Former Rangers star details ‘up-and-down’ relationship with John Tortorella
Marian Gaborik’s three-and-a-half-year tenure with the New York Rangers was nothing if not interesting.
Gaborik donned the red, white, and blue for 255 games with the Rangers from 2009-13, after he signed a five-year, $37.5 million contract ahead of the 2009-10 season
Bringing blazing speed and a dynamic scoring touch to a team that desperately needed an offensive playmaker, Gaborik eclipsed the 40-goal mark twice and paced the Rangers in points for two of his three full seasons.
The Slovakian native set the bar high in his first year in New York, notching 42 goals and a career-high 86 points. In 2011-12, he earned his third and final All-Star nod with 41 goals and 76 points, and won MVP honors at the 2012 All-Star Game.
Gaborik’s 42-goal campaign in 2009-10 ranks fourth among Rangers in the 21st century, trailing only Jaromir Jagr (54), Chris Kreider (52), and Artemi Panarin (49).
But Gaborik’s legacy in New York is as much defined by his production as it is by a tumultuous relationship with former Rangers coach John Tortorella.
“Yeah, it was up and down,” Gaborik admitted last week on Spittin’ Chiclets. “But he played the top guys a lot. He just tried to squeeze the best out of you that he could.”
Gaborik and Tortorella frequently butted heads, as the star forward’s finesse-style game often clashed with the hard-nosed, defense-oriented system that Tortorella favored.
One of their most infamous battles came against the New Jersey Devils in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, when Tortorella benched his star winger during Game 2 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Final.
“We almost got into a fight,” Gaborik recalled. “I went to block a shot — and I was in a shooting lane. It was going wide, and somebody tipped it in.”
The shot, off the stick of Devils blue-liner Bryce Salvador, was redirected by fourth-line center Ryan Carter, beating Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Moments before Carter’s score, which tied the game 2-2 at 18:09 of the second period, Gaborik also failed to clear the puck from New York’s zone.
“During the intermission, I went to see [athletic trainer Jim Ramsey]. He stretched me out, and ‘Torts’ storms in and he’s saying, ‘you’ve gotta f—ing block the shot.’ I was like, ‘I was in a shooting lane’, and we were this close,” Gaborik said with a smile, pinching his thumb and index finger together.
“And I remember if Mike Rupp wasn’t in the training room, I don’t know what would’ve happened. He stepped in between us and kinda got in the way.”
It’s a familiar tale for Tortorella, who earned a love-hate reputation as a fiery coach who held his players to high standards, particularly on defense.
“I remember walking into the [locker] room, and guys were looking at me because they could hear every f—ing single word,” chuckled Gaborik.
Tortorella benched Gaborik, New York’s leading scorer that season with 41 goals, for the majority of the third period. New Jersey’s David Clarkson delivered the game-deciding goal at 2:31 of the third, and the Devils ultimately won the series in six games, advancing to the Stanley Cup Final on Adam Henrique’s overtime winner.
“Sometimes it was heated,” Gaborik reflected. “But at the same time, I understand you had to have really thick skin to play for Torts because he just tried to push the guys to the limits. He just tried to take [the] maximum that you can bring.”
Tortorella was well known for holding his players to task, both on and off the ice — something Gaborik affirmed during the nearly 90-minute interview.
“About Torts, I remember after s—-y game, coming down to the rink next day, you know that you’re gonna get a f—ing hour of video,” he divulged. “When he was doing his video clips, he used to have subtitles on the bottom before the clip started. So it was something like this: ‘No. 10 — where the f— you think you’re going?’, and then he just ripped you apart.
“At the end of the day, you laugh about it, but it was not very pleasant back then.”
Former Rangers star Marian Gaborik believes ‘everybody should play in New York’
Gaborik’s run with the Rangers concluded on somewhat of a sour note. Thirty-five games into the 2012-13 season, the Rangers traded Gaborik to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a package headlined by center Derrick Brassard.
Though Columbus was one of 10 teams on his no-trade list, Gaborik told Spittin’ Chiclets hosts Ryan Whitney, Paul Bissonette, and Keith Yandle that he agreed to sign off on the deal, citing that he no longer felt wanted by the organization.
Despite the disappointing ending, Gaborik maintains positive feelings about his Rangers tenure.
“It was fun. I say everybody should play in New York to get experience of playing in the Big Apple, and live there,” he asserted. “It was amazing. Madison Square Garden and the organization — top notch.”
Gaborik also acknowledged that Tortorella’s coaching style helped prepare him to play for Los Angeles Kings coach Darryl Sutter. Under Sutter, Gaborik helped the Kings lift the Stanley Cup in 2014, defeating the Rangers in five games.
Marian Gaborik had ‘no doubt’ Kings would defeat Rangers in 2014 Stanley Cup Final
Gaborik was traded to the Kings in March 2014, and recorded five goals and 16 points in 19 regular-season games. But his biggest impact came in the playoffs.
The 31-year-old led all postseason skaters with 14 goals and recorded 22 points in 26 games.
Though it was Alain Vigneault — not Tortorella — behind the bench for the Rangers, Gaborik still enacted revenge on his former team. He scored twice in the Stanley Cup Final and delivered the third-period equalizer in Game 5 to set up Alec Martinez’s Cup-clinching goal in double overtime.
“That was a topic journalists were asking me, playing New York in the Final,” Gaborik recalled. “Coming into that series, I had no f—ing doubt that we were gonna win. It was amazing feeling I had with myself and the team that there’s no chance that we [were] gonna f— this up.”
Ironically, New York had the upper hand initially.
“Then the first game, we’re playing at home — after 15 minutes, we could’ve been down 3-0,” he recollected. “They had like two breakaways, [Chris] Kreider flying, [Benoit] Pouliot flying, they were like flying. [Jonathan Quick] stood on his head, obviously they hit a couple posts as well, but we got kind of lucky.”
Los Angeles stormed back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Rangers 3-2 in overtime. The Kings jumped out to a 3-0 series lead before getting the job done at home in Game 5.
It was an emotional victory for Gaborik, who pondered retiring amid injury issues at the beginning of the 2013-14 season.
“I was going to honestly hang it up,” Gaborik revealed, only returning to the NHL after receiving words of encouragement from his wife. “And six months later, I was f—ing holding the Stanley Cup.”
After coming within two wins of the Stanley Cup Final with the Rangers in 2011-12, Gaborik hoisted his first and only Stanley Cup Trophy in a 17-year, 1035-game NHL career.
“I thought that ‘I’m never gonna win the cup’ when you’re at that age,” he admitted. “With everything that was going on, you really appreciate it that you win later in your career than if you win your first or second year. It was the best feeling ever in sports.”
It was a feeling Lundqvist and that era of Rangers squads never got to experience. The 2013-14 campaign marks New York’s only appearance in the Stanley Cup Final since raising a banner in 1994.
Having to watch Gaborik lift the trophy after shipping him away one season prior was merely salt on the wound.
