With John Tortorella set to return to Madison Square Garden tonight, here's a look back at his coaching days with the Rangers.
Flyers-Rangers games at the Garden always have an extra morsel of pizzaz about them. And tonight will be no different.
You know, how it goes: call it a we don't like them and they hate us kind of thing; especially tonight with a playoff berth at stake.
The rivalry is rooted back in the early 1970's when coach Fred Shero's Broad Street Bullies pushed around the Rangers and Chief Bully Dave Schultz beat up Rangers D-man Dale Rolfe.
The Bullies aren't bullies any more unless you count their esteemed coach John Tortorella.
Absolutely, one of a kind, Torts is the last of the Old-Time Hockey coaches with a certain purity about him. What he says is unvarnished truth.
"We saw that earlier this year," says The Old Scout, "when Torts ranted and raved when a foe pulled an obvious 'dive' and no call was made."
After the game, John earned a few headlines with a simple statement: "I warn my players – NO DIVING!"
He was tougher on the media when he was coaching the Rangers than he is now although if he doesn't like a question, the newsman who fired it will have to duck John's counterattack.
Once a European correspondent who was covering the UN decided that she'd like to see a Rangers game, which she did.
Post-game, she sat in the front row of the press room and blithely asked Tortorella something roughly equivalent to why old autos had bumpers.
"Next question!"
For some strange reason – as a Ranger – Torts always made time for me after his pre-taping with Sam Rosen. It was for one of my jokes which he appreciated about 70 percent of the time.
As for the other 30 percent, he'd just shake his head, as if I was carrying five heads, and then walk away.
During the Rangers-Devils playoff series when Peter DeBoer coached New Jersey, the Torts-DeBoer shouting matches were a contrast in personalities.
Peter's low-key approach vs. Torts "Bombs-Away" style usually resulted in a most entertaining draw.
No question, the relatively new Flyers high command pulled off a brilliant move hiring John, our New England friend; who still has the accent.
Although his Flyers were picked by most critics to miss the playoffs they've managed to compete hard enough to be a threat to the Blueshirts.
Watch carefully tonight. Lemme know if any Flyer takes a dive. The way you'll know is that John Tortorella won't give that miscreant another shift!
