Coaching Exits

If John Tortorella's going down, he's going down in flames.

The nice thing for the Tampa Bay coach, who looks virtually certain to be canned at the conclusion of these playoffs, is that two more experienced ex-coaches gave him some useful blueprints for post-firing conduct on Thursday.

There was the Marc Crawford example. Show up at the arena you used to call home, hang around for 40 minutes or so, answer a few media questions and ride off into the sunset.

Oh yes, and make it very, very clear that part of the problem wasn't your inability to get along with the club's star player.

Pat Quinn, meanwhile, didn't quite have the courage to do a Crawford, instead literally mailing in his farewell address. Quinn, despite all his bluster and Hamilton bully antics, never had the stomach for confrontation with those in the media who irked him., so it was no surprise he lacked the desire to show his face one last time.

His key point, meanwhile, was to make it clear he got along with just about everybody with whom he ever shook hands at the ACC. He even thanked ex-Leaf president and would-be federal Liberal leader Ken Dryden, who tried to replace him with Bob Gainey two or three times.

The message? Don't be afraid of hiring me just because I have this rep of not being able to get along with my bosses.

Both Crawford and Quinn, you see, were really submitting their coaching applications to the hockey industry more than waving au revoir.

Crawford wants any future employer to know he can get along with star players, and Quinn was making sure he could submit the fable of how much he loved each and every suit at MLSE without being questioned on the total and utter nonsense of it all.

Tortorella, meanwhile, was busy carving his own goalie, John Grahame, after the Bolts lost 5-2 to the Senators on Thursday to move to within one game of elimination.

You have to admire Tortorella's honesty, particularly here in Toronto after a season of listening to Quinn repeatedly argue it was never Ed Belfour's fault when the veteran netminder was having difficulty blocking beachballs and sofas from entering the Leaf net.

But by delivering blunt verbal force to what was left of Grahame's confidence, the Tampa coach essentially ruled out Grahame as usuable body for the remainder of the series and pointed the finger at GM Jay Feaster for failing to upgrade the club in goal at the trade deadline when the entire league understood it was the Achilles heel of the defending Stanley Cup champs.

So Tortorella has ripped the goalie and undermined the GM, all while showing himself to be unable to adequately prepare a defensive game plan for the Lightning to take on a Senators team that started the series a little unsteady without Dominik Hasek but are now firing on all cylinders.

Sounds like a coach eying the exits already.

Comments

[Sanj]

Tortorella might be a goof but you got love his honesty. At least he makes things interesting.
Despite his comments I think he will get another NHL coaching job. It's hard to ignore that Cup win he got last year.

[Roberto]

Perhaps in Quinn's case it was not so much not having the stomach to face the media as much as disdain for the media for the way they handled the Gretzky (wrongly accused of gambling) issue or the Belfour (unsubstantiated allegations he quit on the team ) issue.
Or perhaps getting ripped almost daily for 7 years of finishing over .500 with only one or two world class players finally turned his stomach on the ink stained wretches who pass for "journalists" in Toronto.

[Sonny McCarron]

Relax Damien you will soon have a new coach to kick around. For a person like you to accuse Quinn of not having courage, he faced you and your so called sports journalists buddies everyday for the past seven years. There likely isn't anymore room for knife holes in his back.You would likely fill up your depends if you were force to come out from hiding behind your paper and review your statements about Quinn and his players face to face. This is so typical of the courage you always display when writing about Quinn.He is gone leave him alone.

[George]

The problem with the Leafs was not coaching, it was the constant stripping of the minor league talent pool to pursue the Cup over the last decade. Had the team that the Leafs iced during the final quarter of the season been the same from the beginning, Toronto would have won 5 extra games (at least), would have finished with 100 points, and although they may not have competed seriously for the Cup this year, the signing of a guy like Elias would have bolstered the team going into 06-07's campaign.

We may have sometimes questioned Quinn's line combinations, or the amount of ice time given to some lesser lights in the lineup, but the truth is he did an exemplary job given the pool he had to work with. Rolling four lines regularly through the season prepares the team for the playoffs, and allows the developing players to find their confidence and achieve their potential.

MLSE has a terrific plan for building and marketing the Marlies, and has spent the money needed to get the job done there. In the age of salary cap dynamics, it makes a lot of sense to spend as much as necessary on the farm team, since the cap does not apply there. A couple more years of focussing on the building process, and signing a couple speedy, talented veterans, may have seen Pat Quinn hoisting the Cup in Toronto.

It's unfortunate that he left feeling the way he did, considering the professionalism he exhibited during his time here. I wish Mr. Quinn well in his travels, and hope to see him win a Cup elsewhere, as long as it isn't against the blue and white.

Paul Maurice should definitely get the job now, since the path forward has been set. I think he will do quite well.

Best regards,
George

ps - Cheers to Damien! I love your articles even when I disagree with your position.

[Brian Marto]

It was not Tortorella's fault that his goaltenders were crap. Tampa Bay Mgt never address the issue when their goalie left for Chicago. Kevin Lowe is looking like a genius with his move to get a goalie. Tortorella will be fired the players gave up him even though he won a cup , how about Babcock what happens if he looses the first round to Edmonton. Probally with Pat Quinn is that his coaching style was out of sync with today's NHL . Pat Quinn in Tampa who knows anything is possible .

[Marcel B. DesRoches]

Any GM is going to look at Tortorellas way of coaching and handling the media after the game.It seems that any coach who blames everybody but himself in a losing game and publicly crucifies his players Graham isnt the first one he has thrown under the bus.
If you are trying to sign existing players(Brad Richards) and bring new players in to Tampa the 1st question that will be asked is "He still going to be coaching there)
Certainly after winning a Stanley Cup then barely making the playoffs and going out in the 1st round Tortorella had lost the room a long time ago.

[A-Mar]

At least Tortorella is not politically manipulating things through the media. As a Leafs fan I find this bluntness, this honesty refreshing. Its never happened in Toronto, that's for sure. I'm sure Toronto would have been very different this year had Pat Quinn actually fired a few shots at players who needed it (Belfour, Domi, Khavanov)

[Matt]

Tortorella won't get fired. He'll have 20 30 games to prove he hasn't lost the dressing room, and then we'll see. He's a good coach -- he just got horrible goaltending when he needed it most. But can the Bolts afford a good goalie next season? I'd suggest not bringing back Freddy Modin and instead use that money (plus the money saved by letting Graeme go) and sign/trade for someone good. The Bolts can contend again with just a little tweaking.

[Andrew Spencer]

I love The Fonz (a.k.a. John Tortorella). He did the right thing: Told his team's fans exactly how it is.

How un-Quinn like, how un-Leaf like. Yeah John will get canned, but he'll score another gig. Similar to Toronto, The Fonz really was saddled with an imcomplete lineup in many respects.

Quinn must hate Damien Cox for being so right all the time. The very thought of that gives me comfort.