Two pre-competition games into the World Cup and John Tortorella has issued a challenge to a player through the media.
Max Pacioretty was on the receiving end of Tortorella’s message following Team USA’s loss to Team Canada. The Montreal Canadiens captain didn’t have a point, and only one shot on goal and one hit in 10:05 of ice time in Saturday’s game.
So Torts, when asked, did what Torts has a tendency to do: Give us something to talk about. Nothing really subtle about it from Team USA’s head coach.
“He’s OK. Yeah. But I need more out of him,” said Tortorella, as per Sportsnet. “I know how he can play. And this is what happens in this type of tournament and the team make-up. You’re not going to get your 20 minutes. If other people are going, they tend to take some ice time. You look at ... Canada’s team, your minutes are going to be down.
“But Max hasn’t ... he’s got to give me some reason to give him more minutes here. So we’ll see where it goes. We know he’s a really good player. Great kid. But we’ve just got to get a little more out of him.”
In the first pre-tournament game against Canada on Friday, Pacioretty had one shot on goal in 14:51 of ice time.
Team USA finishes its trio of tune-up games on Tuesday, as they face Finland.
Now, over to Pacioretty for a response.