Was Henrik Lundqvist's statement about having to talk to his agent before making a committal the cause? Well, er, no.
Was the benching of Richards the cause? Well, er, no.
Was criticizing management for not enough roll players the cause? Well, er, no.
Was the abrasive press conferences the cause? Well, er, maybe, could be, but no.
There was not one question directed at the GM that would have implicated him in this debacle. After all it's been fourteen years and every three or four years when we change the coach, having this GM still around is not going to cut it. This guy has got to go too. We need a complete revamping. The owner is safe. He owns the team. However, this guy, the Stealth GM, is as much of a problem as the bad coaches he keeps hiring. As I told the Stealth that bleak February night at the Garden over four years ago, after a terrible OT loss to the lowly Maple Leafs, "you should fire yourself, you don't belong here." The next day he fired Tom Renney.
My definite opinionated opinion is that this coach was fired for two main reasons above all.
First. Henrik Lundqvist's comment that the team went backward while the coach claimed it went sideways. Then in a response to a possible extension of his contract he preferred to state that he would have to talk to his agent. Wow! Lundqvist not jumping at the chance to resign with the vaunted Rangers. That's earth shaking. Pack up the team and the fans for all those empty seats on the horizon. Now that's a hit in the old pocketbook, a depression in the bank account and forget playoffs without Lundqvist. In fact, forget season.
The other reason, according to this Pundit was a poll taken by the NY Daily News (see below). In that poll seventy-one percent of the readers said that the coach must go. And Sixty-two percent said, "Sather should get the ax" too. Ah, what do these stupid fans know? How can that be? After all the press, even though disrespected, had not blasted the coach on a regular basis. Maybe they were afraid to, for fear of being chewed on in the press conferences. Ah, the press conferences. Don't you think the fans know that when a coach rips the press and ignores them regularly that he is really ripping and ignoring the fans. Get the fan base annoyed and you are in big trouble. Many a player and a coach have been booed out of the Garden. Some good and some bad. However, once you alienate the fan base you are done. And coach disagreeable did alienate the fan base on more than one occasion.
So here we are once again. The talk is that Lindy Ruff has the inside track. I hope not. Lindy's a good guy, but what has he won? Want a retread with a record? We had him in the booth: 'Iron Mike' Keenan. Unfortunately Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL snapped him up a couple of weeks ago. Mike is a real SOB, who really knows hockey. He would have given us a third and fourth line that do what third and fourth lines are supposed to do. He'd have raised hell, on the ice, in the locker room, in corporate, and he'd have given us a winner.
We can't get "Iron Mike." So then I would go with the legends: Messier, Graves and Leetch. Make Messier the coach with Graves and Leetch as assistants. They may not win a Cup, but we will have a lot of friends behind the bench. But, the Stealth will probably go with some experience, no rookie coaching experiments. But for now, I'll savor that disagreeable is gone. Where he goes, I could care less.
Sayonara baby!
ICINGS:
NY Daily News:
NY Rangers fans have say: John Tortorella must go --
Seventy-one percent of readers voted on The News’ interactive online 'Keep ’Em, Dump ’Em' page to jettison Tortorella after the Rangers failed to return to the Eastern Conference finals.
Daily News readers want John Tortorella to stop coaching, Glen Sather to stop general managing and James Dolan to stop owning, which means there will be plenty of disgruntled fans at the Garden at the start of the 2013-14 season.
Sixty-two percent said Sather should get the ax, and 83% told Dolan to take a hike...
----
Stealth GM hides in his secret lair - fires Torts, then avoids face-to-face meeting with media to answer questions.
Our apologies. Mike had written this post earlier today, and asked me to proof read it and publish it, but I was out late and just got to it.
Anyway here are some comments regarding Tortorella's firing that I pasted over here, where they belong.
Andy said...
1:32 PM
Hit the road JOHN and don't you come back no more no more no more no more hit the road JOHN and don't you ever come back no more.........BYE BYE JOHNNY!
It's well overdue, but i'll take it. I mean, I don't want to shovel dirt over John Tortorella or anything, well, actually i guess I AM SHOVELING DIRT OVER JOHN TORTORELLA. Career over. Go rot away in the son Fonzi, please!!
****
mbernold said...
3:01 PM
HOORAY THAT S...B IS GONE!!
NEVER HATED A COACH SO MUCH.
NOW I CAN ROOT FOR THE RANGERS AGAIN.
****
jeanine1994 said...
8:22 PM
Ooooooh man, I just went out and bought myself some lottery tickets because that's the kind of day it's been.
Everybody sing Ding dong the dictators gone, torts is gone, he's really gone! Wake up you sleepy heads rub your eyes get out of bed, no I swear its not a dream!
The King has spoken and the kingdom is once again ours! I feel like I could conquer the world right now.
I would love to see Slats go too but hey you know these things can't be rushed, it's only been 14 years. I laughed at his comments today when he said if your not competing in the finals then your not achieving your goal. Hmmm I wonder if he has been in a deep slumber for the last decade. Alas, that is a problem for another day. Right now I'm as light as a feather and nothing can drag me down.
Bye A- hole, wish I could have held the door for you, packed your desk or at least seen that expression on your face when Sather said, we going in a different direction, so your fired, see ya.
****
Jen9400 said...
9:03 PM
I can't hold out any longer! I was on here earlier and saw Mike's post entitled "Hallelujah" -I went to comment and "Poof" it was gone! Was the former Head Clown really reading this blog after all? I don't know! Whatever happened- I just can't hold out!
YIPPPPEEEEE! Mark Messier saved us from Roger Neilson in 93 and 20 years later OUR KING has saved us from Tortorella. There are differences, of course, we still have Sather at the helm but I'm gonna tell ya, if he puts Messier behind the bench I can start with a clean slate! I actually wrote to Mess a couple of months ago asking him to save us yet again as coach. Maybe, just maybe... AHHHHHHHH! I'm just soooooooooo HAPPYYYYYYYYYYY! One of the happiest days in my Ranger fan life! Never hated a coach more and now the tyrant is gone! THANK YOU KING HENRIK! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
Looking around at Rangerland it is clear that everyone from the players, the fans, and the media, had grown weary of John Tortorella's act.
He was like a tired old vaudeville act, where the performer has to be given the hook to yank them off the stage.
It will be interesting to see if Tortorella lands back in an analyst's job, given his sour treatment of the media. Would they invite him back on their side of the microphone?
I am so much looking forward to some NY players like Stepan, Kreider, Hagelin, Zuccarello and Brassard if they are all re-signed having career seasons under a new coach.
Mike,
I forgot to say I still like your old expression: "The fish stinks from the head," when referring to The Stealth GM and The Absentee Owner.
What's exiting to me is how guys like Brassard haven't been here long enough to be "Tortorellaized." I was just saying to Jeanine that every year in the playoffs it is a new guy who comes in and gives us our so-called offensive spark. Then the following playoff he blends in with the rest of the "right way" group and management forces to find someone to bring in who hasn't not yet "learned" so he can help Henrik push the load into the next round. Exhausting. It will be nice to bring in a coach who strives for excellence and doesn't set the bar at mediocre. I don't want to settle for a team performance every year that's just good enough to make it in because the coaches philosophy is "just get in" and then have watch them squeak out every round win in a seventh game because the coaches philosophy is "these are 7 game series." It takes 4 to win so technically it doesn't HAVE to be a 7 game series. My Lord. I'm so excited!!!!! We never ever, ever, ever, EVER, have to watch that jacka** mismanage our team again! We never have to watch him throw another player under the bus or watch him disrespect the media as he represents our team to the point of embarrassment. Unfortunately the GM who didn't think to be embarrassed is still there. Anyway its a new start with a new coach. Lets hope its Messier. All of these so called experts are trying to say Messier can't coach because he has no NHL experience HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Sure he doesn't lol. I mean who in their right mind would hire a guy who's confidence is matched by no other, who is determined, smart, motivational, knows how to make every guy in the room feel important, knows how to lead, knows how to win and who inspires people for a coach???? Yeah, disagreable is much better, they're right. Dan Rosen tweets today "with all of the candidates available, it makes zero sense to look at Messier as an option to replace Tortorella. I doubt Satther is doing that." To which I responded "What we need is for someone like you to tell Messier he can't coach and THEN we hire him. Do that for us OK? Be a pal." - what a dweeb. And if it doesn't make sense to Sather to hire Mess than its all the more reason he should do it. His track record for hiring coaches is pretty bad. Having said that, if he doesn't hire Mess and he wants a "name" coach then I guess the best of the available is Alain Vigneault. I will be quite unhappy if its Lindy Ruff or heaven forbid Dave Tippett. Just as defensive as disagreeable even though anyone is a step up from Torts. Jeanine and I lived in Dallas for a short time while Tippett was there... can you say sleep aid? A twitter friend suggested Doug Weight... I could live with that. I just hope that its outside the box because the players need that now that they are FREE! WE'RE FREE! WE'RE FREEEEEEEEEEE!
Jen,
Alain Vigneault is reported to have a sense of humor, so I'm sure that will disqualify him for NY. But seriously, I think he'd be one of the candidates at the top of Stealth's list.
A.V. has a record and is a "name" coach. I think the Stealth would want and needs to hide behind a "name" coach like that. I think the hiring of Mess would remind Stealth too much of the ill-fated Bryan Trottier experiment, a total failure.
24 hours later and I'm still flying high from the latest news. Brooks wrote that a group of players spoke up in their exit interviews and made it clear it was time for the dictator to go. I love the visual of that in my head. Our players giving their own coach the boot. But all the followers of the ex-coaches cult claimed the players LOVE torts. They haven't stopped playing for him! They exclaimed. Yeah well guess not. Oh boo hoo. Guess you're not as smart as you thought you were eh coach? And oh yes those fans you said weren't important, the people you turned your nose up at over and over claiming "what do they know" Turns out a lot. We know our players, we knew most hated you, we knew you're a bastard to play for, we know your style is boring as watching leaves change color, we know you have no idea how to run a pp. we know you have zero communication skills and we know you're a complete jackass. Oh and yes here's one other thing we know, you are no longer employed by the NY Rangers, you sir are fired!
LMAO!!!! You go Sister!
I am so proud of our boys for drawing the line. They decided they should be treated better by their coach and they are correct. They are professional athletes and deserve more. As I tweeted today after reading Larry Brooks there's a fine line between "tough" and abuse. I think what ultimately did him in was his public humiliation of Hagelin and then he practically had Brad, his prize player, kicked to the door. The players stood up for themselves because enough is enough. Can't be upset with them for that. Funny thing is I was reading a message board from 2007 with TB fans having the same argument with each other over Tortorella. It was right after they traded Brad to Dallas and after his apparent mistreatment of back up goaltender Marc Denis whom he wouldn't even allow to sit on the bench once the playoffs started, He instead called up a rookie because of Denis "poor play" which of course had nothing to do with the coach... One fan wrote "so why did we trade Brad Richards? for 2 third liners and a back up goalie? "To which another TB fan and Torts defender replied "because we needed the depth and the new guys Jussi Jokinen and Jeff Halpern are playing really good." Sound familiar Gaborik fans? And of course the "depth" players were playing good for him because they had just gotten there! That's how he fakes his way through, he sucks, the players can't play for him, he blames the players and shows the star players the door... Next! Well as Jeanine said, it is just EPIC knowing this time the players showed him the door.. oh poor Torts- you don't like your own treatment? This time Brad Richards was on the right side of Torts door, looks like your prize may have turned on you. Karma's a b*tch. If Brad plays well next season, and I think he will, then I called it early on this season when I posted that the second time around you don't last as long. Thank God the players spoke up and got him fired right now because once Torts would have been gone, he would have only left only wreckage in his wake.
JB- I think you're right. I don't think Sather has the guts to hire Mark and we all know he's about as loyal as a snake. So AV will be our next coach hopefully.
Zip a dee do da, zip, a dee a, my oh my what a wonderful day. Plenty of sunshine coming our way
Jeanine,
I can just imagine Carl Hagelin being asked for feedback on Tortorella by Sather. Now Carl is a nice guy, but what can he possibly say after Tortorella said that he "stinks" on the powerplay?
Tortorella certainly had some sick fun while he burned all his bridges to the players.
JB- I would have loved to have listened in on the players comments but I know they were way to nice. If only we could have seen the look on that lying, smug, face of Torts when Sather had to break the news. What he really deserved was to be told the news from Sean Avery, now that would have been epic!
jeanine - Better yet, Avery calls Tortorella from his restaurant, with Sather there, and they both tell Torts that he is fired.
Reminds me I need to check Avery's twitter feed to see if he's said anyting... Nope, none of the players appear to have tweeted anything about Torts. No thank you's or good-byes very telling.
JB- Sean did tweet after the news broke. He said don't ever doubt what I say. Referring of course to his fire this clown tweet earlier in the season. ;-)
But nope nobody on the rangers tweeted even a best of luck tweet. The silence is deafening.
jeanine - Thanks, I missed that one. Were drinks on the house at Avery's bar last night? I'm sure he bought a few
JB- I wouldn't doubt it.
My sister and I have been saying for a long time we would celebrate with lobster when this guy finally gets the hook. We will be eating well this weekend.
LOBSTER DINNER!
We literally have been planning it for about 3 years.. Every time we would dream of this day coming one of us would say LOBSTER DINNER! Who says dreams don't come true?
It's truly unbelievable to me how many people out there are defending this guy and how many people are arguing with them. Some of these people are so delusional, they actually think the media is making up the reasons Torts got fired... why not blame the press right? Make their mentor proud lol! But you know all the great dictators have their followers and they are so profoundly good at convincing people that their reign of terror is the only way that people defend it fiercely for fear of change. Fear is the best way to control and that is exactly how Tortorella rules. Honestly, there is nothing to argue about... the players don't want him, they made themselves clear enough to leave Sather no other choice. Its kind of hard to have a hockey team with no players don't ya think? Speaking of which, yup no tweets, no well wishes, no sadness, no comments at all! Makes me think the players are all out to LOBSTER DINNER!
The media is now reporting that Messier wants the job. IF MESSIER GETS THE JOB IT WILL BE EPIC! I'm trying not to let myself get too excited but it's downright impossible! It would be a dream come true!
The fact that Messier is talking to the media about his interest in the coaching job indicates to me that he talked privately to Sather and was told that others are in front of him for the job. So he's conducting a PR campaign to perhaps put some pressure on Dolan as well as Sather to consider him. I personally think that Mess is a long shot.