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Was John Totorella a blessing in disguise?


Canuckler87

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For better or worse having Torts resulted in a reality check for many Canuck faithful.

Reality check does note equal objectivity though?

Torts lost the room and we went on a free fall corresponding to the Hartley incident. Torts lost his mind inclusive, with how he used some of our players strategically. We fell from 8th overall in the league in December to 6th last with little or no productivity from large portions of our players who were productive prior.

My opinion is that the team may not be championship calibre anymore. So tweaks and changes ARE called for.

But its also my opinion that we are a lot better than 6th worst. Complete overhauls and calls to tank are equally over the top!

Patience is also relevent. By and large last year was a year where we were doing a market correction; FIXING our poor cap position. We fixed a lot, but were not left with money to spend on the big, fast depth players we enjoyed in recent seasons (that would have improved our match up position against division rivals). We were always going to have a tougher than normal year.

But Tortorella completely fracked it! Good riddance...

 

I think the bigger problem Torts helped cause here is a disgruntled Kesler and Luongo. In both trades we are gonna come out on the losing end. This will set the franchise back and force them into a rebuild. If it was just the one bad year you fire the coach and move forward, In my mind if you find a top tier winger for Kesler and make the Sedins your 2nd line you would be in good stead. A change on d to get a pp quarterback was also needed but not impossible to acheive. Also we have some legit prospects ready to make the jump. If Saad, Tofolli, Shaw and Pearson can be effective at such a young age there is atleast the potential of Horvat, Shinkaruk, Gaunce, Jensen, Fox; one or two of them to do something similar. You need that in today's NHL, in 2011, BOS got a similar effort from Marchand. Henreich was effective in NJ's run in 2012. The potential was there to turn this thing around, and now essentially becasue of the Kesler trade demand we have to take a step back.

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John Torterella was indeed a blessing in disguise. He netted us Trevor Linden, Jim Benning, Willie Desjardins & the 6th overall pick and the 36th overall pick.

If we didn't hire Tortz, we likely would have been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, still have Gillis and Tortz for at least one more season (well maybe not Gillis) and have the 20th overall pick this year...

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I think the bigger problem Torts helped cause here is a disgruntled Kesler and Luongo. In both trades we are gonna come out on the losing end. This will set the franchise back and force them into a rebuild. If it was just the one bad year you fire the coach and move forward, In my mind if you find a top tier winger for Kesler and make the Sedins your 2nd line you would be in good stead. A change on d to get a pp quarterback was also needed but not impossible to acheive. Also we have some legit prospects ready to make the jump. If Saad, Tofolli, Shaw and Pearson can be effective at such a young age there is atleast the potential of Horvat, Shinkaruk, Gaunce, Jensen, Fox; one or two of them to do something similar. You need that in today's NHL, in 2011, BOS got a similar effort from Marchand. Henreich was effective in NJ's run in 2012. The potential was there to turn this thing around, and now essentially becasue of the Kesler trade demand we have to take a step back.

Kesler, maybe. But Luongo was already disgruntled before Torts showed up. It all started with AV using Schneider instead of Luongo in the 2012 playoffs against the Kings.

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Somebody on cdc made a great analogy that Torts was like a suppository for the Canucks..He went in and did what he was supposed to do..and like any good suppository he extricated himself in the process..

Christ on a bike, Torts was like a suppository ? I can appreciate the "cleverness" of the analogy, but I think we can afford him a little more dignity than that.

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Another way to look at it maybe; of all the teams looking for head coaches this off season, I didn't hear Torts name come up even once as a potentiel candidate. Heck, Crawford and Keenan were even featured in rumors, Torts in none. Does this mean anything? Not necessarily, however it may indicate that other teams didn't think of him as a head coaching candidate. I don't think other teams think of him as a blessing.

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Another way to look at it maybe; of all the teams looking for head coaches this off season, I didn't hear Torts name come up even once as a potentiel candidate. Heck, Crawford and Keenan were even featured in rumors, Torts in none. Does this mean anything? Not necessarily, however it may indicate that other teams didn't think of him as a head coaching candidate. I don't think other teams think of him as a blessing.

Or it could mean he doesn't plan to coach a team anytime soon.

Why be in a hurry to find a headcoaching job when he is still being paid.

I'd take some time off to be with my family if I was him.

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You're right, if he hadn't shown up, who knows, we definately wouldnt have Willie as a coach, and maybe would even still have MG as our GM.. So thanks Torts for being so bad that we changed the whole organization after we fired you after one year of coaching.. Yay!

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Tort's didn't play Luongo in the Winter Classic which Luo says was the final straw and thus forced a change in goal. Too bad he couldn't have done that before we lost Schneider to a reduced cap though.

The man was bang on when he stated that this is a stale group and changes needed to be made. Torts has been proven right because that is what Linden and Benning have set out to do.

Both MG and Torts were victimized by the falling cap...Torts needed some better players and MG was up against the cap and forced to deal Schneider in order to be cap compliant.

Linden and Benning have an advantage with a rising cap and reduced expectations all around. They basically have a green light to do what has to be done plus they start out with a really great draft position plus they have the benefit of Mike Gillis start to replenish the prospect pool.

Mike Gillis and Torts didn't do everything right but they also didn't do everything bad so I am not going to waste time slagging their efforts. Basically Vancouver fans have their 2011 memories reset and come down to earth with their expectations...that makes Benning, Linden and Desjardins job a little easier.

It will take a couple of years to change the core makeup with Kesler being the start. With a better year, some players value will go up and that will make it even easier to do what has to be done.

It's a fresh start for everyone....sit back and enjoy the ride.

 

this is what cdc needs mored of. next step in the times to come will be to get the sedins on the 2nd line and find a 1st line to replace them.

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The high draft pick means it wasn't a wasted season for me. If we barely missed the playoffs and had a pick in the teens, then that would have been a wasted season. I'm super excited for this year's draft. I also wouldn't be opposed to another season of tanking next year for a shot at mcdavid or eichel. Plus next year's draft is supposed to be really good, so if we can get a high lottery pick there, we will be set real well in the future.

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It's like this: you can have a mild flu that lasts for 3 weeks that you get frustrated with, or you can have a 24-hour hella-flu that beats the crap out of you, but you're feeling fine the next day. I'll take the latter every time. With Torts, we crashed and burned and saw things (well some of us) for what they really are, and now can get on fixing the mess.

Thanks Torts. CDC'ers send a donation to your local SPCA in his name.

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