Funny that his tenure ended shortly after break-up day, and John himself claimed to be shocked. A coincidence surely.
Swedish posters here were speculating and posting about rumors they heard regarding Lundqvist's disdain towards Torts. Then there was the Avery tweet. John admitted he hurt his relationship with Richards.
You can call BS all you like but to me everything that occured surrounding John points to his team, or at least a small yet important part of it, had enough of him and forced Sather's hand.
The point is this, one way or another John ran himself out of town because of the relationship deteriorating between he and key players.
There were a few factors, and at the core of it is Torts disregard for what other human beings think or feel. Torts' pressers became bigger than the team, the reporters stopped reporting on hockey and more on their disdain for him that ultimately what hurts the Garden's public perception.
All of the other stuff is a part of it, but given how he was let go, it was much more than Players v Torts. Lundqvist was on record, as was Torts about their excellent relationship, as was Biron, but some of the other guys had enough, namely star players. He did this in Tampa with Vinny for years.
I- Gaborik treatment last year that caused Gaborik to want out. That trade was consumated in a day according to JD.
II- Publicly calling out Sather for removing the "middle of the lineup"
III- Two games where the players mailed it in MTL and BUF last year.
IV- Off the record treatment of press members. Torts had his favorites, some were treated exceptionally well, and others derisively challenged.
V- Power Play
VI- Richards treatment that brought them to a head.
VII- Breaking out of the zone.
VIII- How he treated some MSG media members, being totally disrespectful towards Sam Rosen & Joe Michaeletti a number of times.
I'm a fan of what Torts did during his tenure here, but let's call a spade a spade, the guy made his own bed.
