Thursday, May 17, 2012

Look in the mirror coach

So while everybody is looking to explain why the New York Rangers lost yet another game 2 of a playoff series; there really is just one person to blame and that is John Tortorella himself.

After what 84 seconds of the post game press conference where the answers were either "no" or "we will keep it in the room," the question that has to be asked i where is John Tortorella's own accountability here?

Three straight playoff series where the Rangers have not once held home ice advantage and it makes you wonder why is this keep happening? We can blame individual players for individual plays but there comes a point in time when the coaching staff itself needs to be blamed for the same cycle of events.

Sure the New Jersey Devils deserved the 3-2 win that they got tonight because they took full advantage of the Ranger mistakes. You can't sit there and say that the refs blew this game because terrible officiating is the norm for the National Hockey League.

What you can say is that every time the Rangers have had a chance to make their own lives easier in this playoff run, they have found ways to shoot themselves in the rear end. Sorry Devil fans but you didn't win this game, the Rangers gave it to you.

And that right there is the biggest problem with the New York Rangers; in seven playoff losses this year the main culprit has been a failure by the team to make "smart" decisions. Yes Marion Gaborik deserved his benching because players of his caliber should not make the kind of mistakes that he made costing the Rangers their lead in the second period.

But again where is John Tortorella's accountability for this happening yet again? That part is easy to answer as Tortorella is a hell of a con man pulling a game of three card monte on the media. While the media is so quick to be complaining about John Tortorella's "bullying act," they need to blame themselves too.

Stop complaining about how unprofessional John Tortorella is and ask how come this team keeps making the same bad choices and mistakes that keep costing them games. Give John Tortorella credit for using his act to bully so many into silence.

You want to call John Tortorella a bully; then ask yourself how to deal with bullies? You stand up to them and you hold them accountable for their actions.

When you watch one of these post-game press conferences and you see that the media just sits there looking scared to ask questions then Tortorella is winning that battle. You don't have to get an answer from John Tortorella as to why the Rangers keep giving away games.

Odds are that John Tortorella himself has no idea as to why this keeps happening because let's be honest, a good coach would have figured out what's causing these meltdowns and done something about them.

They have faced Ottawa (8th seed), Washington (7th seed) and now New Jersey (6th seed) and yet that the Rangers cannot protect their home ice is unacceptable. You could not ask for a better pathway to the Stanley Cup than this.

How many times has the bottom of the conference taken out the biggest challengers you were supposed to face?

At this point in time, anything less than the Stanley Cup has to be seen as unacceptable.

But yet this team is its own worst enemy and because it's the same mistakes being made by the same people then you have to point the finger at the coach.

It's the coach's job to find ways to get 60 minutes worth of effort out of his players and 16 games into the playoffs season with not one 60 minute effort.

The only thing that has been consistent about the Rangers during the playoffs is a con job that John Tortorella has been pulling on the media. It's a shame they don't give out trophies for that.

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Beating a dead horse


I should just simply post this along the side of the wall here on the blog. If you want to talk hockey more than welcome to but if you think your words hurt then you're going to be disappointed.

Some people think that being wrong is a hard thing to acknowledge and maybe for them it is. We believe in Gordie Clark's philosophies when it comes to scouting, drafting, and player development.

One of the first lessons that Gordie taught me was about dealing with critics and it is a lesson I'm glad he taught me. It has to do with when you are wrong in this part of the hockey world.

"People will only remember your mistakes, they will never remember the ones you got right. Have I made mistakes? Oh yes, I have made some big Boo-Boos in my career"

This is coming from a guy who has found and drafted some of the biggest names in hockey over the last 20 some odd years. That a Gordie Clark can say such a thing in front of quite honestly, some of the most schizophrenic fans in hockey says a lot.

It's funny how time revises people's memories because when the Rangers first picked then high school player Chris Kreider in the 2009 NHL entry draft the reaction was super negative. Even yours truly wanted the Rangers to select Jordan Caron thinking that I was so smart that I knew what Gordie Clark was going to do.

I had the position right, I had the idea and goal right but I didn't do all of my homework. Had I at the time then I would've discovered that Glen Sather does not use first-round picks on players from the QMJHL (you're more than welcome to go count as believe it is 2 players out of somewhere near 30 picks)

The Chris Kreider question about whether it was worth burning a year off his entry-level contract won't be answered until we all find out what happens with the Rangers in the playoffs.

If they win the cup, then you bet it was well worth it. And I won't have any problem saying how wrong I was.

But the part that I doubt you the "Internet tough guy" will understand is that here the thinking is not about today, but rather how everything affects tomorrow. There are several reasons why even today still not 100% sold on burning that one year.

Too bad most of you "tough guys" are unwilling to be adult enough to engage in a conversation. I gladly exchange views with anybody willing to talk to me via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter.

Thank you for stopping by though because when you do you put money in my pocket and I could use it.

(Tortorella- New York Rangers)

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