BOSTON – The name is derived from the Italian “tortora,” meaning turtledove, and “ella” a suffix meaning small.
John Tortorella – the small turtle dove. Perfect, isn’t it?
Who exactly will the Vancouver Canucks be announcing as their 17th head coach on Tuesday afternoon? A cute and cuddly Torts? Or the guy we see cussing into the camera lens, or going at it with grizzled New York reporter Larry Brooks.
It’s the perfect dichotomy – isn’t it? – for a man with two distinct personalities.
Tortorella can be engaging one moment, antagonistic the next. He can win with skill in Tampa, and lose touch with his skill players in New York.
He’ll show utter contempt towards the media as a head coach, then take a job on a TV media panel when he’s out of work. That makes him either a hypocrite or a guy who can roll with the punches.
Discuss among yourselves.
Today, however, Tortorella becomes the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, apparently hand-picked by ownership as a butt-kicker who will make life tougher on the under-achieving Canucks.
It’s his first Western Conference head coaching gig, a fresh start in a new land. And since Monday was Tortorella’s 55th birthday, we’re willing to start fresh too.
No preconceptions from this scribe, despite Tortorella’s narcissistic behaviour in New York. No delving into past squabbles (except this one time, our favourite, when Bobby Clarke exclaimed: “Ah, the Great Tortellini. There are no mirrors in HIS house! It’s always someone else’s fault.”)
Nope, let’s start with fresh questions and we’ll let the answers unfold:
• Does Vancouver get the coach who presided over a Tampa Lightning club that won a Stanley Cup on speed and skill? Or is he the coach whose Rangers were so dump-and-chase dull that Glen Sather couldn’t stand to watch it any more in New York?
(We predict Tampa).
• How will Tortorella handle the daily media scrutiny of a major Canadian market? The Rangers are big in New York, but they are one of several pro teams in the area. The Canucks are the Yankees in Vancouver, and there are no Giants, Jets, Mets or Islanders to defray the attention. (Sorry B.C. Lions.)
(We predict a strong, cooperative start, but if the New York media drove Tortorella to rudeness, the sheer number of questions and frequency of podium duties in Vancouver will get to Torts by Dec. 1. Then it’ll be, “Sn-aaap city!”
• Most importantly, how will Tortorella get along with the Sedins? If Marian Gaborik and Mike Richards couldn’t produce under Tortorella’s shot-blocking reign in New York, what happens when Tortorella walks into the Sedins’ room in Vancouver?
That question, folks, represents the great unknown.
They are gracious beyond belief, these two pending UFA’s who have one more year left on their Vancouver contracts. But you know the Brothers Sedin have already been briefed by Rangers Swedish goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who was not a fan of Tortorella’s.
If the Sedins don’t produce, Vancouver doesn’t make the playoffs – that we know for certain. But their game is their game, and no coach is going to try to change them at age 33, which they will be on Sept. 26.
Would he?
“He’s a smart, veteran coach,” an NHL head coach we spoke to said on the weekend. “He’ll look at the lineup he has in Vancouver and adjust. If you want to predict the game he’ll play, don’t think New York Rangers. Think about the teams he had in Tampa.”
Vancouver skates too well to be a dump-and-chase team. Also, a new job is the perfect opportunity for a coach to change the way he relates to players somewhat (see: Toronto, Randy Carlyle.)
Tortorella always preaches that every man on his roster – from Player 1 to Player 20 – has to buy in to his plan. That mantra implodes the moment one of the star players is allowed to wander from that game plan because his offence is so badly needed. Once the supporting cast sees that there are, in fact, two sets of rules, the coach’s credibility is shot.
So Tortorella will have to play a system the Sedins are comfortable with. But what players like Jannik Hansen and Alex Edler, whose games are not heavy? Or Ryan Kesler, who has become the poster child for a team that has simply found itself swimming in too much drama for its own good?
If Kesler is unable to regain form, we predict a difficult relationship. Alternatively, if Tortorella gets the healthy, productive Kesler, they already have a good relationship from their days together with Team USA.
There are varying personalities in this dressing room, as there are on all 30 teams. But this core of the Sedins, Kevin Bieksa, Kesler, Edler and Burrows has been together a long time.
Tortorella will have to get inside of that core, and do his coaching from inside the trust circle.
He brings a lot of baggage to Vancouver, and is met there by a roster without much time to get it right.
Will it work? Will it be a disaster?
Here’s our final answer: Perhaps Torts should have taken a year off to decompress. The powder keg that is a sliding Vancouver club, combined with the volatility of the new coach and a difficult media market, could make for more unneeded drama in Vancouver, not less.
The timing, in this case, might not be perfect.