Remember last week when Canucks general manager Mike Gillis went on the radio and promised to “get back to the fundamentals and principles” in which he believes — specifically, an “up-beat, puck-possession, move-the-puck quickly, force-teams-into-mistakes, high-transition game” -- and pretty much everyone took it as a direct shot at head coach John Tortorella?
Well, according to the Vancouver Sun, Gillis “privately asserted” the next day that “his comments were not intended as an attack or judgment on his coach.”
Which would tend to support the less-salacious argument we posed Thursday that Gillis was, in fact, admonishing the club’s ill-fated change of direction that started before Tortorella was even hired.
Again, the notion that Torts was the one leading the charge in the Canucks' style change is just not true. He was a result.
— Jason Brough 🙁 (@SadClubCommish) April 6, 2014
Now, that being said, Gillis definitely did send a message with his remarks that anyone who wasn’t on board with his new/old vision would be “changed.”
It’s also entirely possible that Gillis, upon watching the Canucks fall apart in January, approached Tortorella about adjusting the team’s style and the two didn’t see eye to eye.
Which would tend to support what the New York Post’s Larry Brooks wrote in a column that was penned while the Rangers were in Vancouver:
Tortorella’s narrow vision has done him and his team in this year. He has become the worst kind of zealot behind the bench, believing his way is the only way to win games regardless of his playing personnel, even if that means pounding square pegs into round holes. He is a zealot, a true believer that grinding, blocking shots and packing the defensive end is the one and only route to success.
Maybe that’s just Brooks’ opinion, and his alone. But we’d wager it was based on a few conversations he had with people in the know.
Bottom line: if Gillis isn’t fired at the end of the season (yes, a big if), Tortorella will have to be open to widening his vision; otherwise, it’s hard to see how he keeps his job.
Gillis did make sure to mention Thursday that “everyone thought Alain Vigneault couldn’t change from a defensive-style coach to an offensive-style coach. If given the resources and if the players are committed to it, I think any coach can coach the team that he has.”
Related: On Canucks’ style of play, Torts accuses critics of ignorance