New York Rangers Fire Coach Tortorella

From the desk of:   RAISE GRESCH WITH THE GREATS



NEW YORK RANGERS - When And Who Is Going To Fire Glen Sather?


First let me say with haste, I do not concur with the decision to dismiss John Tortorella.  If Glen Sather has done anything right in the epoch he's been here, one was hiring Gordie Clark to take care of minor league drafting and development, and the second was hiring John Tortorella to be head coach.  In my opinion, those two were chiefly responsible for building up the current Rangers.  And if anything, those two helped cloak Glen Sather's abysmal record as General Manager of Tex's Rangers.


This organization just took another step backwards under Sather's watch. In the hundreds of words Glen Sather uttered during Wednesday's presser, he said absolutely nothing. I reiterate, he said absolutely nothing - nothing of value - nothing of worth - nothing substantial, and certainly nothing that means anything to me as a Rangers fan.


The notion John Tortorella is a star destroyer is a myth.  Marian Gaborik scored forty goals under Torts, as well as sucked under Torts.  So you tell me.  Brad Richards plays like he's ready for the glue factory for crying out loud.  And maybe this is hindsight, but Rick Nash absolutely looked fat, and out of shape.  Period.  What have these players ever provided that makes fans forget their ridiculously onerous burden on the salary cap, that by the way, will be shrinking next season?  If Glen Sather doesn't have the answer, maybe Scott Gomez, Wade Redden and Chris Drury do.  Why not additionally ask all the failed skaters he's carousel-ed through Broadway trying to replace Colton Orr, and the irresponsible dollars spent in the process, when all he had to do was sign the guy he already had - just like Sather again declined to sign Brandon Prust.  And so the search for answers continues.  Ask all the carpetbaggers, and overall tools who Glen Sather ever imported over the years, what they ever contributed to this organization.  And with the surety of death, I'm positive the answer will be nothing, just like Glen Sather's words at the presser - hollow, empty, void, or consistent of nothing.


The notion John Tortorella won't trust young players and keeps the hinges on his dog house greased at all times, is a myth.  The Ranger got where they did these last years, because Gordie Clark drafted many of your current Rangers favorites, and John Tortorella insisted on keeping them together.  Don't think for a New York minute Glen Sather would not have traded Callahan, Girardi, Staal, (Sauer), and so many others who came through the system, for some has-been, if not for Tortorella's influence and/or insistence in preventing such buffoonery.  Of course, that's just my opinion.  Just don't forget, when he first arrived as head coach, he selected youngsters Ryan Callahan, Marc Staal, Brandon Dubinsky and Dan Girardi to form his core.  In the next wave, he continued teaching a class including, Derek Stepan, Carl Hagelin, the acquired Ryan McDonagh, Michael Del Zotto, and you know the others.  Those are the authors of the Rangers recent success story, as taught to by John Tortorella.  It has been Glen Sather's alternative acquisitions which have spoiled the soup.  Torts took kids, gave them an identity, and turned them into Eastern Conference contenders, while Sather's money suckers have come up small when it mattered most.


I understand why Torts got fired, but in Glen Sather, I lack trust.  That said, maybe the exit interviews went horribly wrong.  We don't know.  Maybe Torts really did wear thin on his team.  We won't find out yet.  His system was fine for his personnel right up until last season.  However, he needed to be more flexible this season, and wasn't.  It is fine when you take a large group of kids and turn them into grunts together.  They all responded like excited puppies.  But once you incorporate the more skilled players of the league, you simply have to let them play hockey.  Torts I admit, couldn't - not with his "my way or the go f$!%# yourself" plan.  But he should have been given next year to try.


I offer no defense for the power play.  That's on both Torts and Glen Sather, for failure to provide a player with an potent shot from the point, and on Torts for lack of creativity.  But how dare Glen Sather put this all on Coach.