Confirmed with Link: Tortorella Fired Pt II: "The Search"

[broadwayblue]

If Malkin hits free agency there would be a Lebron James like frenzy around the league. He'd easily be the best player to hit free agency since the pre-lockout days. It will ultimately boil down to if he wants prestige or money. If he wants to win cups he'll stay with Crosby and Pittsburgh. If he bolts and wants to get paid to be "the guy", I can definitely see him leaving too. Bet he ends up in Detroit if he makes it to FA. We'd definitely make an offer, but eventually lose out.

Back on topic, the calls for Pierre are laughable. I'd rather keep Torts for life over having him on our bench. Brooks' Post article definitely makes it sound like he lost the room. I bet Lundqvist was the leader of the coup. He can't be too happy about his buddies Avery and Gaborik being run out of town. It doesn't seem like he was too friendly with Richards. Torts' refusal to sit Richards until Slats' intervention is what made him lose the rest of the room. While guys like Kreider, Stralman, and Del Zotto were on short leashes and played scared while a guy like Richards gets free pass after free pass, it breeds resentment.

Torts' bizarre mancrush on JT Miller was also a head scratcher. I still think he'll be a good two way center in this league, but his demotion came five games too late. I bet sending him down required Mr. Penguin's intervention too.

5 games. lol

 

[Ail]

FU guys I read the first 41 pages and you made 33 more.

Anyway, this is good, but also very bad. You know they will hire Ruff or worse. Please let me be wrong.

Has Kel been seen since the first 10 pages of part one? I am concerned for his safety.

 

[Bleed Ranger Blue]

FU guys I read the first 41 pages and you made 33 more.

Anyway, this is good, but also very bad. You know they will hire Ruff or worse. Please let me be wrong.

Has Kel been seen since the first 10 pages of part one? I am concerned for his safety.

I think its Ruff's job to lose. Former Ranger, knows Sather, modest success in Buffalo, predictable/lazy choice. He fits the mold.

 

[Hi ImHFNYR]

Can someone please sticky this? Fantastic, fantastic post, TB. You need to post on here more for this reason alone.

Me, you Sting, TB and others I've seen realize it filters from the top on down in any organization. The gross, disgusting fits of incompetence and failure from a FA perspective alone have cost Dolan 200 mil in 5 contracts. Factor in the dearth of absolute bust drafts we had in the early 00's that hamstrung this franchise too. He gets no credit from me for the Jagr trade and Hank pick. More luck than anything. I give him credit for many other very good trades and for presiding over recent drafts. Other than that the teams he has constructed continue to be overhwlemingly flawed and every year the offense and PP sucks beyond acceptability. I think perhaps he does not udnerstand what is required to be a successful, puck controlling offense in the current NHl and so he does not draft or sign to fill this need.

He routinely signs guys to play out of their position nd well over their potential and he routinely signs fossils for tough guy roles when they're beat to hell. I greatly fear that because he is so dismally poor at evaluating talent that he will latch onto some bigger name coach due to name recognition (and an enticing gift of nice new cigars) with little to no regard given to whether the coach is a fit for the players or whether the coach is actually good.

Oh and for Dolan all you have to do is look at what he allowed I.T. to do to the Knicks and how the Anita Brown situation played out (he still was behind IT lol). That hurts the company bottom line, costs hundreds of millions in merchandise and revenue and he actually LIKES basketball. Terrible owner who is at least hands off and may luck into a good GM but with the NYR he clearly has not and is too dumb of a businessman to terminate a cancer of a deal.

One of the best things Torts ever did was call Dolan a moron and tell him to shut his big fat dumb mouth

 

[Tawnos]

I wholeheartedly agree with everything people are saying about Sather, btw. I just don't feel it's even worth commenting on at this point. I've been coming to this board for 9 years and we've been having the same general conversation about Sather for 9 years. I prefer to let it rest.

 

[JESSEWENEEDTOCOOK]

Obviously the organization's failures are directly Sather's doing.

I've accepted that at this point.

That being said, I do think firing Tortorella is the right move. We'll see if it holds up that way. A lot of it depends on the hire. Hopefully Gorton is the one conducting this search.

I wholeheartedly agree with everything people are saying about Sather, btw. I just don't feel it's even worth commenting on at this point. I've been coming to this board for 9 years and we've been having the same general conversation about Sather for 9 years. I prefer to let it rest.

Pretty much.

Thinking about it just depresses me. There's no point in doing it because nothing is going to change until Sather croaks.

 

[Bluenote13]

I wholeheartedly agree with everything people are saying about Sather, btw. I just don't feel it's even worth commenting on at this point. I've been coming to this board for 9 years and we've been having the same general conversation about Sather for 9 years. I prefer to let it rest.

Agreed. Doesn't take a rocket science to figure out who's really been the constant in this mess.

It's all Sather's doing, he's been in charge 13 years, thats a 1/3 of my Ranger life, so many of you younger guys that's most if not all your Ranger lives. I can't imagine knowing only a Sather led Ranger's organization. That sucks.

Hopefully one day someone gets to Dolan and says enough with this guy already, the cigar stains allover MSG are not worth it.

 

[Hunter Gathers]

Not gonna lie. I don't want any of 1994 on the bench.

 

[member 116805]

So who's ready for some Bronze Age Hockey?!

 

[Greg02]

I wholeheartedly agree with everything people are saying about Sather, btw. I just don't feel it's even worth commenting on at this point. I've been coming to this board for 9 years and we've been having the same general conversation about Sather for 9 years. I prefer to let it rest.

Basically this (without the nine years bit).

I don't think very many people would be sad to see Glen Sather gone. But he might as well be a force of nature for all the inevitability of him staying.

 

[JESSEWENEEDTOCOOK]

Not gonna lie. I don't want any of 1994 on the bench.

Only one I'd even consider is Leetch, only as a PP specialist, perhaps.

I'd rather get someone who has coaching experience, though.

 

[NikC]

goodbye Torts

collapsing defense that screens the goalie and deflects pucks past him, constant stretch pass breakout, chucking the puck off the boards breakout, no neutral zone presence, no powerplay strategy, no puck possession, sit 1 goal lead – kill the clock, constant line changes, no set lines, won’t roll four lines, primitive shot block defense...

 

[LORDE]

Btw... All the ongoing discussion about how our style of play was different last yr as opposed to this yr...

Yeah we had the puck less. Yes it killed us. But honestly, if you go back and listen, Torts always said "We didn't have the puck enough" in game, after games, wins and losses. I do t think he was trying to have the puck less. The players did t execute either. System flawed or not (which I believe it was).

Just pointing this out.

 

[Tawnos]

Only one I'd even consider is Leetch, only as a PP specialist, perhaps.

I'd rather get someone who has coaching experience, though.

I'd like to see Leetch work with our defensemen's offensive instincts at ES as well.

 

[RangerBoy]

Is Eakins that good of a coach or is the Toronto media pumping up his tires?

 

[Tawnos]

Btw... All the ongoing discussion about how our style of play was different last yr as opposed to this yr...

Yeah we had the puck less. Yes it killed us. But honestly, if you go back and listen, Torts always said "We didn't have the puck enough" in game, after games, wins and losses. I do t think he was trying to have the puck less. The players did t execute either. System flawed or not (which I believe it was).

Just pointing this out.

It's a bit of a chicken/egg conversation, but was it that our players didn't execute the style of play or was it that the style of play didn't suit a significantly different roster?

 

[profchaos2001]

That's what I'm worried about....especially if the rumors about that monster-sized deal Hank wants is true.

I envision a lot of screaming and scapegoating in the next season.

This is going to happen no matter what here... See 2012-2013 Brad Richards.

 

[SingnBluesOnBroadway]

The fault is Sather's. How many bad contracts has he signed? Torts has been a breath of fresh air. Most success of any Rangers coach since Keenan (and who knows how things would have gone with him if he had more years). Brought an air of accountability that has not been here in nearly 20 years. Rangers fans forget quickly how these boards would weep when high priced millionaires would not be held accountable for anything. Rangers fans forget how the clamor was not to bring in high priced free agents but to build a core. Which is what Torts did.

Blame him for the PP? Fine. But who picked the Rangers to go to conference finals two years ago? No one. Coming down the stretch of this season, with Gabby and Richards being abysmal failures, they were in the hunt. Yes, the trade helped, and he got them past the first round again.

Rangers fans have very short memories. So too does Glen Sather. His 'success" comes from the middling success that Renney had and what Torts has done. Aside from that, Sather has been an unmitigated disaster. How many bad contracts has he given out, just to have them swallowed up by Dolan?

Torts was a good coach. Boo-hoo to the players that decided that he was too tough. Oh, no. He holds me responsible and is willing to bench or scratch anyone. Wow. What a concept. Poor play, means you do not play. Again, there are a scant few left around here that remember what the dark years were like. And even with Renney holding only under 25 year old players accountable.

You got rid of Torts. Ok. Who is the better coach out there? Don't give me this drivel about Messier. Bryan Trottier was only an assistant and look how he turned out. Messier does not belong behind the bench. Who out there is capable of taking this team and doing with it what Tortarella could not do?

Good post TB!

The only thing I would add is that using Sather's own standard and definition of success, his tenure has not been a success. He said yesterday that anything short of playing in the SCF is not a success.

 

[JESSEWENEEDTOCOOK]

The most infuriating thing about Tortorella was his breakout.

I don't think the transition game is a personnel problem — this team has plenty of mobile, smart D on the backend, ones that have good-to-great outlet passes. Tortorella's breakout seemed to consist of banking the puck off the boards and praying it ends up on the stick of his team.

You're not going to have sustained success in this league with that kind of breakout. That kind of strategy worked in 11-12 because the team was strong and won nearly every puck battle, but lacked speed. It's the opposite this year. The roster is not built to rely on winning puck battles one on one — the team needs to utilize their speed. Tortorella, IMO, did not do that.

 

[Tawnos]

Is Eakins that good of a coach or is the Toronto media pumping up his tires?

I've wondered the same thing. Although, he did coach the Marlies to the finals last year.

 

[SingnBluesOnBroadway]

Only one I'd even consider is Leetch, only as a PP specialist, perhaps.

I'd rather get someone who has coaching experience, though.

I'm not sure Leetch can teach the things he did. He had great instinct on the point and did things qith the puck that were extraordinary.

 

[Hi ImHFNYR]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nhl--r...cDZW4tVVMEdGVzdANidWNrZXRfcmVtb3ZlZA--;_ylv=3

Really like this article. Didn't finish it b/c I gtg but halfway through it was very realistic and fair to Torts while acknowledging his flaws.

 

[JESSEWENEEDTOCOOK]

I'm not sure Leetch can teach the things he did. He had great instinct on the point and did things qith the puck that were extraordinary.

I feel the same. He's a pretty damn intelligent guy, though, I wouldn't put it past him to have success as a coach.

 

[SavedByLundqvist]

I'm telling you guys, the only solution is Isaiah Thomas.

 

[OverTheCap]

I wonder when we will hear from Torts, if at all.

Renney had some real interesting things to say about the team right after he was fired. He criticized the leadership group and said that the team had a tough time transitioning after Jagr and Shanny. He also said that he should have pushed harder to re-sign both of those players. I wonder what the climate in the locker room was like this year, after losing some hard-working players in the offseason, Gabby being traded, Richards laying an egg, etc.