OffThePost.org

The CanucksArmy guys have used the term "tactician" numerous times to describe him, so that is something I like if true. One of the critcisms of Vigneault that I did feel was warranted was the idea that he was poor at making adjustments. I think we did see that time and again, so I wouldn't mind a guy who at least tries.

[quote="Fogghorn"]well Torts figures the Sedin's will be on the PK which he says means they need to block shots.....
Aaaand that's the type of thing I'm afraid of. Shot-blocking teams are very annoying to play against, but the numbers repeatedly show that it doesn't help win games. You have a good goalie. Use him! Don't risk injury.

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He was speaking within context of the PK, pretty much anyone not named Bure playing on the PK needs to block shots. Whether he collapses the wingers to block shots on 5 on 5 with Vancouver remains to be seen. Hopefully not, the team has a lot of talent, especially on the D and as Scotty Bowman says if you collapse the wings it makes it much harder to generate defense. Just too much talent on this team to play like that in my mind.

I'm just concerned that he is not going to understand western conference travel and wear the players out and yes risk the Sedin's to injury on a blocked shot.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Torts has 4 rescued dogs - dude just won over the fan base at least until game 1

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GO CANUCKS GO!

Didn't know that--I like him even more now.

post on it here http://vansunsportsblogs.com/2013/06/21/expected-new-canucks-head-coach-john-tortorella-is-on-twitter-loves-dogs/

He was saying on the radio that it's about to be 5, he confessed they make lousy surrogates, every time they take a dog in they are unable to give it up after.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Doesn't want to crate and fly them so he's going to drive them across country. Gotta like his love of his animals.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

as someone who has driven from Vancouver to New York and Back. Its an amazing trip! he will love it.

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"if your parachute doesn't open up while skydiving, don't worry, you have the rest of your life to figure it out"

Torts has adapted his style to the team??? He had Nash, Gaborik & Richards. Many thought it was the best line in the NHL- before the season started. How did it end? They traded Gaborik, whose stats increased big time after being moved, rumors abound about Richards being bought out, and fans now hate Nash because he was useless in the playoffs. Torts had a great offensively talented team, and a perennial Vezina candidate in net. He should have gone run & gun, letting Lundqvist deal with the shots coming back. Instead, he ran a defense-first style, telling a bunch of 40 goal guys to hustle back & block shots. Idiotic. He lost the team, they lost in the 2nd round.
I liked him before he coached the Rangers & I got to see a lot of his antics. If he's sworn off the blustering vs the media, fine. But he needs to learn to work with the personnel he's got, instead of ruining guys' games & watching them rebound when traded.
As an outsider I'll find this intriguing.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

"Under John Tortella" parody, nicely done


http://vansunsportsblogs.com/2013/06/28/under-john-tortorella-is-the-rihanna-parody-weve-all-been-waiting-for-video/

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Drops the bomb on tweeting......finally someone not afraid to tell how supremely self dellusional it is.

http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2013 ... er=ya5nbcs

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No AI has been used in the making of this post

Obviously there's a self-promotional aspect to it, but that's not why I signed up. It's the quickest way possible to get news--sportswriters can tweet right there at the presser or during a game.

And there's nothing wrong with players using it as a promotional tool, provided they aren't tools themselves.

Let's face it, Torts is just a micromanaging dick. He may be a good coach, but he's a dick.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck- ... --nhl.html

An interesting piece here on shot-blocking in general, because the stats don't generally reflect what you think. You'd assume the Rangers would've had a lot more injuries and generally poor possession stats these last few years, but the numbers tell a different story. Of course the Nucks just lost a key player to shot blocking, so...

Honestly never thought I'd say this but I'm warming to the sensitive new age guy that is HC John Tortorella.

What I've seen and heard so far seems generally positive. He has introduced a new system that seems to be slowly catching on. The early returns look pretty good as the team seems to be doing well during their first month, when that hasn't exactly been a hallmark of AV-led teams in October.

• He's demanded that his players play an honest, aggressive fore-checking style in the offensive zone, and more of man-to-man coverage in the defensive zone.
• The aggressive style seems to be working well as this team seems to be always in the game even if down by one or two goals. I can't recall the last time AV's Canucks came back from a two goal deficit to win a game.
• I think the new defensive style still needs work as they seem to be giving up the early goals and are constantly skating uphill in games.
• Hamhuis' struggles this early in the season are particularly alarming; I wonder though if it's the style of defense that hasn't been the best fit for him so there's been a lot of on-the-jerb learning... The upside of course is that Garrison has been playing very well, and Tanev and especially Stanton are performing above expectations.
• He demanded that his team cut out the antics for which it has retained a poor reputation. Sadly, they are still paying for those past sins (see Edler suspension). With one notable exception, even Kesler seems to have cut down on the diving.
• In interviews, you can see he has very little patience for the media, but he's trying. And I can also see that he's just a six game slump from completely going off on reporters, but I think that's because he won't tolerate unfair criticism of his players. From what I've heard from the players' interviews, he's actually actively encouraging them and generally being positive. So far.
• The number of injuries so far (Burrows, Hansen, Schroeder, Booth (is anyone really surprised by this), and Weise) is somewhat alarming but I think that seems to be par for the course on this team. I was concerned that his emphasis on shot-blocking from his forwards might contribute more but it doesn't appear to be so.
• I'm not too worried about the goaltending; Luongo seems to always be better after the first month and with the change in defensive schemes, there's bound to be an adjustment period.
• Like most of us, I'm thrilled that he's able to actually motivate players. Perhaps it's true that the player-led mentality that AV brought in really was no longer welcomed by the team.
• If falling behind early in games continues as a trend, then as the wear and tear of an 82-game schedule begins to break down the core team players' resolve, I worry that they'll run out of pushback. I'm not certain that guys like Richardson, Santorelli and Stanton can be the difference-makers over the long-run.

Some interesting quotes from Botchford:

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-trian ... -right-now

Geez, Alex, what'd you do?

He didn't clear the D-zone on the boards and was super soft on his checking, not strong on the puck with only a five foot dump out required - which lead to the Rangers 3rd goal (I think).

Brilliant piece of work.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

That was F'ing awesome.

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Agree.....good find.

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No AI has been used in the making of this post

Nice!

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GO CANUCKS GO!