John Tortorella one-upped himself on Saturday night. Dude flipped his lid for the world to see and he's going to have to pay a heavy price for his irrational, destructive, unprofessional behavior.
What a piece of work.
The fans paid to see a hckey game between bitter divisional rivals and they witnessed a gong show the likes of which the NHL hasn't seen since the mid-'70s..
The Vancouver Cauncks and Calgary Flames combined for 204 PIMs, multiple player ejections. and conducted a clinic on ethics and the wrong way to promote the NHL brand on international TV. It resembled a 1980s WWF "Battle Royale" with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan fighting Jimmy Hart. Art imitating life imitating art.
Whacko stuff, man!
Scene set: Calgary coach Bob Hartley started heayweights Kevin Westgarth and Brian McGrattan against presumably the Sedin line. Torts had last change and decided to fight fire with fire. Earlier in the week, the Canucks were thugged by the LA Kings to which Ryan Kesler had to lay a beat down on his close friend Dustin Brown, who had run over and injured Roberto Luongo the ast time the two teams had met. Revenge was exacted. Torts vowed that his team will not back down from the goon intimidation.
On Saturday night, it was more of the same.
Two seconds into the Saturday’s contest, Vancouver and Calgary had already combined for 142 penalty minutes. Calgary’s Kevin Westgarth, Chris Butler, Blair Jones, and Ladislav Smid had all been handed game misconducts. On the Canucks side, Kellan Lain (first NHL Game), Dale Weise, and Kevin Bieksa were all thrown out of the game.
Tortorella went postal during the donneybrook and wanted to tear a huge swath from Hartley's hide.
Thanks, Canucks TV
Then, Tortarella dumped a freighter of gasoline on the inferno when he did the unthinkable: he tried to fight through the entire Flames squad to get to Hartley in the Flames dressing room. Needless to say, Torts was met by some stiff opposition, namely Brian McGrattan and goaltending coach Clink Malarchuk. Pushes, shoves, punches and coarse language were exchanged, then cooler heads prevailed. Hockey Night In Canada showed a live shot of Tortarella standing all alone, in the dark, on the Canucks bench with three minutes remaining in the intermission.
Tortarella manned up and addressed his irrational behavior in his postgame presser.
My take:
Tortarella knows the rules. He knows all about The Code. Its admirable and respectable that he wanted to protect the Sedins from Westgarth and McGarttan. He and Hartkley have a beef that dates back to earlier in their coaching careers. I get it. I don't acceptor condone it, but I get it.Where Torts broke the "law" is when he tried to literally fight the entire Flames team as he tried to bust into their room to accost their coach Hartley. Rather than heed the advice of his assistant coaches to go to the room and cool off for 17 minutes during the intermission, Torts thought he was Clint Eastwood in "Dirty Harry" taking on an army by himself. The lone wolf. That's where he'll crash and burn. His public temper tantrum not only devalues him, but it also embarrassed his team, his fans, his GM and owners.
Torts will have a hearing on Monday. Expect him to get slapped with a heavy fine and suspension.
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Tyler Myers has gone back to the future this season. Ever since Ted Nolan assumed control of the Sabres bench on November 13, Myers has reverted back to his 2010 Calder Trophy winning form. Myers was a lost soul under the Ron Rolston regime. He struggled to maintain his confidence during the final stages of the Lindy Ruff era in Buffalo.
Gone are the days that he would avoid contact with opposing forwards. Now, he's blowing them up and throwing to the ice already-eaten chicken wing bones. Under Rolston and Ruff, Myers wasn't sure if/when he should join the rush. His constant indecision and hesitations would cause him to get caught in no man's land and to give up of man attempts against Miller. Not anymore. Myers is leading the rush down the ice and he's getting emotionally and physically involved in the game. We haven't seen that spirit here since his rookie of the year season.
On Saturday night, in his 300th NHL game, Myers scored the game's first goal at the 59 second mark of the first period.
He tied the game with a PPG at the 19:36 mark of regulation.
Myers is wisely choosing his moments to rush the puck. He's also holding the puck longer while he's free-wheeling through all three zones. Tyler Myers of old is back.
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While Myers has traveled back in time, Mikhail Grigorenko has traveled back to Quebec.
11,391 raucous Remparts fans filled the home rink to watch the return of Grigo. He did not disappoint!
Grigorenko scored the game winning goal and assisted on Adam Erne's first period goal. He was 23-5 on draws and was +1 on the score sheet. For all of his efforts, Grigo was aptly rewarded with the first star of the game.
****
Another game. Another sensational save by Ryan Miller.
Nick Foligno and RJ Umberger will see Ryan Miller in their nightmares for a long time to come after this doozy!
Thanks, Sabres.com
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