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The John Tortorella Appreciation Thread

  • Thread starter Thread starter KreiMeARiver*
  • Start date Start date
I'm a Canuck, but I love Tortorella. I watch Rangers quite a lot (I'm a Norwegian so I like to follow Zuccarello) and in my opinion Tortorella has gotten a lot out of the current roster (obviously he might partly be to blame for Richards - even if as a Canuck I know how hard it is to find good centres these days).

He is not exactly a Gillis type of guy, but I would have loved to have him in Vancouver. He is in my opinion just what the Canucks team needs in terms of personality.

I'll definitely miss hope. Hopefully he'll get a job somewhere else and take Zuccarello with him ;)
 
A story I heard second hand...Tortorella made it a point to call Liam Traynor shortly after he was fired and told Liam that he shouldn't be upset and they will still be friends.

Tortorella is probably more of a monster as a coach than he is as a person.
 
silverfish said:
He would make an excellent assistant coach, nay, a perfect one. I'd welcome him back in NY in that role any day. He is not cut out to be a head coach though.
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:facepalm:

Sad London Ranger said:
torts ran out of tricks....

he gambled big with Richards benching. you win great.
You lose, you probably will need to pack the bags.

I think we are all agreed, that the self sacrifice hockey we practiced last year would take us only so far.

good point was made in the newyorker magazine,: you have the league best goalie, let him see the pucks, stop blocking, clear the zone, rather than always diving on the ice.....


it is not his fault that we are unable score a goal from the blue line, but it looked like the team stopped responding
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From all accounts, that was an organizational decision.
 
I like Torts. I think he did a great job. I do think he failed to adjust his gameplan to match this years team. It was tough to do considering no training camp, no preseason and only 48 games. So I do think he did deserve another shot next season, but if reports are true that he was losing the locker room, then this was a change that had to be made.
 
I have always believed that coaches were hired to be fired. A few over the decades have proven to be so good that their stay is not over until they say it is, basically. Guys like Scotty Bowman, Mike Babcock come to mind, there may be others I have missed but it's not like I am researching it.

Tortorella did some good things. Lately, I got less enamoured of him for the bad things.
Though some thought it was just honesty, I thought his remarks about Hagelin were truly bad. He looked like an azz calling Hagelin out like that.
If you think thoe remarks were okay, then I guess I have a whole different idea of what a coach should show to his team. His over the top comments about benching Richards were strange. Way overwrought, way too uncalled for.

Anyway, on to the future, fast approaching.

Edit: you could conceivably call this my own 'John Tortorella Unappreciation Thread' embedded within a 'John Tortorella Appreciation Thread'. You may not find that humorous, though I find it hilarious.
As I stated, he did some good things, but way too stubborn. I think Sather was very worried about the prospects' development, same as I was, and no reason to keep a guy like Tortorella who actually showed almost zero appreciation of Kreider. If it comes to Kreider being given a chance, or Torts getting his way, guess which one I'm choosing? No contest.
 
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abev said:
A story I heard second hand...Tortorella made it a point to call Liam Traynor shortly after he was fired and told Liam that he shouldn't be upset and they will still be friends.

Tortorella is probably more of a monster as a coach than he is as a person.
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I hear the conversation went something like this:

Torts: Hey Liam. As you may have found out, I'm no longer the coach of the Rangers. But, not to worry. I want you to know we're still friends.

Liam: **** off, clown.

Torts: Liam, BE MY FRIENDDDDD

Liam: No.

:sarcasm:
 
I'd just like to point out that John Tortorella, as supposedly terrible a coach as he is, got the New York Rangers to the 2nd round of the playoffs, and a top 6 finish in the East without Marc Staal, Ryane Clowe, complete no shows from Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards, a 1 armed Ryan Callahan and Carl Hagelin, a growing pain filled season from Chris Kreider and JT Miller, and another full season without Michael Sauer.


Horrible coach...just awful.
 
Inferno said:
I'd just like to point out that John Tortorella, as supposedly terrible a coach as he is, got the New York Rangers to the 2nd round of the playoffs, and a top 6 finish in the East without Marc Staal, Ryane Clowe, complete no shows from Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards, a 1 armed Ryan Callahan and Carl Hagelin, a growing pain filled season from Chris Kreider and JT Miller, and another full season without Michael Sauer.


Horrible coach...just awful.
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I would argue Torts was unable to tap the skills of players such as Gaborik, Nash, Richards, Hagelin(on the PP at least). A real coach understands how to get his players going I can understand slumps but players that have won the Conn and gold medal winners rarely flop. He was doing something wrong and obviously he was the wrong guy for the job. They need a new coach that can maximize the talent not just keep shuffling the deck and pray to god something works out. Look at what Oates did with Ovi in Washington. Its all about fit and Tortorella was the wrong fit for this team though his hard nosed coaching might have long term benefits he isn't the coach that would ever bring your team to the promise land. I would personally say Eakins would be a good coach or Lindy Ruff though Ruff is sort of cut from the same cloth as Torts. AV would be good for the players but he has proven he can't win when it counts either. Give Eakins a shot or try for a Cinderella story with that Gretzky and Messier rumor floating around.
 
Inferno said:
I'd just like to point out that John Tortorella, as supposedly terrible a coach as he is, got the New York Rangers to the 2nd round of the playoffs, and a top 6 finish in the East without Marc Staal, Ryane Clowe, complete no shows from Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards, a 1 armed Ryan Callahan and Carl Hagelin, a growing pain filled season from Chris Kreider and JT Miller, and another full season without Michael Sauer.


Horrible coach...just awful.
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Seriously. People harp on the media interactions as if that's even close to the most important part of coaching in the NHL. As far as I'm concerned, the coach can stand up and fart into the mic every interview as long as the team doesn't do less than they are capable of. This season, with two major roster turnovers, with no camp to implement a new system, with no Staal almost all year, with no Clowe for the playoffs, with Callahan injured for 50+ games and Hagelin for a bunch, finishing in 6 and getting to the second round is all that this team was capable of IMO, if not more than that.
 
From start to finish I think Tortorella did an excellent job here.

Sure, he had his hiccups, mismanaging a few players, lines, media crap, the water bottle thing...

But I think you'll find that he got the most out of the Rangers players here. Pound for pound, the teams he coached all overachieved. That's thanks in part to his incredible training camps, emotional preparation and allowing the players to grow and become a team with voices of their own. As much as he rubbed some the wrong way he was the most successful coach here since Mike Keenan. There's no denying that.

When the new coach arrives ill miss a lot of what Torts brought to the team. As much as a hard ass as he was, that was something that was lacking for years at MSG and it takes balls to sustain it here in this market. You knew he was boss but you also knew behind it all was a good person who just wanted to win. Congrats to John on a great 4 years here, he should be proud of what he accomplished and I wish him luck in his next chapter.
 
pucci2001 said:
I would argue Torts was unable to tap the skills of players such as Gaborik, Nash, Richards, Hagelin(on the PP at least). A real coach understands how to get his players going I can understand slumps but players that have won the Conn and gold medal winners rarely flop. He was doing something wrong and obviously he was the wrong guy for the job. They need a new coach that can maximize the talent not just keep shuffling the deck and pray to god something works out. Look at what Oates did with Ovi in Washington. Its all about fit and Tortorella was the wrong fit for this team though his hard nosed coaching might have long term benefits he isn't the coach that would ever bring your team to the promise land. I would personally say Eakins would be a good coach or Lindy Ruff though Ruff is sort of cut from the same cloth as Torts. AV would be good for the players but he has proven he can't win when it counts either. Give Eakins a shot or try for a Cinderella story with that Gretzky and Messier rumor floating around.
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Gaborik had two 40 goal seasons with Torts. If that's him under a coach who can't tap into his skills, he must be a 60 goal player with the right guy. I don't know much for certain, but I would bet literally anything that Gaborik never, ever scores that much. Nash was nearly PPG all season. Richards looked like a schlub out there, it wasn't a coaching problem IMO. Hagelin isn't a great PP player and has shown no signs that he ever will be at the NHL level.

Look what Oates did for OV? OV had a monster regular season, then slacked off like he didn't care for the playoffs and his team got eliminated early - just like pretty much every Caps season before, except with a worse showing in the playoffs. If that's the "right fit," Washington should trade him, because that was a sorry excuse for a postseason from a generational goal scoring talent.

For all the talk about "the right guy," it seems odd to me to bank on the completely unrealistic scenario of a guy like Messier who has never, ever coached at any level coming in and leading the team to a cup. I expect hyperbole "anyone but Torts" crap from this board, but I hope to sweet baby jesus that the management is smarter than that. Now that they've fired Torts, they need someone better. Anything else is a colossal mistake with Henrik being in the situation he's in.
 
Torts has never hindered Marian Gaborik. The guy scored a **** ton of goals under him.

Also, you can't compare it to Oates and Ovechkin who have been together for a whopping 48 games.
 
pucci2001 said:
I would argue Torts was unable to tap the skills of players such as Gaborik, Nash, Richards, Hagelin(on the PP at least). A real coach understands how to get his players going I can understand slumps but players that have won the Conn and gold medal winners rarely flop. He was doing something wrong and obviously he was the wrong guy for the job. They need a new coach that can maximize the talent not just keep shuffling the deck and pray to god something works out. Look at what Oates did with Ovi in Washington. Its all about fit and Tortorella was the wrong fit for this team though his hard nosed coaching might have long term benefits he isn't the coach that would ever bring your team to the promise land. I would personally say Eakins would be a good coach or Lindy Ruff though Ruff is sort of cut from the same cloth as Torts. AV would be good for the players but he has proven he can't win when it counts either. Give Eakins a shot or try for a Cinderella story with that Gretzky and Messier rumor floating around.
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You can argue that, but you'd be wrong.
 
Inferno said:
I'd just like to point out that John Tortorella, as supposedly terrible a coach as he is, got the New York Rangers to the 2nd round of the playoffs, and a top 6 finish in the East without Marc Staal, Ryane Clowe, complete no shows from Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards, a 1 armed Ryan Callahan and Carl Hagelin, a growing pain filled season from Chris Kreider and JT Miller, and another full season without Michael Sauer.


Horrible coach...just awful.
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Hen-rik !

Hen-rik !

Hen-rik !


You are foolin' yourself if you think otherwise.
 
I will miss him. Though we would have the luxury of dodging him while winning another year at least. Depending on who's the replacement, but can't say any of the names that has surfaced sounds better? His line juggling, horrible pp and ugly system aside, think he would have won the cup with some more tries. Consistency on the coaching side is gone, and that's probably the biggest problem. It's gonna be some years regardsless who's next before we will come a contender again, I fear.
Really hope it's not gonna be Maurice or Messier next.
 
I'm incredibly grateful that Tortorella found his way into this organization. Don't get me wrong, I was pretty upset with his performance this season. The "stone age hockey" and lack of aggression really got me angry, despite favoring a conservative style in hockey. However, this was the first coach to bring some accountability, pride and a good work ethic in the lockeroom.

The coaching during the "dark ages" exhibited none of those traits, which only added to the mercenary attitude which was seen in the players on the ice. To have under-performing players pay the price for poor effort and gain the identity of one of the hardest working teams is something I would have never imagined happening before he was at the helm.

I'm relatively young compared to many of the posters on here, but the '11-'12 season was the greatest season I ever experienced as a hockey fan. For once the team was better than the sum of their parts and we rose out of the ranks of mediocrity. While it wasn't long lived, it was a refreshing (and a much needed) change from battling for a playoff spot every season.

Do I think his firing was justifiable? Considering the system he employed this season did seem to stagnate the potential we knew the team had, absolutely. However, like Renney, I do feel that Tortorella had to act as a scapegoat for Sather's incompetence. People were expecting this team to be a contender this year and in reality, I feel that last season was just an anomaly (or a facade) that led us to believe that this team was better than their skill would indicate.

I'm still excited to see what this change could do for the organization. I would love to see a coach with a semi-aggressive philosophy come in and try his system out with this roster. I think there's a chance we could succeed with a "run and gun" type style considering the speed of our defense and having Lundqvist in goal.

Thank you, Torts.
 
Bluenote13 said:
Hen-rik !

Hen-rik !

Hen-rik !


You are foolin' yourself if you think otherwise.
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You do realise every time the Rangers tried to open it up this year and got a good number of goals, Henrik was the one who cost the team wins. Just take a look at past game thread where people cried about "awww, now that we score goals Henrik has a bad game!" It wasn't a coincidence Henrik had his stinkers when the system tried to loosen up.

Henrik exceled in the systems employed by this team over the last 6 years. Change the system that's tailor-made for your goalie, and you're in for a world of hurt.
 
Nac Mac Feegle said:
You do realise every time the Rangers tried to open it up this year and got a good number of goals, Henrik was the one who cost the team wins. Just take a look at past game thread where people cried about "awww, now that we score goals Henrik has a bad game!" It wasn't a coincidence Henrik had his stinkers when the system tried to loosen up.

Henrik exceled in the systems employed by this team over the last 6 years. Change the system that's tailor-made for your goalie, and you're in for a world of hurt.
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Please. More than 3/4 of the goals against him were either him being screened by his own man or shots being deflected off his own man.
 
I wanted him gone, but I will say I do believe he is a great coach. Just not the right one for this team right now. I feel he would be great in a Mike Keenan type situation, where you throw him on a team that's already there to get them over the hump. His message was getting stale here after 4 or 5 years (whatever it was) and everyone could see that.

And I don't doubt for one second that he's a great guy outside of hockey. Many people in the game are like that. He put on shows to keep the attention on him and away from the team.
 
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