[Yahoo! Sports Article] How long before 'Torts' back behind NHL bench?

[CanucksFanMike]

How long until John Tortorella is back behind an NHL bench?

By Harrison Mooney 3 hours ago Puck Daddy

It's no secret that John Tortorella's tenure in Vancouver was a disaster, but here's one story you may not have heard.

Tortorella never actually lived in Vancouver. Instead, he lived in nearby Point Roberts, which is across the American border, but only about a 45-minute drive from Rogers Arena on a good day. For practice days (which were so rare the players complained) Tortorella would drive in for a brief appearance, and then head home, leaving his assistants to handle everything else.

Mike Gillis got so frustrated with his quick turnarounds that the team eventually built a bed into Tortorella's office so he could take naps there instead of driving home. You can watch Willie Desjardins react with bemusement to the fold-out bed in this video of the Canucks showing their new coach into his office.

But despite Tortorella's one-and-done turn in Vancouver, which is destined for infamy and seems like a pretty logical endpoint to his NHL head coaching career, former GM Jay Feaster is confident that Tortorella's not done.

"I think time heals all wounds," he said in an exclusive interview with the Fischler Report:

I believe that John will get back. General managers in the league know he’s a good coach, and you take the good with the bad. Part of what makes him a good coach is that he does not have the political correctness gene. He is not worried about what you or me or what anybody else thinks about him – he’s going to do what he thinks is right. I think some time away, so time to decompress, I think that’ll be good for him.

I don’t have any doubt that at some point in time, a team is going to be struggling and a team is going to need some discipline, some structure, and a general manager is going to say, “This is a guy that can provide it.”

Feaster's probably right. It won't be too long before some team decides they need discipline, and then makes the puzzling leap that the famously difficult Tortorella is the man to provide it.

It will be insane, especially when you consider a story Feaster told just prior to vouching for Tortorella, about one of the legendary run-ins between Torts and Larry Brooks of the New York Post.

After a heated game versus the Devils, Feaster was worried Tortorella would blow up if he went out for his postgame presser before calming down:

We were literally nose to nose in each other’s faces. I was between he and the door. He said, “Jay, I’m telling you, I’m fine.” We go back and forth with this song and dance, so off he goes to do the media. It wasn’t three minutes later that somebody came walking by and said, “Guess what your head coach just told [NY Post reporter] Larry Brooks to do on live television?” Of course he dropped another F-bomb and he came back in and I looked at him and I said, “I thought you were fine!” He hanged his head and looked at me and said, “Did I put you in a bad spot?” If I had a dollar for every time I heard him say, “Did I put you in a bad spot?” We had a lot of fun together.

"Did I put you in a bad spot?" is the new "Did I do that?" One assumes he also said this to Mike Gillis after trying to punch his way through the Calgary Flames' hallway like that one scene in Oldboy.

And yet, Tortorella's next opportunity -- to be a paragon of discipline, ironically enough -- will undoubtedly come. I can hardly fathom it. Back in March, I asked aloud if we were living in the end times of Tortorella's coaching career:

If John Tortorella is let go after this season, he may never coach in the NHL again. There were few that wanted him last season before the Canucks surprised everyone and decided to take a chance, and they were burned for it. Who else is going to look at what's happened here in Vancouver, and how clearly at fault the coach has been for much of it -- how out of control he was that night in the hallway versus Calgary, how badly he mismanaged his goalies at the Winter Classic, how thoroughly he destroyed the Sedinery that made Vancouver so special, how, by the end of one season, nothing worked, and he looked completely out of ideas -- and say, 'he's our guy'?

Nobody is, I suggested, foolishly, but Feaster's words are a reminder that I wasn't being nearly cynical enough about the NHL's front-office recycling program.

Still, as crazy as it seems to me, I'm looking forward to Tortorella's return. Hockey needs personalities like him -- guys who can't help but be themselves, regardless of how difficult that is.

And let me tell you, it is difficult. In the interview, Feaster tells of players coming to his office to complain about Tortorella's in-your-face approach.

"The guy would come in and say, 'He hates me.' I would always tell him, 'Don’t flatter yourself, he hates all of us.'"

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/how-long-until-john-tortorella-is-back-behind-an-nhl-bench-211340679.html

Good article....

Thoughts on when you think Torts might get another try?

[BI3KSA-]

"The guy would come in and say, 'He hates me.' I would always tell him, 'Don’t flatter yourself, he hates all of us.'"

LOL

He didn't work out here, but he was quite the character.

[TheRussianRocket.]

I think never. After NYR it was a long shot to get another gig but we rolled the dice on him. Either he would clean up his act or this was his last shot and it was it, though he did clean it up, just not enough.

After his 1 year here, I don't think any team will be looking to hire him. He should enjoy retirement and being a father.

[UFCanuck]

I read this earlier, Torts got his money and didn't want to put in the work.

[nux4lyfe]

Sounds like one lazy coach, want's to get paid and not put in the effort, His antics overshadowed everything, Good Riddance!

[Mimerez]

I remember when everyone on CDC thought he was the Messiah.

[D-Money]

If Torts put the time and effort in here, and it simply went sideways, then yeah, I could see him getting another shot.

But every indication was the guy put in a lame effort, and gave management and his players the royal screw-job. I don't picture too many multi-million-dollar franchises lining up and bending over to be next.

Feaster can say what he wants, because he's equally as unlikely to ever be a GM again. As if Jankowski and the Iginla trade fiasco weren't enough, the ROR offer sheet is reason alone to never trust that guy to run your business.

[Industrious1]

I wish my boss would build me a fold out bed in my office....

No wonder both of these guys are unemployed right now.

[bigbadcanucks]

Tortorella will be back in the NHL in one form or another...this is the NHL where GMs spend their owners' money like drunken sailors and have very short memories.

If he's not back as a coach, I'm sure NBC or some other media outlet will pick him up to do some commentary. Tortorella and Milbury on US network TV...I'm sure we'll see some fireworks there.

[fanfor42]

It was also reported that Torts never once spoke to the coaching staff in Utica during last season. Never once asked who to call up or how they were playing. He delegated that as well. If true, that is the height of arrogance. He had a 5 year deal in his pocket, felt like Vancouver was a step down from NYR and wasn't going to work his ass off.

Gone. Good. Will he get another chance? Probably. Most coaches who have been around as long as he has get 2 or 3 last chances before they finally burn their bridges. There are teams that are less successful than Vancouver who might take a stab at him. Some may want his profile or so called no nonsense attitude.

Ha. He's done. Just hasn't played out the string yet.

[smithers joe]

maybe he can get a job as mike keenan's assistant coach.....far away from the canucks.

[RogerEpic5]

I remember how back in December when we were winning games and doing so well, we all said that torts was the right coach for this team.

I love it how a few months later, that all changed.

[viking mama]

Tortorella will be back in the NHL in one form or another...this is the NHL where GMs spend their owners' money like drunken sailors and have very short memories.

If he's not back as a coach, I'm sure NBC or some other media outlet will pick him up to do some commentary. Tortorella and Milbury on US network TV...I'm sure we'll see some fireworks there.

THIS ^...is the only way he gets near another NHL team again.

Don Cherry will need a replacement soon, to hype the Chairman's pro-violence dogmas in the media.....even tho' the modern NHL seems to be speaking a very different language, publicly. It's the type of propaganda they like to employ. As much as the referees & some of his former players grew to despise him,...Torts could more freely use his dramatics & hyperbole for the Chairman's more-subversive purposes as a colour-commentating analyst. His real problem, in this regard,... would be purging himself of a nasty F-bombing habit. When this guy loses it,...he's got NO freakin' filiter at all. Even NBC or those other networks may be smart-enough to see that he's a professional risk.

I think counting & spending his un-deserved millions over the next while & becoming a more devoted family man... should be his 1st choice. Maybe later, he'll get some random ghost-writer to do a tell-all book about his mis-understood friction with former-players & media types. That leave-it-in-the-room mentality of his will eventually go out the door....for money, I'll wager. This is what all hypocirites do, eventually,... they SELL out. But - if continuing to bully hockey-players is what really gets his juices going...then he might also pull a Keenan & try-out the KHL....if they'll take him. Having the filter of a Russian-interpretor should help him out considerably, one would think? But - they better be prepared to pay this interpreter well,...& then I'd like to read that guy's tell-all book, someday.

[Master Mind]

I doubt any NHL team will be looking to hire him after everything he did (or didn't do) last season.

There will always be better options out there for teams looking for a new coach.

[BanTSN]

There is no reason to expect him even seeking work for awhile.

Money money money.

[6YPE]

He pulled a Messier, got the dollars and little to no effort.

[nux4lyfe]

DP

[nux4lyfe]

Tortorella never actually lived in Vancouver. Instead, he lived in nearby Point Roberts, which is across the American border, but only about a 45-minute drive from Rogers Arena on a good day. For practice days (which were so rare the players complained) Tortorella would drive in for a brief appearance, and then head home, leaving his assistants to handle everything else.

Mike Gillis got so frustrated with his quick turnarounds that the team eventually built a bed into Tortorella's office so he could take naps there instead of driving home. You can watch Willie Desjardins react with bemusement to the fold-out bed

Warning - I may go on a lil' rant here...

The above quote really makes my blood boil, You get paid that much and can't even invest time for what you ARE SUPPOSED to do!, They had to put a bed in his office for the fracker? GTF outta here.

Good Riddance, This really reminds me of this douche I work with, who always has something 'important' to say but is the laziest frack when it comes to actual work, I can't stand those kinda people...yet, he makes twice as much as me just because he's been there longer and 'experienced' .

If all of this is true, I hope that drama queen never get's another job.

My sister is a season ticket holder, and I've probably bought 75% of her tickets off her, I feel double ripped off after hearing this sh!t.

[bigbadcanucks]

Warning - I may go on a lil' rant here...

The above quote really makes my blood boil, You get paid that much and can't even invest time for what you ARE SUPPOSED to do!, They had to put a bed in his office for the fracker? GTF outta here.

Good Riddance, This really reminds me of this douche I work with, who always has something 'important' to say but is the laziest frack when it comes to actual work, I can't stand those kinda people...yet, he makes twice as much as me just because he's been there longer and 'experienced' .

If all of this is true, I hope that drama queen never get's another job.

Tortorella's next head coaching job will be in the KHL...just like the clown Keenan.

[Rounoush]

Yeah, this story really bugs me as well. He should have put way more effort into his job. That is just some BS what he did.