In the midst of the
Rangers recent struggles and the tightening of the playoff race, which could
see the club miss the playoffs for the second straight year the calls for John
Tortorella to be fired are growing. Whenever
a team misses the playoffs for multiple years, especially in a market like New
York there will be grumblings about how hot the seat is for that coach. The urge to blame someone is not unusual, but
pointing the finger at Tortorella this year is absurd. Part of the finger pointing stems directly to
the phenomenal job he did in the first half in pushing this team firmly inside
the playoff race despite the fact he was dealing significant injuries, the incorporation
of numerous rookies into key roles. That
level of overachievement through adversity raised the expectations of many fans
from a season that was based on development for the future that became one
where they believed, when healthy, the Rangers could compete possibly for a
title.
The problem has been
in the second half, when for the most part, with a healthy squad the team has
underachieved and the inconsistent results of the past have returned. As I said, the urge to blame someone is
normal, but how does a coach go from being talked about as a Jack Adams
candidate to someone that should be on the hot seat? Personally I did not believe the coach of the
year hype, though he certainly had a candidacy claim, but to go from him being
a genius to now he is talked about as if he is clueless in just two months in
making my head spin.
Yes, it is true that
the Rangers position as they take the ice today is very similar to last year in
the standings and they could end up with the same fate, but the two teams are
markedly different and much of that credit must go to Tortorella. If not for Tortorella and his insistence on
building a core group of young players this team does not have the personnel it
will when it takes the ice tonight.
Before he came here we went with veteran fix after veteran fix and you
can almost guarantee without his voice in the room come deadline day this year,
the Rangers would have pulled the trigger on dealing away long term assets for
Brad Richards.
There has not been
this much hope for the future around this organization in many years and the
fans who have called and pleaded for a youth movement and a rebuild are now the
same ones calling for the coaches head when things don’t happen
immediately. Frankly, that’s a joke.
I am not saying that
Tortorella is perfect or that there are not decisions he makes that make me
scratch my head and want to scream, but right now he is the best man for this
job.
Many expected the
safe is death system that Tortorella used in Tampa Bay to be what he brought to
New York and that if nothing else we would have exciting hockey. Simply put, the Rangers do not have the personnel
to run that kind of system. The defense
first, grinding, physical style and never give up attitude is what put the
Rangers into the position they are in and provided this team with something
they lacked a year ago; an identity.
The fact that he has
stuck to that in the face of the adversity will benefit these young players
down the road regardless of how the season turns out and when you have a team
this young sometimes you need the man out front to be calm in the storm.
This team and this
organization are headed in the right direction and to toss Tortorella overboard
in an attempt to find a scapegoat to explain why magically putting all the
injured guys back in the lineup didn’t make them take off would be a mistake
that would set that process backwards.
The job of a coach is to get the most out of the talent he has and while
there are times it feels like he misuses some in his cast, particularly on the
power play, he has done that and should be applauded for it.
