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NHL October 2015 |OT| Dan Cleary was re-signed

Socreges

Banned
Jack Adams and Stanley Cup winner.

I'm not a Tortorella fan, and his tenure in Vancouver was disastrous (especially watching the success Vigneault has had with NYR), but he will be a much better short term fit for the BJs, who play a hardworking style that fits his approach to the game.
Roy won the Jack Adams as well.

Tortorella obviously has a great coaching record and that deserves some merit but fuck'im. I prefer to evaluate him on recent performance. He made so many mistakes with the Canucks, it was breathtaking. The BJs could be an opportunity for him to rebuild his reputation or it could be another team that he mishandles. We'll see.
 

Foggy

Member
The Torts hire is one of those NHL moves where every single outside source believes it to be bat shit crazy.

I thought Kekäläinen was suppose to be a really smart hockey guy too.

He is in regards to talent evaluation, particularly with the draft. But I've heard John Davidson is big on Torts so I wouldn't be shocked if he was the one who really pushed for it. At the presser, he said all the right things. He reiterated that he's coming in to listen and lean on existing leadership to get the last 2 years' identity back. Also remarking how much the game has changed and needed his blinders lifted after that year off. All talk, but at least he didn't depants a nervous beat writer at the presser.
 

aidan

Hugo Award Winning Author and Editor
He is in regards to talent evaluation, particularly with the draft. But I've heard John Davidson is big on Torts so I wouldn't be shocked if he was the one who really pushed for it. At the presser, he said all the right things. He reiterated that he's coming in to listen and lean on existing leadership to get the last 2 years' identity back. Also remarking how much the game has changed and needed his blinders lifted after that year off. All talk, but at least he didn't depants a nervous beat writer at the presser.

Eloquent and likable at his first presser? Hired by ownership, rather than the GM? This sounds familiar.
 

iLLmAtlc

Member
Torts is so good at talking so we shouldn't be surprised he keeps getting chances. Guys like him and Mike Keenan are the masters at getting chances they probably shouldn't. People eventually caught up to iron mike of course but not before he squeezed out one more job in Calgary.
 

Red_Man

I Was There! Official L Receiver 2/12/2016
Field is pretty dry then. Torts is probably the best available.
Not sure if this is sarcasm or not.

Why do they only have the old, lackluster coaches to choose from? There's a lot of good to great coaches out there, but teams refuse to go outside their bubble for whatever reason.
 

aidan

Hugo Award Winning Author and Editor
Not sure if this is sarcasm or not.

Why do they only have the old, lackluster coaches to choose from? There's a lot of good to great coaches out there, but teams refuse to go outside their bubble for whatever reason.

It can be tough to kickstart a team mid-season with a rookie coach, and I can't imagine there's a team in the league that would allow their assistants to interview with another team mid-season.

That said, I want John Stevens to get another shot.
 

Parch

Member
Didn't some Vancouver players say it was 3 weeks into the season before Torts talked to them one-on-one? He'd rather argue with the media than talk to his players.
Blue Jackets will probably have wait till XMas to get a hello out of him.
 
Not sure if this is sarcasm or not.

Why do they only have the old, lackluster coaches to choose from? There's a lot of good to great coaches out there, but teams refuse to go outside their bubble for whatever reason.

It can be tough to kickstart a team mid-season with a rookie coach, and I can't imagine there's a team in the league that would allow their assistants to interview with another team mid-season.

That said, I want John Stevens to get another shot.

This, and it is a move to salvage the season not prolong it. Plus at the start of season which team is going to allow their assistants to interview and leave for another team? Which Jr. or Euro team will allow their coach to bail at the start of the season? I'm not familiar with the BJs farm or how viable their coaching is at the AHL level. Going out of the box is great in the offseason where the team can interview and find someone they like, but this a situation where every day is sinking the ship. There is really only a very small pool to draw from and it is largely from the unemployed coaches line.
 

Parch

Member
Guys like him and Mike Keenan are the masters at getting chances they probably shouldn't. People eventually caught up to iron mike of course but not before he squeezed out one more job in Calgary.
Keenan is the next has-been to get an undeserved NHL job. He's had some recent success in Russia.
 

Socreges

Banned
Eloquent and likable at his first presser? Hired by ownership, rather than the GM? This sounds familiar.
Was going to say this. He was saying "all the right things" before his Vancouver tenure as well.

This promises to be interesting. Maybe taking over a 0-7 team instead of a former elite team will work out better.

Or maybe it will be an unmitigated disaster.
 

Foggy

Member
Didn't some Vancouver players say it was 3 weeks into the season before Torts talked to them one-on-one? He'd rather argue with the media than talk to his players.
Blue Jackets will probably have wait till XMas to get a hello out of him.

Dubinsky was actually the first guy he talked to today.
 

Tabris

Member
Poor Columbus going to have a bunch of broken feet soon.

You get a broken foot, you get a broken foot, you all get broken feet!!! /oprah
 

Parch

Member
When I looked at the Columbus roster before the season, I saw a playoff team. There's a lot of talent on that team so I can see how this is going to play out. Tortorella will show up and take all the credit for the "turnaround", but all it really is is the team finally playing up to it's potential.
Bad start aside, Columbus is not a bad team. Tortorello will be a phony savior.
 

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aidan

Hugo Award Winning Author and Editor
I just remembered that John Tortorella lived in Point Roberts (an American community physically attached to the lower mainland) so that he wouldn't have to pay Canadian taxes while working for the Canucks.
 

Red_Man

I Was There! Official L Receiver 2/12/2016
Other options include: Two guys who were average in the AHL last year, and guy who has played 2 games in North America.
Don't the Sabres have a guy in the AHL who could be ready for some NHL time? I think Friedman mentioned it in an article
 
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