By: Jessy Dhillon
“I do not think Tortorella would survive in any hockey mad city and their media.” I stated that a couple weeks ago regarding the Canucks coaching options. Well, it better work because John Tortorella was officially introduced as the Vancouver Canucks head coach this past Tuesday. John Tortorella is the 17th head coach in Canucks franchise history replacing former Canucks bench boss Alain Vigneault, who was recently hired to be the head coach by The New York Rangers. So basically it looks like the Canucks and Rangers made a coaching trade. This is the first time in National Hockey League history that two coaches have basically swapped teams after being fired by their previous team.
John Tortorella was hired after Mike Gillis and Canucks Ownership interviewed 8 coaches. Some of the coaches included in the interview process were Lindy Ruff, John Stevens, and Dallas Eakins. Ruff was hired by the Dallas Stars last week and Eakins was hired to be the bench boss for the Edmonton Oilers. The hiring of Tortorella is a surprise to many people who cover the Canucks and fans. While coaching the Rangers “Torts” (which he likes to be called) led his team to the playoffs three times. He is a coach that is not afraid to call out his players in the media. Many believe that the core players of the Rangers were instrumental in having Tortorella fired because players had gotten sick of his act. Tortorella also had the Rangers playing a defensive style of game where he required players to tighten up in the defensive zone and block shots. Alain Vigneault was told to change his defensive style a couple years back with the Canucks by management. I do not see why the Canucks would hire another defensive minded coach, especially when the Canucks had major issues scoring goals this past season. Tortorella has had many run-ins with media in New York so I would like to see how he will handle the hockey mad media in Vancouver. New York is a huge sports market, but it is nothing like Vancouver when it comes to hockey. Torts seemed to be on his best behaviour with the media when he was introduced at the press conference, and I would say the same thing about the reporters in the audience that were asking him questions.
I do see some positives on the hiring of John Tortorella, like the way he gives big minutes to his star players if they are producing. I feel the Sedin twins would welcome more ice-time after only averaging around 19 minutes a game last season. Tortorella also likes to have his best players killing penalties so it would be interesting to see how Henrik and Daniel would do on the penalty kill. If Ryan Kesler can stay healthy, I feel he can raise his game to another level with the fellow American behind the bench. Tortorella was an assistant coach for the US Olympic team in 2010 where Kesler looked like a dominant player. Tortorella will have to be weary of giving his American center too much ice time, especially at the beginning of the season because of the way Kesler plays. The Canucks centre plays every shift like it’s game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, which is why he tends to continuously gets injured. Tortorella is familiar with Chris Higgins, having coached him in New York. I would love to see what Torts can do or say to Alex Edler, who struggled mightily last season. Edler is key a player on the Canucks defence that needs to turn around his game for the team to have any success.
Tortorella has had success in the playoffs; winning the Stanley Cup in 2004 with the Tampa Bay Lightning and also taking the New York Rangers to 2012 Eastern Conference Finals. I feel that Tortorella can light a fire under this veteran team that still has a chance to win. Torts’ in-your face approach may be just what the Canucks need to push them over the top and finally win a cup.
So Canucks Nation, will John Tortorella lead the Canucks to their first ever Stanley Cup? Or will he leave Vancouver; ring less? Just like the other sixteen coaches in franchise history.
Bio:
Jessy Dhillon is an avid sports fanatic and community youth leader, whose passion for hockey started at the age of 6 when he started watching Wayne Gretzky play for the Los Angeles Kings. He is a long-time resident of Richmond BC and has deep roots in the Richmond Sports scene through playing youth sports, coaching high school basketball at his former high school Matthew McNair Secondary and organizing sports tournaments for the community.
