been worthwhile to take less/nothing and/or retain a LOT more salary and avoid all the drama? Neither of those options are good really (2 years of drama vs less return and more retained cap). In the end, everyone got what they weanted...so he did his job, just not in the time frame everyone would have liked.

And that's all highly dependent on if anyone would have taken him at all given the CBA/Cap realities. There was no easy fix there unfortunately.

MG does get "hung up" on value contracts but it's so that he can have $500K here, $1m there to do things like bolster depth or get high $$ UFA's. The history is there. He's not your bargain hunting crazy aunt with a garage full of useless "deals" (garbage) he's found. He saves money here and there so he can save up for that sports car to park in the garage.

Ha ha, sorry it took so long to get back to you J.R. Funny stuff. I'm impatient. :

I mean trading for value is so over rated for me. You gotta be a genius which is what MG wants but? Just to clarify 4$ mil which is generous is only 6% of the cap and so you can sign another Raymond, Booth, or Leino? You only need so many 4$ guys on a team. He saves it and wastes it. It's a push.

What if you got rid Kes for a anything. A fifth round draft pick. In today's salary cap the space in infinitely more valuable than any player. Dump Kes and pick up Vrbata and Stastny at 3 yrs $15m and 4 yrs $30m. We can fit that in and we look way better right away because we got top 6 players that dictate the game. Get rid of Hansen, which we agree on I believe, and bring up a kid with potential on the third line instead of playing a couple journeymen.

[Dr. Hockey]

This team has one win in the playoffs in what will now be three seasons.

Half of Gillis' tenure(six years) has been a playoff nightmare and/or no show.

In his first year he made the playoffs but in reality,it was a team he inherited.

The Sundin signing was a disaster and ditching Brendan Morrison was a mistake to begin his tenure.

So,we are left with two years of accredited success(33%) in a weak division that has now been realigned.

That's his record and here is how his record culminates:

28th place PP

27th place GPG

29th in team shooting %

13th in GAA per game

There's speculation AV said no to BMo. I was so pissed!!! He looked great at camp. And then they don't offer a contract. In an interview AV spoke about helping pick the team and he chose players who wouldn't last: Schaefer and Desbiens.

[Honky Cat]

This team has one win in the playoffs in what will now be three seasons.

Half of Gillis' tenure(six years) has been a playoff nightmare and/or no show.

In his first year he made the playoffs but in reality,it was a team he inherited.

The Sundin signing was a disaster and ditching Brendan Morrison was a mistake to begin his tenure.

So,we are left with two years of accredited success(33%) in a weak division that has now been realigned.

That's his record and here is how his record culminates:

28th place PP

27th place GPG

29th in team shooting %

13th in GAA per game

You always forget the preceding three seasons..the best in franchise history..and a game away from winning the SC

The team he inherited missed the playoffs before he was hired

The Sundin signing being a disaster is just your opinion...

Injuries..?

[Standing_Tall#37]

This should say it all...goal scoring has been an issue now for 3+ years....by by mikey......

http://themaplethree.blogspot.ca/2011/06/most-lopsided-7-game-series-in-nhl.html?m=1

[Dogbyte]

This should say it all...goal scoring has been an issue now for 3+ years....by by mikey......

http://themaplethree.blogspot.ca/2011/06/most-lopsided-7-game-series-in-nhl.html?m=1

For some reason we've gotten to the point in life that there are no goals scored.

Welcome to soccer folks. That's what happens when you care.

[Honky Cat]

This team has one win in the playoffs in what will now be three seasons.

Half of Gillis' tenure(six years) has been a playoff nightmare and/or no show.

In his first year he made the playoffs but in reality,it was a team he inherited.

The Sundin signing was a disaster and ditching Brendan Morrison was a mistake to begin his tenure.

So,we are left with two years of accredited success(33%) in a weak division that has now been realigned.

That's his record and here is how his record culminates:

28th place PP

27th place GPG

29th in team shooting %

13th in GAA per game

You never mention the preceding three seasons...the best in franchise history

The team he inherited had missed the playoffs before Gillis was hired

Sundin signing a disaster..?..that's heresay..If you're an eternal pessimist..maybe it was?

[nuck nit]

You never mention the preceding three seasons...the best in franchise history

Sundin signing a disaster..?..that's heresay..If you're an eternal pessimist..maybe it was?

I did,rather succinctly.You chose not to read it or it did not register.

The record on Sundin speaks for itself.Go back and read how much of a disaster it was.You weren't aware of what went down and still haven't figured it out?

[erkayloomeh]

Personally I became anti JT when he freaked out on Hansen. That was totally uncalled for. Hansen has improved every year he has been here and has always been our hardest working player. This was not an anomaly in the way JT thinks. If anything he has to restraint himself so he doesn't do it more often. This team will go nowhere with him. I will be shocked and disappointed if he is still around. There are better choices out there. He has to go. I don't understand how some of you can't see that. He's bloody awful.

[elvis15]

There's speculation AV said no to BMo. I was so pissed!!! He looked great at camp. And then they don't offer a contract. In an interview AV spoke about helping pick the team and he chose players who wouldn't last: Schaefer and Desbiens.

Again, what I knew at that time was that Morrison publicly stated he wouldn't accept playing in the AHL if it was required. Considering the spot had opened up because of Burrows' injury for the first part of the season, there was a real chance whoever took it would be demoted on his return. Knowing that he couldn't offer a deal to guarantee Morrison a spot for the whole season, Gillis let Morrison have a chance at another team that could offer him that.

Morrison took a deal with Calgary who had room for him for the whole year, and even if they did demote him it'd be to Abbotsford, very close to his home in the Lower Mainland.

[D-Money]

Torts HAD to play the Sedins all those minutes.

But i don't see the Dallas (trade deadline) game being a milestone at all. The humiliating Islanders game was after that and we've been beaten soundly by a better Anaheim team who wasn't trying all that hard.

I disagree on the ice time part. Santorelli was rolling earlier in the year. Kesler was finally healthy too. There were other options than giving the twins more ice time than almost anyone in the league. Especially when they started to dry up.

But the 2nd point is what came to my head too. You finally got the team set to your vision, and the result is giving up a 3rd period touchdown to the worst team in the league? (Considering no Tavares or Vanek.) As far as excuses go, that one is quickly proven empty.