The "I would like to see Torts stay for at least one more year" thread.

[Kumquats]

This team was injured for most of the season, plus getting used to a new system takes time so I would like to see Tortilla stay.

[250Integra]

Unless we find someone absolutely amazing, I think Torts deserves another year.

[SuperReverb2]

Unless we find someone absolutely amazing, I think Torts deserves another year.

I agree 100%! On a side note. Recently fired Barry Trotz is NOT absolutely amazing.

[SuperReverb2]

I found it VERY interesting yesterday that Torts stated one of his biggest mistakes was giving the "room" back to the players when they were riddled with injuries, and he was too slow in reclaiming the room as the team returned to health. I seem to remember AV was big on allowing the veterans on the this team run the room as well. That approach got AV fired after two lackluster seasons (apres cup run) and had horrendous results this season. Seems that Torts was "right on" yesterday about team (core) complacency and the need for this team to be "pushed" in order to obtain the best results. Hopefully Linden will make the right choice today and retain Torts and surround this core with the energetic, skilled, youth it so desperately needs to compete.

[Oh Whisht]

I think Torts should be given a chance for another year. Between injuries and Gillis, he didn't have much of a chance this year. I find him a refreshing change.

[Snake Doctor]

We don't know what's going on in the exit meetings. That should be done by the end of the week. After that, if John is still around, my guess is he will be around one more year. Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing Barry Trots take the head coaching job in Vancouver. What he did with Nashville over the years is amazing. Although John should get one more shot at it. Injuries are not an excuse, but Gillis did not have any depth in the orgainization to ease the loss of key players.

Injuries is also another good point. If we were lucky and had fewer injuries and made the playoffs would Gillis still be around? Look at the Santorelli signing. Best free agent deal last off season. I guess the way he handled the goaltending situation was the real needle that popped the balloon.

Hopefully Trevor Linden can change the direction of the team.

[NucksCup2015]

i will repeat

anyone who watched the torts presser and still thinks he should be fired

knows nothing about hockey and coaching

that man said everything that finally needed to be said and clearly he has coached this way all year

the players did not respond

lets call a spade a spade here folks. AV was fired because he 'lost the room' it had become complacent and lost its drive

torts was brought in, in the hopes someone could salvage that, motivate this group

injuries played a big role but clearly, the issue is the MIX...its not the coaches

if you have ever coached anything and you listened to his words, it was like listening to gospel, to a real detailed understanding of his group, team dynamics, the strengths and weaknesses of this team, and himself.

this man is very self aware, he is a brilliant leader....this group has failed and needs changes, but that doesn't include the coach.

[grumpworsley]

Paul Maurice

[Tearloch7]

Paul Maurice

Punch Imlach ..

[BI3KSA-]

It's not very often that when a new GM comes into town that the old coach stays.

Torts has brought this team down to nearly a franchise low is Goals per game. I believe only better than Mike Keenan.

Last season under AV we had 2.54 goals per game, compared to 2.33 for this year. Not a huge difference at all especially considering all the injuries. If you go back to our cup run year we lead the league at 3.15 goals per game and the year after we were 5th with 2.94 goals per game. So the slide in scoring happened before Torts even got here. Add to that all the injuries and brutal division and no wonder we had trouble scoring with our level of depth.

[grumpworsley]

Punch Imlach ..

?

[pinot blanc]

Torts needs to go. You can't hire a new GM and expect them to be able to bring in players to fit into Tort's system. Plus, most of the players already here (core) most likely don't want to play that style of hockey. We don't need our top players killing penalties, play on the power play and their regular shifts. The goalies have top notch equipment for stopping shots. Better to work on a system where we hurry the shooters than worrying about blocking every shot. We triend this year and still go beat so what the heck!

Trevor, cut Torts and start with the signing of a quality GM (Benning) and then step back and allow him to hire a new coach. Have the GM work with coach to design the type of players we need to go after at the draft and during the off season.

Go Kelowna Rockets!

[oldnews]

I found it VERY interesting yesterday that Torts stated one of his biggest mistakes was giving the "room" back to the players when they were riddled with injuries, and he was too slow in reclaiming the room as the team returned to health. I seem to remember AV was big on allowing the veterans on the this team run the room as well. That approach got AV fired after two lackluster seasons (apres cup run) and had horrendous results this season. Seems that Torts was "right on" yesterday about team (core) complacency and the need for this team to be "pushed" in order to obtain the best results. Hopefully Linden will make the right choice today and retain Torts and surround this core with the energetic, skilled, youth it so desperately needs to compete.

Let me get this straight. Torts 'gave the room back' to the players? What a convenient summary of events.

First of all, if that were true, to do so in a stretch where your team is not only losing, but also has key injuries to leadership (for example Henrik was limping and then broke his IronMan and missed the Olympics) - to "give the room back" when they were injured and 'forced' to play a more conservative style of hockey - that would be just plain dumb, wouldn't it? That's a whole lot of overlapping things reduced to a convenient for Tortorella explanation that the problem was 'giving the room back'. If that were in fact the case I have even less confidence in his judgement.

Second - there's not much choice but to 'give the room back' - when you're not even in the GD room because you blew a fracking head gasket.

[Amish Rake Fighter]

2 years ago Torts was a finalist for the Jack Adams, he got within 2 wins of the Final and missed the President's Trophy by 2 points

[Honky Cat]

i will repeat

anyone who watched the torts presser and still thinks he should be fired

knows nothing about hockey and coaching

that man said everything that finally needed to be said and clearly he has coached this way all year

the players did not respond

lets call a spade a spade here folks. AV was fired because he 'lost the room' it had become complacent and lost its drive

torts was brought in, in the hopes someone could salvage that, motivate this group

injuries played a big role but clearly, the issue is the MIX...its not the coaches

if you have ever coached anything and you listened to his words, it was like listening to gospel, to a real detailed understanding of his group, team dynamics, the strengths and weaknesses of this team, and himself.

this man is very self aware, he is a brilliant leader....this group has failed and needs changes, but that doesn't include the coach.

So ,Torts didn't "lose the room"..?....the team tuned him out months ago.

[Aladeen]

Actually this team, when playing well before the injuries hit, did score quite a few goals per game. We all seem to forget that LACK of team scoring, and LACK of secondary scoring (other than the Sedin's) has been a MAJOR problem for this team long before Torts got here.

Are you saying it's all LACK's fault?

[oldnews]

So ,Torts didn't "lose the room"..?....the team tuned him out months ago.

No, he didn't 'lose' the room - he "gave it back". The problem wasn't what he did do, or a lack of answers - it was that he was too soft, didn't bang away enough, wasn't strict enough, didn't demand enough accountability, let his foot off the pedal, and a hundred other cliches.

All those annoying hockey questions though - systems effectiveness, ice time and personnel decisions, gameplanning, defensive pairings, a three line approach, sitting role players and using the stale old Sedins in their place, line juggling, inconsistencies in using youth - let's not talk about them - us simple folk just wouldn't understand those "internal" issues.

How to GM however - now there's a live issue that Tortorella would love to talk a whole lot about.

[stawns]

i will repeat

anyone who watched the torts presser and still thinks he should be fired

knows nothing about hockey and coaching

that man said everything that finally needed to be said and clearly he has coached this way all year

the players did not respond

lets call a spade a spade here folks. AV was fired because he 'lost the room' it had become complacent and lost its drive

torts was brought in, in the hopes someone could salvage that, motivate this group

injuries played a big role but clearly, the issue is the MIX...its not the coaches

if you have ever coached anything and you listened to his words, it was like listening to gospel, to a real detailed understanding of his group, team dynamics, the strengths and weaknesses of this team, and himself.

this man is very self aware, he is a brilliant leader....this group has failed and needs changes, but that doesn't include the coach.

I repeat, I've been coaching a very long time, at a pretty high level, and the sooner TL ships him out, the better off this organization will be.

[RUPERTKBD]

i will repeat

anyone who watched the torts presser and still thinks he should be fired

knows nothing about hockey and coaching

that man said everything that finally needed to be said and clearly he has coached this way all year

the players did not respond

lets call a spade a spade here folks. AV was fired because he 'lost the room' it had become complacent and lost its drive

torts was brought in, in the hopes someone could salvage that, motivate this group

injuries played a big role but clearly, the issue is the MIX...its not the coaches

if you have ever coached anything and you listened to his words, it was like listening to gospel, to a real detailed understanding of his group, team dynamics, the strengths and weaknesses of this team, and himself.

this man is very self aware, he is a brilliant leader....this group has failed and needs changes, but that doesn't include the coach.

Ah yes, the old "I have an opinion and anyone who disagrees knows nothing about hockey and coaching"...

Been a while since I've seen that one and quite honestly it hasn't been missed.

What I heard was a lot of dancing around the issue, talking about things like "not pushing hard enough" and "giving up the room too much". I didn't hear anything like "maybe giving certain guys so many minutes, so early in the season wasn't a great idea", or "maybe I should have put some of these guys in a better position to succed", etc.

You know....specifics.

Also, I wouldn't call the pairing of Edler and Bieksa for so much of the season a "detailed understanding of the group". I'd also say that the amount of ice time per game given to Edler points to something less than "brilliance".

A concrete plan on how he was planning to turn this mess around if given the chance would be far closer to what I would consider "gospel".

[Goal:thecup]

I am hoping that Torts is still hanging around only because of:
1)contract details, or
2)the off-chance that the new GM might be offered the opportunity to make his own decision to keep or fire Tortorella.

For example, there may be a buyout opportunity at say, July 1st and the organization is waiting for that.
And Linden might not be able to talk to his #1 candidate for the GM job until say, July 1st without suffering tampering penalties so he can't yet get a read on that.

There is no way (imo) that Torts has earned another chance nor another place in the organization.
There is no way (imo) that Torts will be allowed to continue to disrespect the players, swearing and ranting, and generally going off his nut.

His lack of preparation and research into other teams and players speaks of megalomania and is downright negligent in these times of almost unlimited information availability.

There are some things within Tortorella's whole schtick that are beneficial to the team like "stiffness", accountability, and team toughness.
They are just not enough to outweigh his absolutely horrible public performances, disrespecting individual players especially in public, and his total abstinence of proper research and preparation.