Former Rangers bench boss, John Tortorella shafted for award

Bruce Cassidy, of the Boston Bruins won coach of the year. He beat out both Alain Vigneault and John Tortorella for the honor. While all three were worthy candidates, Torts should have won it this year hands down.

The Jack Adams award is decided on by the broadcasters and Torts shockingly didn’t have enough first place votes to win. The guy who did, boasted the best team in hockey with the likes of David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron, and Brad Marchand.

Yes, the Bruins had those three players boast 50 points or more with Pastrnak having 95 points. Tort’s Jackets? Not a single player had 50 points this season. Not a single one.

Note: This article first appeared at The Daily Goal Horn

John Tortorella was snubbed!

john tortorella snubbed
John Tortorella (NHLI)

As far as I am concerned, Torts didn’t win this award because folks in the media couldn’t see past their bias and write him in as the winner. Broadcasters are another form of journalists and many of them don’t like it when he doesn’t answer questions.

Bottom line is he was snubbed and that’s the hill I am willing to die on.

There is no way you can deny how he took a team that lost its best player in Artemi Panarin and its starting goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky to a 33-22-15 record. That was good enough to earn a wild card spot.

John Tortorella not even nominated on more than half the ballots

Many will argue how could John Tortorella be snubbed since he was one of the finalists? In my mind it is simple, there were 132 ballots cast and Torts wasn’t even mentioned on more than half of them!

Furthermore, just look at the voting disparity among the top three. Both Cassidy and Vigneault have more first place votes then second place votes and more second place votes then third place votes. Not the case with Torts. He came in third almost as many times as he came in first.

John Tortorella and the media

So why was he snubbed? I present to you his last presser of the season. It lasted a grand total of 51 glorious seconds. I mean come on guys! He just got eliminated and these reporters are asking him questions of what life was like in the bubble? Really!

As Torts is being asked the bubble question the look of absolute consternation on his face is laugh out loud funny. “You know what guys,” Torts began. “I’m not going to get into the touch feely stuff and the moral victories and all that. You guys be safe.”

I mean there are plenty of examples over his career of far worse. However, it is because of this that he didn’t win an award he should’ve won running away.

Snubbed. End of story.

Anthony Scultore is the founder of Forever Blueshirts and has been covering the New York Rangers and the NHL ... More about Anthony Scultore
Mentioned in this article:

More About: