What a scapegoat these guys have made him out to be. It has gone too far IMO. Asham also said that John Tortorella ran a pretty tight ship and that guys are now coming to the rink everyday with smiles on their faces. Up and down the roster you see it. You would think Torts was the devil. These comments are all well and good, but if the team doesn't win then it is all BS. These guys better forget about coming to the rink with a smile and focus on scoring some goals, and winning games.
you have to give AV 10-12 games before he can evaluate if he has the players to go with an attacking system. if we still can't score he will quickly revert back to Torts' system, which for all the whining, made us a very tough team to play against. The last 3 seasons, we were 5th, 3rd, and 4th in fewest goals against in the NHL. Wasn't the most exiting hockey, but it averaged us about 98 pts. per season
For sure on AV. I just don't love that all these players are using Torts as this scapegoat. Say what you will, but we had more success under Torts than any other coach since Sather has been here. Let's not forget that. I think AV will do well, but the payers need to start focusing on winning games, and stop blaming Torts or talking about how much happier things are in the locker room with Torts gone.
you guys with all your analysis with 1 game in.....the first place to look is the goaltending, Hank's rank is going to be overtaken by Reimer and Bernier and yes Im a Ranger fan. Its going to be like the past 2 seasons Hank will dominate vs weaker teams and have great numbers then choke against the better teams......HE HAS FOCUS problems
Torts said in an interview about a week ago that his main regret coaching the Rangers was the deterioration of his relationship with Brad Richards, not choking against the Devils, throwing a water bottle at a Cap fan, failing to develop a PP, throwing guys under the bus to cover his ass, etc. His relationship with Richards and having to move him to the fourth line or bench him altogether was Richards doing. Good riddance. Torts success was also due to the fact that he had hands down the most talented roster Sather produced. Renney had one legit star in Jagr and came up with an offense that let Jagr set the scoring record. I agree it's absolute bs for the current squad to still even have Torts on their mind but it demonstrates what a negative force he was.
I think the problem is when you say he has the most talented roster Sather has produced, that roster isn't all that talented relative to the upper echelon of the league. There's some nice parts to build from, but as a whole they lack the firepower and symbiosis you need to be a true SC contender. The kids they've developed are "pretty good" but not great, and right now it looks like they're missing on a few 1st rounders whereas other teams are consistently getting those players developed and contributing, giving them depth to go along with the rest of their roster. While JT was a drain at times, the bigger problem to me is roster construction and X/O's, bad contracts and some poor FA signings. That's why I think Sather needs to walk away and hand it over to Gorton so he can work with AV and his staff to develop a team with firepower over the next few years.
