Since taking over the New York Rangers at the end of the
2008-09 season, head coach John Tortorella has had the built in excuse of not
having the talent he would like on the roster.
That excuse is now gone and the team is built in the image that he
wants. He has installed the system that
he wants, has allowed the young players opportunities to earn their spots and
now he has the elite center he has been clamoring for since he arrived. This portion of the rebuild has been a group
effort, but the commitment to the youth both in playing them and retaining them
as been something that Tortorella has publicly fought for. Now the expectations and pressure on him
changes.
In New York there is always going to be pressure to win, so
to say he did not have that the past two full seasons would be inaccurate, but
the level of expectation was not of a team that could truly contend for
anything. At best the team was expected
to battle to get in on the lower end of the Eastern Conference playoff seeding
and possible steal a round in the postseason.
Those expectations are now a team that can contend for a division,
finish in the top half of the conference and possibly win at least two rounds
in the playoffs this season while hoping to truly contend for a championship in
a year.
If the Rangers fail to live up to those expectations, while
some will point fingers at specific players that failed to produce, the final
verdict will be on Tortorella and whether the hope he has provided in times
where the team lacked the combination of skill and toughness he wanted was just
a fantasy. It would be true that the
Rangers still likely need another scorer and a defender to step forward as a
consistent puck mover, but those things are not going to be enough to register
the same way the lack of a top line center and power play quarterback have been
used to defend the team during struggles.
Tortorella has done a phenomenal job in giving chances to and allowing
young players to develop over his tenure in New York and just like many expect
those players to take the next step this season, Tortorella has to get the team
to do the same. Both Tortorella himself
and the organization in the great work they have done this summer have raised
expectations for what the team can achieve and while it is ultimately the
players who decide games on the ice, the first person to have the finger
pointed at them if it does not go as planned is the coach.
