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

[Cold Hard Truth]

Looks like we're going to burn another year because of the ridiculous five year deal we gave Torts.

What a shame.

Pales in comparison to the franchise killing anchor that is the 28 million cap killer for Daniel over the next 4 years.

At least Torts fights

[Angry Goose]

if you were a manager at mcdonald's and the manager from the wendy's across the street came into your restaurant and started antagonizing you, if you reacted the same way tortorella did, you'd be fired on the spot.

lol comparing fast food restaurants and hockey is not really a good analogy but at least it is humorous.

[Angry Goose]

Evidently he should have "pulled a Roy" instead...

Wouldn't everyone like to see these two in the western conference finals.

[Tearloch7]

if you were a manager at mcdonald's and the manager from the wendy's across the street came into your restaurant and started antagonizing you, if you reacted the same way tortorella did, you'd be fired on the spot.

Strange how you use McDonald-Wendy's comparison .. I have never considered the Manager of a fast food store to be at the same management level as an NHL head coach .. do you speak from experience? Jack In The Box?

[higgyfan]

Torts is a proven coach with a Stanley Cup under his belt. Did he make mistakes? Yes. Is he the absolute best coach out there? Of course not. Is he the best coach for this team? Maybe not. In the end, though, without some fairly significant changes to the make up of the team (a key forward, a real 4th line, shoring up the D a bit), it really won't matter who is the coach. They may as well run with him as he knows the players, they know him, and likely has a better chance for at least next year than bringing in someone cold again.

Maybe Trevor should look into stealing Randy Carlyle from the Leafs, eh?

Basically Torts has thrown his team under the bus, stating that they are old and stale http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=449330

Although some of what he says is true, I doubt the players liked his comments. How this will effect their play next season is a big ?.

One has to ask why the team was doing so well in the first half of the season and then fell off so sharply in the second. Most people will agree that the cause was injuries. The big argument is whether Tort's coaching methods led to the influx of injuries.

Linden has already commented that he believes Tort's misused players and the team doctor was stunned by the serious player injuries. The Nuck depth isn't the greatest, but when there are that many injuries, it's non existent. http://beta.thescore.com/news/477758

I really don't like seeing a coach yelling at a player on the bench. This tactic might work with juvenile players, but I don't think it would go over well with guys like Hansen or Edler. I also don't think the vets on the team would be comfortable watching the public scathings either.

I think Torts will be back next year, due to his stupid contract. Hopefully he will adjust his style to suit his 'old and stale team' so that they can maintain their play for the entire season. Whether the players have a positive response remains to be seen.

On a side note: anyone else think there may be some good coaches available for next season? Hitch? Tippett? Others?

[RUPERTKBD]

Strange how you use McDonald-Wendy's comparison ..

Yeah, I was thinking more along the lines of Ikea vs The Brick myself...

[higgyfan]

Wouldn't everyone like to see these two in the western conference finals.

Not really. Both coaches would be suspended and the assistant couches would be running the show.

[PhillipBlunt]

Maybe we should just let the new GM decide?

Never! It is up to the CDC brain trust to hire the new coach!

Don't you know?

[asian player]

Storming another team's dressing room and starting yet another goalie controvery are a couple of more reasons...

It's just good television

[luongo_01]

Torts' lack of a system is a disgrace to the new NHL. Lord Linden will fire him soon and bring in Trotz or McLellan

[EmployeeoftheMonth]

Not really. Both coaches would be suspended and the assistant couches would be running the show.

[EmployeeoftheMonth]

Torts' lack of a system is a disgrace to the new NHL. Lord Linden will fire him soon and bring in Trotz or McLellan

What if Linden doesn't? Does that mean Lindens stupid and we jump on him or does it mean he's smarter than we are?

[oldnews]

Torts took responsibility for the team's poor performance this year = Torts should be retained and given another chance?

Uh, no. By his own admission, he was responsible for the team's poor performance this year = Torts is fired!

Torts helped young players like Kassian develop into better players?

Again, no. Kassian was developing just fine actually and Torts underused him, if anything.

Watching Torts crush Jensen, after his fine play in the AHL and the first 2 games with the Canucks, putting him on the 4th line, proves he does not know how to properly develop our young talent.

We cannot afford to let him further this destructive behaviour with the prospects we hope will make it up to the big club this year.

Torts gives a fun press conference and is quite talented deflecting his poor performance onto Mike Gillis' management.

He says neat things that sound like he was the right coach but the results show that he was not.

All this stale core, didn't have depth, Gillis didn't provide the right players talk is just trying to cover his butt.

Even if it is true, the core and the prospects were there when Torts was hired.

He did not do even the least amount of research into the team nor the other teams in the conference, and was completely unprepared to fulfill the obligations of head coach.

Torts should be thankful he got paid.

He should receive the buyout amount stipulated in his contract, take the money, and run.

This may happen on June 25th.

Who here thinks Torts will be snapped up by another NHL team as soon as he is released from Vancouver?

Bingo.

[Quoted]

Isn't an Assistant Couch a Loveseat?

[EmployeeoftheMonth]

Bingo.

C'mon oldnews.

I've watched you take apart, chew up and spit out better arguments than that on the pro torts side.

[Goal:thecup]

C'mon oldnews.

I've watched you take apart, chew up and spit out better arguments than that on the pro torts side.

I may not have read all your content on Torts' position with the team, but the one I remember thinking had some validity was something like, "he's still here so he might be staying."

This point made me think that you might be right but I am hoping it is only contractual (buyout and anniversary) or deferential (to the new GM).

Why do you think Torts should stay on as head coach?

[oldnews]

C'mon oldnews.

I've watched you take apart, chew up and spit out better arguments than that on the pro torts side.

That's your job here. I don't disagree with that poster.

First point - yeah, a team's terrible performance is not an argument in favour of retaining a coach.

Second point - I agree - Tortorella's handling of young players is overly praised, and there were obvious contradictions in the way he handled Kassian vs Jensen.

Yes he passed the buck to the roster and the GM, clearly. Even his "taking responsibility" was a form of passing the buck - his failures according to him were giving too much of the room to the players, and cliches about not enough Tortorellaing. How convenient. Sold a "stiffness" song, and then coached the team to utter limpness.

Poorly prepared/informed or too damn stubborn to adapt to the Olympic schedule and reality of the travel, the endless back to backs.....burned the team out, something he was criticized for by Sather, and undoubtedly cautioned about by Gillis, but did what he does and the results weren't that unpredictable.

If you want to take issue with the post, do it yourself.

[Baggins]

Have you ever had enough of someone who is an obvious meat head/bully/whatever else? Maybe had the balls to push back and let them know they are full of crap? Well Torts did that, and maybe to a fault because in the larger context it became a lightning rod for criticism, public scrutiny etc etc. Everybody wants their NHL coaches to be gentlemen right?

No doubt Torts took issue with the other coach, and it wasn't the only time either. crap happens.

Torts ain't no saint.....

On Dec. 20, 2011, coach John Tortorella’s New York Rangers visited their rivals the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center in Newark for the first time that season. It was a key division game, and one that would set the tone for the rest of their season series.

The Rangers, as the road team, would determine the personnel on the opening faceoff. In their previous two road games, New York started No. 1 center Brad Richards’ line for the opening draw. In this game, Tortorella opted for a different look: Fourth liners Mike Rupp, Ruslan Fedotenko and Brandon Prust.

Devils Coach Pete DeBoer responded in kind: Rather than throwing Zach Parise to the lions, like Randy Carlyle did when he lined Phil Kessel up next to John Scott this season, DeBoer skated out Cam Janssen, Eric Boulton and Tim Sestito.

The result? Comedic mayhem.

What might have been a line brawl to begin the game was instead Rupp vs. Janssen. David Clarkson and Brandon Dubinsky would have another fight 1:44 later. Whatever spark Tortorella was searching for, it appeared to work: The Rangers won the game, 4-1.

Fast forward three months, and the Rangers and Devils met again at Madison Square Garden. This time it was DeBoer that sent out the goons: Eric Boulton, Ryan Carter and Cam Janssen. Tortorella was forced to send out Brandon Prust, Brandon Dubinsky and Mike Rupp. Dubinsky was recovering from sinus damage, so defenseman Stu Bickel took the opening draw, knowing what was bound to happen.

Tortorella loudly scolded DeBoer from the Rangers’ bench, pointing and hurling F-bombs at the opposing coach … for doing exactly what he had done in Jersey months earlier.

“I guess in John’s world you can come into our building and start your tough guys, but we can’t do the same in here,” DeBoer said. “He’s either got short-term memory loss or he’s a hypocrite. So it’s one of the other.”

Said Janssen, via Fire & Ice: “If they didn’t want to do it and didn’t think it was necessary, then they wouldn’t have done it. It takes two guys to fight and we both agreed upon and we both obviously thought it was necessary and that’s why we did it."

Tortorella’s response when asked about the line brawl: It was “none of my business” who the Devils started in the game.

When asked about the Canucks/Flames line brawl on Saturday night, Tortorella said: "I thought my players responded tremendously," said Tortorella. "Listen - it shouldn't be in the game, that stuff. I don't want it in the game. But I have to protect my team, too. So all the pundits, all the people pissing and moaning, they don't have a clue what a locker-room's about. They don't understand the whole circumstance involved in that type of situation."

But Tortorella does. Because he’s used the tactic himself, and he’s been the victim of it.

When he’s dishing out the medicine, it’s part of the game. When he’s tasting it, it shouldn’t be in the game. And when he’s tasting it courtesy of a coach he has little respect for, it makes him completely snap.

https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/puck-daddy/john-tortorella-awkward-history-faceoff-fights-bob-hartley-211638086--nhl.html

Torts can dish it out but he clearly can't take it. Hartley played him for the hotheaded fool he is.

[tas]

lol comparing fast food restaurants and hockey is not really a good analogy but at least it is humorous.

Strange how you use McDonald-Wendy's comparison .. I have never considered the Manager of a fast food store to be at the same management level as an NHL head coach .. do you speak from experience? Jack In The Box?

you're right, they're not on the same level. nhl employees should absolutely be held to a higher standard of professionalism.

[riley57]

Here's my two cents.

For me, looking at the year and his interview in reflection, it looks like he's learned alot about the core, the grit of the west, and about his own coaching identity through all this. Most coaches don't know their team that great at the start of their year, and it showed. The injuries made them flat and as Tortorella said in his interview, he lost the team. It seems to me that he's learned about how he needs to coach his team and having a summer to talk with Trevor about the game plan to get on track seems like a great added bonus. I think he'll come into the season with a better outlook and so will the players.

Personally, I feel the whole 'one year trial' model for coaches is, how should I put this delicately... Not very smart, and won't get you too far. A revolving door of coaches isn't going to give any familiarity or comfortability to the team. Heck, think of the prospects. Different coaches always mean different philosophies on development and for guys like Nick and Frankie, do you really want to have a whole new training camp? At some point, you've got to say that two years is fair, give him the shot and if it doesn't go well then, then you evaluate.