A very interesting preseason game coming up tonight as the Rangers play the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena at 10pm ET.
So how is our old friend Johnny Drama doing in his new theater of operations? Reports are that the old thesbian still lives by the adage that all the world is his stage.
NHL.com / Sept 26th, 2013:
Canucks still learning Tortorella's style --
That voice has come as advertised, with [John] Tortorella making threats if cell phones ring in press sessions, bluntly calling out the fitness levels of Zack Kassian and Tom Sestito, and saying "he couldn't find" top defenseman Alexander Edler in the tape he watched from last season. As promised, he also has delivered those messages bluntly and directly in a locker room Vigneault had left to the players.A smile crossed my face while reading this, especially the part that said, "forwards collapsing" and "there is more of an emphasis on blocking shots." Will your rope-a-dope strategy find a happy home out west? We shall see Johnny Drama, we shall see...
"We haven't got one of his classic rants the media talks about, but he is definitely a presence in the room," veteran defenseman Kevin Bieksa said. "And you definitely know if you do something stupid you will get called out on it."
But the bigger adjustment to Tortorella has been on the ice. Training camp started as more of a conditioning camp, with players skated so hard that fatigue was cited as a problem after losing the first three preseason games. So, too, was a lack of understanding of system changes initiated under Tortorella, who didn't switch the focus to tactics until Friday.
The differences include forwards collapsing deeper into the defensive zone and the defensemen playing more of a zone down low instead of picking a man. The breakouts and forecheck also have been altered, and there is more of an emphasis on blocking shots. But the biggest challenge for Tortorella is trying to get his new team to be more aggressive and assertive all over the ice...
Sat behind our old friend the other night in San Jose's 5-0 rout of vancouver and, though i wanted to yell and pound the glass i found myself basically laughing at him and mini me sullivan all night. These guys looked absolutely clueless behind the bench. Granted it's preseason, but both the team and coaches were confused and had no idea where to be and when to be there. And old Johnny torts had some choice words for his players and not a single one responded verbally or by playing better. Not one. So that's where they are at right now, which isn't where i'd want to be a week before the season.
Here's to hoping we give him a good whipping tonight, and more importantly hopefully we just play all around better hockey. Been a rough preseason for the boys in blue. Step is back (which is nuts, I would've held out or walked on Sather's dumb ass) but he will certainly help. Hey Glen, just remember you had the opportunity to lock up a #1 center for not that much $ and you chose your stubborn, idiotic route by giving him a bridge contract. Now after these two great years he'll have in NY he'll get all the $ he wants wherever he wants.
Johnny Drama is such an East coast guy, I don't see his act traveling well. Mixing his emotionally intense, bruising, rope-a-dope with a laid back western 'tude is going to be like a mad science experiment. It could blow up.
Along the lines of "how I learned to love the bomb," I've learned to love seeing Sather blow Dolan's money. What's another mill here or there, it all just gets sucked out of the fans.
How does Kreider not make this team? I know Fast had an impressive camp, but for all the talk of "Kreider is going to get the opportunity to play on the first line" and all that "fresh start" stuff he didn't even make the roster?
How about Kreider instead of wannabe goon derek dorsett? That guy brings nothing to the table that Asham doesn't, plus Dorsett has taken some of the dumbest penalties and fights i have ever seen. Just sayin'
How does Dorsett make this team ahead of Kreider?! Insane
I haven't see a lot of Fast, so I haven't formed an opinion. But Dorsett over Kreider is that just making room for the designated goon.