John Tortorella
John Tortorella (* June 24, 1958 in Boston, Massachusetts ) is a retired American professional ice hockey player and current coach. Since June 2013 he is responsible for the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League.
Career
John Tortorella began his career in 1978 when he played for the University of Maine. After three years he left college and played for a year in Sweden before moving to the 1982/83 season in the Atlantic Coast Hockey League with the Erie Golden Blades. In the ACHL he played a total of two years before he went to the Virginia Lancers 1984. In the following two seasons, he showed there good performance, scored 87 and 96 points and finished his career after the summer of 1986.
But Tortorella was the team received and assumed the duties as general manager and coach, and led the Lancers in 1987 equal to the championship of the ACHL. In addition, he was honored by the league as a coach of the year. The Virginia Lancers then joined the All- American Hockey League and Tortorella coached the team for another year.
1988 obliged him the New Haven Nighthawks of the American Hockey League as an assistant coach and the following year he joined the National Hockey League with the Buffalo Sabres. There he also took up the post of assistant coach and worked there until to 1991 under head coach Rick Dudley and then under John Muckler. The Sabres have qualified every year for the play- offs, but they went out only once on the first round.
1995 appointed the Sabres John Tortorella to coach of the Rochester Americans, their farm team in the AHL, and he led them right in the 1995/96 season to win the Calder Cup. After another season in the AHL, he returned to the NHL and joined the Phoenix Coyotes and was there under Jim Schoenfeld assistant coach. In the summer of 1999 he went to the New York Rangers, where he since his time in Buffalo assistant to John Muckler was the second time. This, however, was released shortly before the season ends and Tortorella involved in coaching for the last four games.
But shortly after he left the Rangers and was signed by the Tampa Bay Lightning as assistant coach. On January 6, 2001, he broke Steve Ludzik from as head coach of the Lightning and he built from now on to the young stars Vincent Lecavalier and Brad Richards a competitive team on. In 2003 he reached with them for the first time the play-offs and moved into the second round.
In the 2003 /04 season, the Lightning achieved the best result in its history. They occupied in the regular season in first place in the Eastern Conference and second place in the entire NHL. The first two play-off rounds they survived with only one defeat against eight wins. The final of the Eastern Conference won the Lightning almost against the Philadelphia Flyers in seven games and the Stanley Cup finals led the Calgary Flames 3-2 in the series already, before the Lightning, the remaining two games won and winning the NHL Play-offs could celebrate. Following the season, Tortorella was also Jack Adams Award as the best coach in the league.
After failure of the NHL season 2004/ 05 because of the lockout, the Lightning during 2005 /06 due to the departure of goalkeeper Nikolai Chabibulin, who was an important support at winning the Stanley Cup, only the eighth place and thus the last play achieve off place in the Eastern Conference and dropped out already in the first round of the play -offs. In the following season they reached the play-offs only slightly and failed again in the first round.
The season 2007/ 08 represented a clear setback for the Lightning, who finished last in the league at the end of the season and thus clearly missed the play-offs. The management then drew the consequences and dismissed John Tortorella. This then accepted an offer from the Canadian sports channel TSN, where he served as an expert. After the dismissal Tom Renneys as head coach of the New York Rangers on February 23, 2009 Tortorella was presented on the same day as the new coach of the team. The Tampa Bay Lightning Previously it had issued the release, as it there until the summer of 2009 had a valid contract.
After leaving the Rangers in the playoffs of the 2012/13 season Tortorella was released on May 29, 2013. On 25 June 2013, was introduced as the new head coach of the Vancouver Canucks.