"You tell 'em I'M coming... and HELL's COMING WITH ME, you hear?"
As the dust still settles from the major upheaval yesterday when Glen Sather shoved Tom Renney from off the top of the runaway horse and carriage, it will now be the rambunctious John Tortorella that will be taking over the reins. The Rangers' hopes for their fourth straight post-season appearance have been on a catastrophic downward spiral the last two months and it was apparent that ole Tom Renney had just simply lost control. Also fired was Perry Pearn who will be replaced by Jim Schoenfeld while Mike Pelino and Benoit Allaire will continue on, for now.
One has to wonder what was going through Renney's head in his final moments as he watched Harry Howell's and Andy Bathgate's numbers be raised on Sunday night to a collection of empty seats and a hostile crowd. He had to know the axe was going to fall at any moment.
Should Renney be the brunt of all the blame? Absolutely not, it was Glen Sather himself that set the table for the disaster that this season is seemingly headed right towards. Tom Renney was instrumental in turning the Rangers post season drought around and brought a classy, calm demeanor to the Rangers’ bench that spawned three playoff runs.
Also instrumental in those three playoff berths was Jaromir Jagr whom Renney was forced to be without this season. Instead Renney had a team that was lacking in star power, size and motivation. His easy going manner and his unwillingness or inability to hold those making the most money accountable for their poor performances is what ultimately led to his doom yesterday. Glen Sather still owns a large responsibility for the results of this season. Will he be held accountable at any point? Only time and more importantly revenue will tell.
As for Tom Renney, perhaps he just became the wrong coach for the wrong team. He will end up somewhere and will have his redemption, of that I have no doubt.
When the Rangers head to Toronto tomorrow it will be under a new coach, one with… well let's just say a different philosophy and temperament from the old coach. Where Tom Renney was known for his cool, collected, defense-first coaching style, John Tortorella is known for his fiery outbursts and hard-nosed offensive style. Just ask Larry Brooks...
John Tortorella will have quite a job in cleaning up this lawless town. However, is anyone more suitable for breaking this team's lethargic rut? Or at the very least he will be punishing them for it. Where Renney shied from calling out his players and always looked for the silver lining, John Tortorella will not hesitate from expressing his dissatisfaction with the team.
Drury, Naslund, Gomez and Redden will have a rude awakening when Tortorella steps behind the bench for the first time. Tortorella will not hesitate to bench and strip players of their letters. I'm sure Vincent Lecavalier can attest to that, then again Lecavalier also has a shiny Stanley Cup ring to show for it.
The Rangers currently reside in 6th place, only 2 points behind is Carolina who is looking in from 9th place and 2 points ahead is the 4th place Philadelphia. So the Rangers are still in the thick of things. My question is with the March 4th trade deadline date 7 days away, is a mere week enough time for Tortorella to truly assess to what he needs Sather to bring in? More on that question would be how will that Sather / Tortorella relationship work after the brief honeymoon period? Sather has steered clear of coaches similar to Tortorella for a reason. Also, how will Tortorella handle Sean Avery IF it does indeed work out that Avery will be rejoining the team?
Should lead for some interesting days ahead of us… if nothing else the final 21 games will not be boring to watch.
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