Rangers Coach John Tortorella, Fired

Rangers Coach John Tortorella, Fired

The Rangers seem to be without a coach as John Tortorella was fired this Wednesday just a couple of days after being eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Tortorella, who is 54 years old, is renowned for his bold ways both with his players as well as with the media. He helped the Rangers get to the semifinals of the Eastern Conference where the Boston Bruins proved themselves too hard a nut to crack eliminating the Rangers in Game 5.

It is yet uncertain if Tortorella’s in your face style of coaching was the ultimate cause of his departure from the Rangers but one thing is clear, not a lot of players seemed to regret his firing.

In a press conference held this Monday, star goalkeeper Henrik Lundqvist seemed to be uncertain of his future with the Rangers and said that this last season was “a step back” while captain Ryan Callahan said that the Rangers “underachieved”.

Tortorella’s coaching style also seems to have tensed his relationship with his long time collaborator Brad Richards, with whom he won a Stanley Cup in 2004 while coaching the Tampa Bay Lightning.

While the fact that things will have to change at the Rangers if they are to get a Stanley Cup chance any time soon is clear, no replacement for John Tortorella has yet been announced.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Thursday May 30 2013, 5:18 AM EST. Ref: ESPN. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0