Best Rangers coach since Keenan?

[Inferno]

Torts is not an x/o hockey coach. He's a personality manager. His style generally isn't sustainable and that why we didn't win when he was here. He puts his foot on the pedal and runs the engine until it explodes. There's a reason teams don't play like it's game 7 of the finals in October. Torts drove this team like a getaway car and by the playoffs, there was nothing left in the tank. When you're playing a 6 goalie system and your actual goalie is prime Henrik, you're going to win more than you lose. My issue with Torts is he's a fair weather coach. If you're winning he's a great guy. If you lose, he will throw someone under the bus to save himself every single time. Then when there is an issue that possibly could fall on him, he throws a hissy fit in the presser and refuses to answer any remotely challenging questions. Any time there was ever a play that needed to be drawn up, it was never Torts. Torts just stands on the bench and yells at people. Sullivan was doing all the coaching here. Both he and Keenan manged players under threat of career ending banishment and that is why I have no love for either of them.

Torts throws himself under the bus just as often as he calls out his own players. He owned the Boston series loss right before he was fired.

 

[SML2]

Torts throws himself under the bus just as often as he calls out his own players. He owned the Boston series loss right before he was fired.

He may have taken blame occasionally, but IMO it is not even close to an even score between him dodging it/putting it on someone else and pointing a finger at himself.

 

[Fugazy]

Torts is still my favorite from the group.

 

[Brooklyn Rangers Fan]

Torts is a POS Napoleon complex bully. I have no respect for authority figures of any kind whose primary motivational tactic is to tear down their subordinates.

Quinn is so far my favorite.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Torts
Av



Renney

Campbell

 

[Raspewtin]

AV pretty decidedly.

 

[Inferno]

He may have taken blame occasionally, but IMO it is not even close to an even score between him dodging it/putting it on someone else and pointing a finger at himself.

It's called accountability...it was rare that torts said something negative about a player to the media where I disagreed with him.

 

[HFsNumber1Heel]

Honestly, I kind of view them as The Doctor from the BBC's Doctor Who. There are things I like about each of them. AV had the most success, Torts built up the team, Renney gets a lot of slack but he turned the culture around and two of my favorite seasons as a hockey fan were under him, and Quinn is doing a fine job. Campbell did a good job but his personal favorites and causing Zubov/Kovalev to be jettisoned out of town, not cool.

 

[Crease]

Renney, Torts, and AV were all the right coaches at the right time. Renney ushered in much needed structure. Torts introduced work ethic. And AV brought professionalism.

None of the Rangers rosters were actually built to win a championship so I won't fault any of the coaches for not getting it done.

 

[Ghost of jas]

Renney is very underated for what he accomplished. He was integral in bringing accountability and effort back into the organization. He didn't have what it takes to get the team over the top. But, he was a breath of fresh air after the dark ages.

 

[SML2]

It's called accountability...it was rare that torts said something negative about a player to the media where I disagreed with him.

Clearly we aren't going to at
agree on this and that's fine. I fell off the Torts wagon in the Caps series when he got himself suspended after being so critical of Avery. I would have loved to see McGrattan air mail his head into the next time zone when he pulled that dressing room stunt against Calgary. He's a Chihuahua who thinks hes a Doberman. The majority of coaches have criticisms of their players. The difference is almost all of them keep it between themselves and the player, and don't let a camera and mic be the backdrop for a guy finding out the coach has a concern with them. Take Duclair. It's clear the guy is struggling. There's no reason to put him on blast for the whole world. He's a no class guy. Whether hes right or wrong about what he says is not the issue.

 

[Mac n Gs]

Renney, Torts, and AV were all the right coaches at the right time. Renney ushered in much needed structure. Torts introduced work ethic. And AV brought professionalism.

None of the Rangers rosters were actually built to win a championship so I won't fault any of the coaches for not getting it done.

The Rangers almost need Quinn to have a similar effect to Renney when it comes to instilling the x's and o's back into this young group. They still make way too many mistakes that should be basic fundamentals to professional hockey players.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Renney is very underated for what he accomplished. He was integral in bringing accountability and effort back into the organization. He didn't have what it takes to get the team over the top. But, he was a breath of fresh air after the dark ages.

Thought he was terrible. Jagr and the top line along with Lundqvist is what turned the franchise around back in the mid-late 00’s. There is no surprise from me to see him struggle with the Oilers and unable to find a coaching job after that.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

The Rangers almost need Quinn to have a similar effect to Renney when it comes to instilling the x's and o's back into this young group. They still make way too many mistakes that should be basic fundamentals to professional hockey players.

Renney and Quinn are about as different as can be. Renneys entire coaching relied on x’s and o’s..quinn brings a ton more to the table.

 

[Harbour Dog]

Delete.

Responded pre-edit

 

[Cassano]

AV played a style that was infuriating since we were getting dominated night in night out but capitalized on great goaltending and timely scoring. Torts hockey at it's peak was shot blocking 6 goalie system - it was disgusting. Neither were perfect, but AV all day especially when you consider two of his teams went deeper than Torts' best one and played hockey that was easier on the eyes.

Renney instilled a good attitude for the core moving forward, but he was helped greatly by two generational players.

 

[SingnBluesOnBroadway]

Tom Renney is criminally under appreciated around here.

 

[Bluenote13]

Tom Renney is criminally under appreciated around here.

I was lucky enough to be behind the scenes at times during the Renney years, and how he got those teams to play as good as they did I still don't know. Of course, Lundqvist. But managing the rest of that team was not easy work. He had to balance a lot and did it well. Quinn has heaven compared to what Renney was handed.

 

[SingnBluesOnBroadway]

I was lucky enough to be behind the scenes at times during the Renney years, and how he got those teams to play as good as they did I still don't know. Of course, Lundqvist. But managing the rest of that team was not easy work. He had to balance a lot and did it well. Quinn has heaven compared to what Renney was handed.

He also got Jagr who was prone to bouts of indifference to play with passion and purpose night in and night out.

The biggest thing was he brought a level of pride back to the NYR after years of being everything ranging for a country club to a joke.

 

[klingsor]

Voted Torts though I needed a dose of Mylanta.

 

[Jaromir Jagr]

AV coached masterfully that first year. And then he was absolutely horrendous.

Torts was/is a really good coach. His antics grew old, but he was as responsible as any player for engendering the identity that led the team to have sustained success. The way he was able to transform players defensively was really awesome to observe.

I really didn't think he deserved to be fired. While we can't be sure as to what actually went down, from what was reported, Sather and co., in my opinion, gave far to much weighting on players input, especially Callahan and Hank.

I think that's part of the reason we ended up witnessing a country club type atmosphere towards the end of AV's run. The first year or two they sustained that high octane drive that Torts forced upon them (and that we see similarly in Quinn now), but eventually they became far too comfortable.

Renney was pretty bleh. His success was anchored to Jagr. And I was too young to analyze Campbell.

 

[Jaromir Jagr]

The one year in the playoffs Torts dresses Bickel every night but never plays him--sits him on the end of the bench and that's it. He averaged two minutes a game for like 18 games and the Rangers were going into double and triple overtime just leaning like crazy on the other 5 D. Girardi, McD and Staal would be getting insane amounts of ice time. If Torts didn't trust a player he didn't play him--so we see kind of an evolution for him now playing 6 D in the playoffs because I don't think an Adam Clendening for one would have gotten better treatment than Bickel did several years ago.

Ehh, those teams Torts had weren't built too well. In his last year, his 4th line was something like Haley-Newbury-Dorsett (I think). It was a really tough situation. I felt like Torts leaned on those guys more because he had to, than because he wanted to.

 

[RangerBlues]

I have and always will be a Torts fan.

 

[Machinehead]

Renney or Torts

 

[free0717]

I picked A/V . Most successful