The more coaches we hire, the more I like Torts, believe it or not.
We always had the fundamentals down with him. His tenure is the last time more guys than not came here and improved. The best actual hockey this team has played since 2010, by far, is under Torts. That includes 13-14. AV hadn't really shaped the team yet and when he did, he had them playing jerkoffball. When Torts had Panarin in Columbus, Panarin was one of the best 200 foot players in the league.
And let's be real, Torts had no f***ing talent. If current Mika Zibanejad walked into the 11-12 locker room, it would be like Goku showed up at a novice martial arts tournament. Callahan would ask him for an autograph.
I don't know what Torts would do with Kakko and Lafreniere, but you better f***ing believe they would have learned how to skate by now like Brian Boyle had to.
Whether it's AV who coaches a different sport that he invented in his head, Quinn who just sucks, or Gallant who is too hands-off, no coach since has worked to develop structure or skills.
Torts had his flaws. He wasn't great for offense, couldn't coach a powerplay, couldn't even hire a guy to coach a powerplay, and he yells too much for too long, which erodes trust.
That being said, I would take a flawed, ok hockey coach over the shinny we've been playing at 5v5 since AV really took over.
Gallant won games here and that's certainly a pattern for him but we're still playing the fake hockey. No fundamentals. Totally disjointed. Other team has two-thirds of the shots. Three powerplay goals. Igor. Rinse. Repeat. I'm tired of fake hockey.
I talked about coaches getting a chance to settle in and that's a thing. This team still has a lot of Quinn in them for sure. I think it's fair to see what Gallant does in his second year.
That being said, that he defaulted to the same lines is not encouraging. He had the team for 102 games and affirmed that he thinks every shitty lineup decision Quinn made was a good idea. Or at the very least decided they weren't worth changing. Establishing a no-risk approach that wins just enough games to make noise but doesn't accomplish anything (Cup or development) and then sitting back to enjoy seems to be his MO.