After the New York Rangers were bounced from the playoffs by the Boston Bruins in five games, hockey pundits and fans alike knew that change was coming to Broadway.
With that said, no one thought it would come this fast as the team fired head coach John Tortorella on Wednesday. Despite arguing he was worth keeping around next season, the organization did not share the same feelings.
While the reasons for his firing have not been made public, it’s easy to understand why the Rangers made the move.
For starters, Tortorella didn’t receive consistent production from his offence in four-plus seasons on Broadway. Under Tortorella the team never finished in the top 10 in goals for and ended up placing 15th, 11th, 16th and 16th, respectively.
Considering the Rangers have had the likes of Artem Anisimov, Vaclav Prospal, Brandon Dubinsky, Marian Gaborik, Brad Richards, Rick Nash, Derek Stepan, Brian Boyle and others, the lack of offence is alarming. These players know how to put the puck in the net and yet, under Tortorella, were not able to do so with any regularity.
This was especially a problem in the post-season both this season and last, and if a team can’t score goals in the playoffs they won’t last very long.
Another reason Tortorella was likely fired was because of the style of play he implemented. While the Rangers were one of the best teams defensively under Tortorella, it came at the cost of offence.
Night in and night out under Tortorella, the Rangers would play a sound defensive game by blocking shots, breaking up passes and killing penalties. This style of play was one of the main reasons why the Rangers were consistently in the top five in goals against the last three seasons.
While defensive play is extremely important in the NHL, a team needs offence to succeed. More often than not, it appeared that Tortorella’s defensive style held back the likes of Gaborik, Richards and Nash.
This was a problem for the Rangers because these three players were counted on to produce on a nightly basis and help the team win games. However, because of Tortorella’s system, it was hard to do so with any consistency.
Lastly, it would not surprise us if the organization took Lundqvist’s words to heart after locker clean out day. Lundqvist was clearly upset and mentioned that he felt the team took a step back and that he did not quite know what the future holds for him once his contract expires after next season.
Lundqvist is the most important part of the Rangers organization. His play alone helped put the team back on the map after the lockout and without Lundqvist between the pipes, who knows what the Rangers would have been able to accomplish, if anything.
If you put all of these things together, it is easy to see why Tortorella was let go.
It was clear that with Tortorella at the helm, the team could not go any further. Tortorella was a tire that simply went flat.