Tortorella: 'I made a huge mistake'

Now that the Rangers' season is over, John Tortorella is ready to acknowledge his ugly confrontation with a Capitals' fan in Game 5 in Washington and his subsequent throwing of a water bottle into the stands and suspension for Game 6 was an embarrassment.

An open Tortorella, who spent 36 minutes meeting with the print and radio media to discuss the just-completed season and his expectations for next season, said he let the organization down.

"It's a bad mistake by me, I regret it," Tortorella said. "I think I put the organization in an embarrassing situation."

Tortorella, who does believe he was spit upon early in the game, said instead of trying to get the Verizon Center's security guards to quell the situation, he should have gone to the on-ice referees and complained and have them handle it, possibly by ejecting the fan or fans.

"I am embarrassed by it," Tortorella said. "I am an intense person, which is a positive but it also turns into a negative at times and that turns into a negative for us in my actions there and I regret it."

Tortorella admitted, though, this was something he was not going to discuss during the series.

"I didn't want to talk to you guys about it the other day, I didn't want it to be more of a distraction than I wanted it to be," Tortorella said. "Was it a distraction? Of course it was. How much it played into that next game, I don't know. I thought we played a good first period and I know we had capable coaches on the bench. You need to ask some of the players about that.

"It can't happen," he added. "I preach discipline. I preach team concept. I am disciplined. I am a team-concept guy and I stepped out of bounds and I made a huge mistake. Do I have warts? You're damned right I do."

Still, Tortorella, at the least, defended what got him angry in the first place, the abuse the fans were heaping upon his players.

"My heart was in the right place," he said. "I was protecting my players. At least I felt I was. But I stepped way out of bounds."

Comments

[Dana Fosburgh]

Hopefully Torts is not sitting back, resting on his laurels for having "at least" made the playoffs. I'd love to hear a rant about only making it to the first round. That's the kind of intensity I'm sure all Rangers fans would like to see!

[Dee Lelie]

Hey Tort-get over yourself. Discipline is discipline no matter what the antagonist is! If he can't take some fans dishing it out and handling it appropriately-key point- he better hike up his skirt Nancy and go to the Midwest. Give it a rest. He is playing the victim. I am not impressed.

[lennynyr]

One thing I wish you and the rest of the media who covers the Rangers would have done was to go after Sather. He is the culprit who stuck both Renney and Torts with an inferior team and used up his cap doing it.

Why no call for him to be fired which is definitely justifiable considering his performance, not only for this season but since he took over in 2000?

Think you all missed the boat on Sather.

Love Torts honesty and willing to admit fault unlike Renney. He has a volatile relationship with the media but as a fan, I don't care as long as he gets his guys to perform.

I think with Torts having all summer to think about Orr's usefulness, he might just want him back. If they can sign Zherdev cheap, they should sign him. We compare him to Kovalev but Alex had some elite seasons. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First order of business is for Sather to sit down with Schoenfeld and Dolan and let Dolan know that he (Sather) will just retain the title of president while Schoenfeld will be the new GM. Of course Dolan would approve that since he loves Glen and is his rubber stamp.

Once that is done, work on getting rid of some of those contracts. Drury and Redden would be the toughest so we are probably stuck with those two. Naslund has just one year so even if we keep him, he'll be gone after the 09-10 season. Gomez might be tradeable but he's locked in for another 5 seasons at a total of $33.5M. What team will be willing to take on that kind of an expense for the limited talents of Gomez?

On another board, a Marleau for Gomez trade was suggested. Would San Jose go for that? Marleau is just due $6.3M for the 09-10 season so SJ would be trading a 1 year contract at $6.3M for a 5 year contract at an average of $6.6M. They would most likely want additional compensation.

Rozsival would be the easiest contract to get rid of but not that easy. If he decides to play in Europe, are we free of his contract? His cap hit is $5M for another 3 seasons. There might be some team interested at $4.33M without us having to take back another contract, maybe a 1st or 2nd rounder in return. That would leave Staal, Girardi and (ugh) Redden for next season with Gilroy, Sags, Sauer, Del Zotto and Potter competing for the other 3 jobs.

With the additional $5M cap availability from Rozi, that provides $8M to cover Callahan, Dubinsky, Korpi, and Sjostrom. That should be enough with hopefully a little left over. The only other considerations would be Betts, Orr, Zherdev and Antropov. Might squeeze Betts and Orr in there but it's going to be very tight for Antropov and Zherdev unless more contracts are shed. Don't see them signing Mara and Morris especially with Redden's $6.5M cap hit still on the books. Will Dolan sit still for having to pay Redden his millions playing for the Hartford Wolfpack to free up that $6.5M? Don't think so.

Naslund's cap hit is $4M. If we trade him, will Grachev be ready to step in his place? Will that be enough to sign Zherdev and/or Antropov? Probably not so keeping Naslund for his final season under contract will allow the Rangers to give Grachev time to futher develop in Hartford.

If Betts isn't signed, Shoe and Korpi make an exceptional PK duo with their speed. Add Drury and Callahan as the 2nd pair and our PK should be just fine. If Orr isn't signed, we need somebody who can play and fight. Byers? Weise? or make a deal for someone like Neil. Hope they sign Orr, they need him even if it's only for one shift a game.

Can't wait for that 3 man management caucus. :)

[bob]

"Bob, a fourth line is a fourth line--they aren't expected to score, they're expected to match up with the oppositions top line or second line. Orr hits people yet you want to dump him. Sjostrom hits people and plays an all around game, yet you want to dump him. Zherdev is a third line forward in this league because he doesn't hit people. He checks more in a game of chess. He will NEVER be more than a 60 point a year guy and this team needs a point a game guy. Lose his salary and collect the draft pick, lose Naslund next year and maybe there's some ducats to get that guy. If Zheredev were half of Kovalev at 24 i'd say keep him. he's not. His 239 points are in 360 games, around .70 per game. And he collected 180 skating for Columbus, which is like being the tallest midget in the circus. He had zero points in the playoffs despite being fifth in shots. His confidence is shot? if all it takes is the coach yelling at him a little bit to get his potential then he's never going to be the guy who hits or scores enough. At four minutes more per game last season he had the same amount of points as this season.
We should be bigger and we should be better scorers, those guys aren't available to us and if we're going to invest in the youngsters from Hartford, we need to clear out guys like Zherdev. your credibility on this topic is questionable because you think Rissmiller should be playing"

1. Sjostrom hits? You call those hits?
2. Zherdev is a third liner because he doesn't hit? Usually 3rd liners hit. You make no sense
3.Drury and Gomez I believe average less than .70 points per game.
4. I never said Rissmiller SHOULD be playing, but he is an option after a solid season in AHL and he is bigger and more skilled and physical than Betts.

[Chris]

I honestly thought Redden played much better down the stretch and think he is a solid 2nd line PP d-man, especially if paired with a stay-at-home d-man 5-on-5. His compensation is unfathomable, but it is what it is.

I think Drury will concede as a third line center. I don't think Gomez will be traded either as Dubinsky and him are the only two who can break-out of the defensive zone. If Naslund can play as he did in the playoffs, I think you welcome him back for his final year. If all of the young fenoms are playing next year, this team will need some veterans and leaders, and can't just be traded for a young playmaker that may or may not live up to the hype (i.e. Zherdev down the stretch).

[LI Joe]

lenny - i saw that gomez number you quoted was wrong. his avg is closer to $ 7.4 mm. i'm sure sj will not trade marleau for him unless we throw in some very good stuff like a number one pick for starters

cap hits by year and by player - does not show actual salary as some are front loaded. cap hits are based on avg salary. not completely correct since the reporters have been saying that rissmiller is a 3 yr deal not 1 yr.

http://www.outsidethegarden.com/salaries.asp

[lennynyr]

LI Joe, here's Gomez's numbers for the next 5 years:

8M, 8M, 7.5M, 5.5M, 4.5M.

Adds up to 33.5M which is 6.6M average over 5 years.

[lennynyr]

The source I used, http://www.nhlnumbers.com/overview.php?team=NYR doesn't agree with OTG's numbers. We need a third site and use a majority wins.

[LI Joe]

lenny the numbers you use are his actual numbers in terms of real cash. salary cap hit is based on avg of whole contract. the past 2 years gomez made at least $ 8 mm a yr but the cap hit again was the avg of the entire contract. this shows avg hit. if you click on show player salaries on the right side near the top that will show the actual cash salary - by yr. but the actual cash salary is not the cap hit.

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/cap-central/team.php?team=NYR

[lennynyr]

LI Joe, but if he goes to a new team, isn't the cap hit the average $$ he gets each season starting with the new team or does it revert back to when he signed the contract with the Rangers? I was assuming the former.

[LI Joe]

lenny - no its the latter. for example z's cap hit to the rangers was approx $ 2.5 mm this yr even though he was paid about $ 3.2 mm this yr. the $ 2.5 mm was the avg of his contract. front loading a contract does make it easier to trade a guy to a team that is more concerned about real cash hits and not cap hits.

[Sec67RowG]

Bob, i wasn't even defending Gomez and Drury, but the fact is we're stuck with them. here's the juice, career stats:
Gomez: .81 pts per game
Drury: .73 pts per game
Zherdev: .65 pts per game
Season stats are virtually identical.
Zherdev is NOT HALF OF KOVALEV at the same point in his career and at $3M-$4M per season, there's at least two-three players out there or on the current roster who would be better investments for the same ducats and produce the same numbers and probably be able to play defense and not be encumbered by a purse when they hit people. Zherdev played himself into being a third line center by disappearing at a key point in the season and playoffs. His production didn't get better with the Rangers when he played on the top two lines all season, so to call him a scorer is a stretch. He may have talent, but he's on his way to a journeyman's career.

And Rissmiller had a great season at Hartford? He had the exact same season he had from 2002-2006 in the minors. he's 31 and he's not an NHL player and he's not an AHL player. It happens. But to waste a million bucks on him when you could give Orr $750K is a no-brainer.

We're in a division with Carter/Richards/Giroux; Malkin/Crosby; Parise/Elias/Langenbrunner and have to play Broduer, Fleury and Thomas 20 times a year. Zherdev ain't making those guys shake in their skates. And neither is Naslund. And neither is Drury or Gomez.

[Sec67RowG]

That's combined dollars. We could get 2-3 players for the money it would take to keep Zherdev, including bringing up some of the precious youngsters. And we do have a cap hit with Gilory.

Lenny NYR, good analysis. Bob, go back to rooting for the Islanders.

[graves9]

sec great analysis. I agree with pretty much everything you said.