– Jos ei häntä tunne, voisi ajatella, että hän on ihan sekaisin. Mutta kahden kesken hän oli niin asiallinen ja mukava mies. Toki olihan siellä vanhan liiton asioita. Hän teki päätöksen siirtyä sivuun ja nyt sitten katsotaan, mitä keksitään uuden valmentajan kanssa, Laine sanoo.
Vanhasta liitosta uuteen aikaan
Tortorellan kanssa yhteinen ajanjakso päättyi tunnelmissa “hymyillään kun tavataan”, nyt Columbuksessa mietitään, millainen on Brad Larsenin ajanjakso. Tuleeko apuvalmentajasta päävalmentajana enemmän uutta liittoa kuin vanhaa. Laineen toiveissa olisi pieni tunnelman ja toiminnan tuuletus. Liikkeelle lähdetään puhtaalta pöydältä.
– Niin ainakin puhuttiin, kun palaveria oli. Saa nähdä, onko vanhaa liittoa luvassa, mutta joissain asioissa olisi kiva, jos olisi vähän freesimpää ilmettä, Laine toivoo.
Above is the bit about coaching, here is my quick and rough translation:
-If you don't know him (Torts), you could think he's completely bonkers. But one-on-one he was so proper and nice man. Sure, there were some old school things. He made the decision to step aside and now we see what we come up with the new coach, Laine says.
Laine hopes for a bit of refresh of 'mood' and 'acting/operating' (culture/the way things are done). Everything will begin with a clean slate.
-At least that's what we talked about, when we had a meeting. We'll see if it's going to be 'old school', but in some things it would be nice to have a bit fresher outlook.
(And a bit about staying in Columbus: )
It's useless to ask NHL-players about their contract negotiations, because the agents deal with them in secret until it's done and made public. After all the commotion in Columbus the waves have settled down and staying in Columbus could be possible.
-Despite everything, Laine says and continues by giving praise to everyone in the Jackets organization from dressing room to front office.
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He isn't very specific and is quite laid back in the usual style for his interviews, but the way it reads to me he got along with Tortorella just fine as a person and perhaps even liked him, at least I can't read anything negative about him even between the lines. As for coaching, something seemed to rub him in the wrong way a bit, he keeps talking about 'old school' in a bit negative way, maybe he just feels Torts took things a bit too far in his "old school" approach, whatever that means.
I could guess and speculate based on my own opinions on what all a good coach does for their players, but I'll skip on that and let everyone make up their own mind. Besides there's not that much you can tell from a written interview like this and a lot of it is up to the journalist to try and keep it honest. It's YLE so they don't usually try to spin things or make too many conclusions by themselves, but Laine really doesn't say that much.