News Article: Arron Asham on Torts and his future

[RangerBoy]

Asham says he enjoyed 'Torts', but says some of the players were getting fed up with his act.

"He's very intense and he wants to get the most out of his players," said Asham. "He does a decent job of doing that, but when you're in the same spot for a certain amount of years and you have the same players, the guys seem to get fed up with all the screaming and stuff.

"Having a new face coming in and having a little more fun will be good. It was pretty intense in the dressing room, guys were a little uptight, but now we have a new guy and we can start laughing and having some fun."

No tears were shed when Torts was fired.

After having been put on waivers earlier in the month and going unclaimed, Asham says, barring a trade, he'll be at Rangers' training camp battling for a spot on the team's fourth line.

"It was more of a salary thing for signing guys in the next year. They haven't given up on me. I'm still going back and playing for the Rangers," he said.

"Sure, I would have been happy if somebody picked me up. But it's just part of the business. I wasn't hurt or upset or anything like that."

The summer cap gave the Rangers flexibility and they still put Asham on waivers. Asham sounds a little confused. The Rangers can assign him to the AHL in October and save $925,000 in cap space. Take a $75,000 cap hit.

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/07/18/arron-asham-some-rangers-were-fed-up-with-john-tortorellas-act

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[nyr2k2]

Sounds about right. This is what tends to happen with particularly "intense" coaches (aka *******s). Winning mitigates the effects. We didn't win enough, and the guys got tired.

 

[silverfish]

Sounds about right. This is what tends to happen with particularly "intense" coaches (aka *******s). Winning mitigates the effects. We didn't win enough, and the guys got tired.

Pretty much.

If things don't change around the Rangers, should be some pretty great competition for that bottom-6.

 

[RangerBoy]

Asham is in jeopardy when training camp ends and the Rangers need to shed salary. $70.73M cap between July 5 and the last day of training camp. Then its $64.3M.

 

[Steve Kournianos]

Being a jerk head coach isn't a bad thing if you have vocal players who step up as real leaders among the group.

Richards never took that role. The rest of the guys are either too young or too scared to tell Torts a mutiny was brewing.

Strahan and Eli did that to Coughlin in 2006, and the won a Super Bowl the next season. Messier had numerous run ins with Keenan, basically telling him to leave the team the hell alone.

Whatever. Torts is gone. Having "fun" doesn't mean jack in the preseason. They need to have fun and be loose even when they are at their lowest.

 

[Hunter Gathers]

Being a jerk head coach isn't a bad thing if you have vocal players who step up as real leaders among the group.

Richards never took that role. The rest of the guys are either too young or too scared to tell Torts a mutiny was brewing.

Strahan and Eli did that to Coughlin in 2006, and the won a Super Bowl the next season. Messier had numerous run ins with Keenan, basically telling him to leave the team the hell alone.

This. So much this.

 

[Ola]

Being a jerk head coach isn't a bad thing if you have vocal players who step up as real leaders among the group.

Richards never took that role. The rest of the guys are either too young or too scared to tell Torts a mutiny was brewing.

Strahan and Eli did that to Coughlin in 2006, and the won a Super Bowl the next season. Messier had numerous run ins with Keenan, basically telling him to leave the team the hell alone.

Whatever. Torts is gone. Having "fun" doesn't mean jack in the preseason. They need to have fun and be loose even when they are at their lowest.

In general, I think people underrate how professional player's are these days.

Asham of course have a point. But I think the big problem with Torts was that he went in his own direction in terms of X and Os and there were zero indications that Torts was right and every other coach more or less in this league was wrong.

You need to be consequent and you need to be perfect defensively, but we by design did not take the puck to the net before we got it below the hashmarks, we played with the biggest possible marginals to get the puck the length of the ice. In these areas we went 180‘ in the opposite directions as the successful teams in this league. It's covered by many experts. I raised a flag about this being the problem for Torts in Tampa when he signed here in NY. It's been an ongoing story.

I don't think Torts was a bad leader. I think many admired for being an extremely strong leader. But, leadership is ONLY a TOOL to achieve something.

Our players played our game plan to PERFECTION in the POs. But it got us nowhere. Washington slaughtered us most of the series. Boston slaughtered us from the drop of the puck in G1. Our players completely sacrifized themselves.

I definitely believe that's why people turned on Torts. The combination of the above.

 

[Bleed Ranger Blue]

Being a jerk head coach isn't a bad thing if you have vocal players who step up as real leaders among the group.

Richards never took that role. The rest of the guys are either too young or too scared to tell Torts a mutiny was brewing.

Strahan and Eli did that to Coughlin in 2006, and the won a Super Bowl the next season. Messier had numerous run ins with Keenan, basically telling him to leave the team the hell alone.

Whatever. Torts is gone. Having "fun" doesn't mean jack in the preseason. They need to have fun and be loose even when they are at their lowest.

Isnt that part of Callahan's job?

 

[offdacrossbar]

Torts was a class a clown

His teams were boring and uptight

He conducted himself like the dewsche that he is

He lost me after his stick swinging freak out moment

Some of us wanted him gone along time ago

 

[Hunter Gathers]

Torts was a class a clown

His teams were boring and uptight

He conducted himself like the dewsche that he is

He lost me after his stick swinging freak out moment

Some of us wanted him gone along time ago

And he nearly got this team to the Cup finals. Why is it that some people on this board can only think of negative things to say about the best coach this team has had in 20 years? Is it that hard to give credit where credit is due?

 

[nyrleetch]

I agree with Asham to some extent. Although and I've bashed Torts here before, he takes way too much blame. The one thing I didn't agree with was Asham also getting benched down 3-0 in the playoffs. Not that it would've made such a difference but I thought he was playing well.

Won't mind if he comes back or is gone due to cap reasons. He seems like a player who plays better when it matters the most.

 

[Bleed Ranger Blue]

I think theres deep foundational problems when a few mentally weak players can cause the type of upheaval we've seen over these past few months. And for all the leadership Callahan shows on the ice, he sure doesnt seem to be doing much of a captain's job off of it.

 

[OverTheCap]

On the topic of leadership, it seems like there was a lack of communication on behalf of the players. Tortorella said he was never approached by the players about his playing style or harsh demeanor. He's not the most approachable person, so the players could have gone to the front office/Sather during the season. However, this did not happen either - management found out the players were unhappy from their exit interviews.

I understand there are no Messiers on this team, but someone has to have the balls to speak up if there's a problem. The leaders on this team have to communicate with their teammates, the coach, and management. There's a lot more to leadership than laying it out there on the ice.

 

[Bleed Ranger Blue]

On the topic of leadership, it seems like there was a lack of communication on behalf of the players. Tortorella said he was never approached by the players about his playing style or harsh demeanor. He's not the most approachable person, so the players could have gone to the front office/Sather during the season. However, this did not happen either - management found out the players were unhappy from their exit interviews.

I understand there are no Messiers on this team, but someone has to have the balls to speak up if there's a problem. The leaders on this team have to communicate with their teammates, the coach, and management. There's a lot more to leadership than laying it out there on the ice.

Agreed 100%. I think the only thing that became public was Richards and Callahan approached Tortorella about running them too hard in the short camp. Poor players . Its a god damned joke that Richards would say that considering the season he wound up having.

But to your point, these things should've been addressed in house. It really bothers me that players squealed to the GM to get their way -- in an argument that amounted to "Hes mean, and we're not having fun." What a joke.

 

[JohnC]

The legend lives on

 

[Thirty One]

Isnt that part of Callahan's job?

No. Credit goes to Callahan. Blame goes to Richards.

Are you new?

 

[OverTheCap]

Agreed 100%. I think the only thing that became public was Richards and Callahan approached Tortorella about running them too hard in the short camp. Poor players . Its a god damned joke that Richards would say that considering the season he wound up having.

But to your point, these things should've been addressed in house. It really bothers me that players squealed to the GM to get their way -- in an argument that amounted to "Hes mean, and we're not having fun." What a joke.

Callahan, Girardi, Staal, and Lundqvist all witnessed the dysfunction that went on when the players quit on Renney - I hope they don't think that's the way to go about dealing with a coach when things go south. There were leadership issues in that locker room and it was not an environment that any team should seek to emulate if they have problems with a coach.

I assumed Richards would be bought out when Torts was fired, but now that he hasn't, part of me thinks that maybe he was one of the players those that turned on Torts. That would be absolutely shameful considering how much Torts vouched for Richards.

 

[Steve Kournianos]

Isnt that part of Callahan's job?

Absolutely, but Richards probably had Torts' ear moreso than Callahan, and had that veteran Cup-winning resume which you would think would make him one of the go-to guys in that room.

Callahan didn't have an easy Captaincy under Torts. Torts created a bully-like atmosphere and it seems as if both Callahan and Richards just sat back and took beatings.

Callahan doesn't seem like the kind of person who would challenge a guy like Torts. The two examples I used regarding Coughlin and Keenan (and also Buck Showalter) shows that team leadership can step up to their coach and positive results come out of it.

 

[BlueshirtBlitz]

Being a jerk head coach isn't a bad thing if you have vocal players who step up as real leaders among the group.

Richards never took that role. The rest of the guys are either too young or too scared to tell Torts a mutiny was brewing.

Strahan and Eli did that to Coughlin in 2006, and the won a Super Bowl the next season. Messier had numerous run ins with Keenan, basically telling him to leave the team the hell alone.

Whatever. Torts is gone. Having "fun" doesn't mean jack in the preseason. They need to have fun and be loose even when they are at their lowest.

I'm with you.

If the players got "tired" of Torts' act, I hope they also got tired of their inability to score goals in the ****ing playoffs.

Agreed 100%. I think the only thing that became public was Richards and Callahan approached Tortorella about running them too hard in the short camp. Poor players . Its a god damned joke that Richards would say that considering the season he wound up having.

But to your point, these things should've been addressed in house. It really bothers me that players squealed to the GM to get their way -- in an argument that amounted to "Hes mean, and we're not having fun." What a joke.

This as well. I can't help but feel anger towards the players. They better perform their ***** off with AV now that they can "have fun." Ridiculous.

 

[BlueshirtBlitz]

Torts was a class a clown

His teams were boring and uptight

He conducted himself like the dewsche that he is

He lost me after his stick swinging freak out moment

Some of us wanted him gone along time ago

The only thing that comes across as clown-like here are our players. Richards has one of the worst years of his careers and he throws a hissy fit about Torts being too much of a hardass. And he complained about training camp when he was painfully out of shape! That's absolutely insane.

 

[Hunter Gathers]

I think theres deep foundational problems when a few mentally weak players can cause the type of upheaval we've seen over these past few months. And for all the leadership Callahan shows on the ice, he sure doesnt seem to be doing much of a captain's job off of it.

This.

 

[offdacrossbar]

while i understand torts wasnt the one not scoring goals for this team and it is the job of the actual players to kinda do so, the environment around this team seems to have been tension filled and anyone thinking that that kind of atmosphere doesnt effect on ice production is fooling themselves.

torts thrives in chaos situations. hes most comfortable excercising his control over his team with an iron fist and a potential temper tantrum looming at any time.

his system assured minimal scoring chances and fewer goals. his teams were boring, lifeless and devoid of creativity or chemistry. his powerplay nothing more than an advantage for the opponent.

that may work with kids or teams that have zero talent, but with professional hockey players like we have on this roster... the end result cannot be anything more than what it is.

i cannot give any credit to torts at all. his personality doesnt afford that.

if not for one henrik lundqvist, his record as coach with the nyr would have been less than .500, and thats just plain bad. just like his system.

 

[we want cup]

while i understand torts wasnt the one not scoring goals for this team and it is the job of the actual players to kinda do so, the environment around this team seems to have been tension filled and anyone thinking that that kind of atmosphere doesnt effect on ice production is fooling themselves.

torts thrives in chaos situations. hes most comfortable excercising his control over his team with an iron fist and a potential temper tantrum looming at any time.

his system assured minimal scoring chances and fewer goals. his teams were boring, lifeless and devoid of creativity or chemistry. his powerplay nothing more than an advantage for the opponent.

that may work with kids or teams that have zero talent, but with professional hockey players like we have on this roster... the end result cannot be anything more than what it is.

i cannot give any credit to torts at all. his personality doesnt afford that.

if not for one henrik lundqvist, his record as coach with the nyr would have been less than .500, and thats just plain bad. just like his system.

If not for Henrik Lundqvist, a coaching staff with Scotty Bowman, Jacques Lemaire, and a reincarnated Jack Adams probably couldn't have gotten a .500 record out of those teams.

 

[lucky13]

I didn't read through the whole thread...but maybe its possible that the players felt that they couldn't win playing this way...that they went as far as torts could go with this...group....Roger Nielson comes to mind....n we know how that turned out

 

[SingnBluesOnBroadway]

I didn't read through the whole thread...but maybe its possible that the players felt that they couldn't win playing this way...that they went as far as torts could go with this...group....Roger Nielson comes to mind....n we know how that turned out

Maybe. But wasn't Tom Renney supposed to have been the Roger Nielson?