The murmurs among the New York Rangers fans about the job
security of coach John Tortorella if the team does indeed fail to make the
playoffs for the second straight year.
There is no denying that missing again, especially when it will come
down to the final game would be heartbreaking for the fans, the team and the
organization. Making matters worse would
be the fact that the Rangers had a seven point lead with just six games to go
and that leads to use of the phrase collapse in describing how the team has
closed the season. The idea that
Tortorella’s job should be in jeopardy is lunacy for me.
The reality is that the team is 10-4-1 in their 15 games
which is hardly a collapse. The reality is that all realistic Rangers fans
pegged this team as either battling for the eight spot at the end of the year
or missing the playoffs altogether. This
team has massively overachieved even if they had been healthy the entire year
based on the talent they run out there each night. Add to that the number of key injuries they
have suffered during the course of the year and the amount of young players
that were incorporated into the fold this season and Tortorella should be being
praised for even having the Rangers with a shot to get in the playoffs
tomorrow. Talk of firing him after the
job he has done this year in changing the culture and growing the youth is
ridiculous and you should just stop following this team. Torts has made his mistakes, as all coaches
will, but in the totality of the year he has done a tremendous job and deserves
the support of this fan base not an irrational reaction to possibly missing the
playoffs.
