Update, 4:29 p.m.:
Here’s video of Torts…
Original Post:
Rick Carpiniello at the Rangers Report has John Tortorella press conference…
On why Marian Gaborik struggled…
“I have no idea. You’ll have to ask him. Again, I don’t want to … I know that’s a big topic here, but I’m not going to dissect it completely. Some of that belongs between Gabby and I. So all I’m tell you guys on the subject of Gabby is he knows he didn’t play up to his standard, we know, and he wants to get back to it. And I always look at players. When I see a young player improving, when he’s a young guy, it’s promising because he’s improving. When I see a guy play at a level, you know that he has the ability to get back there, and I believe Gabby will.”
Who surprised him this season?
“You start with the two kids who are playing 3 and 4 on our defense in McDonagh and Sauer. McDonagh coming out of college, Michael Sauer really having an injury-prone year the prior year and stepped right into camp and played very well at a very tough position. Stepan comes out, and we forget he’s right out of college. We didn’t know if he was going to be here or in Hartford or whatever. He had a very good year. He found it a different life in the playoffs. There was a different animal there. Brian Boyle, as I said to guys all year long, I thought he was going to Hartford. He had a really good year. Anisimov struggled toward the end of the year, I thought struggled in the playoffs. But for a young man, he’s just beginning to understand what it is to be a pro, I thought he had some growth. I probably missed some guys. But we grew. It was a team that found its identity and stuck with it. And, again, we need to keep getting better, keep adding to that foundation.”
On Michael Del Zotto getting back to the level he was as a rookie, and being the power play quarterback:
“There’s a number of building blocks with Michael, and a number of defensemen that had pretty good rookie years ended up taking a step backwards. You accept that, and maybe change some things, and I don’t want to get into specifics, but something has to change and you embrace the process. Because it’s not an easy position to play. And I’m really anxious to see Michael, first of all get him healthy, and really anxious to see him in camp again. He’s going to get a fair whack at it again in camp and I think there’s mental maturity that goes with it. And as each player goes through the ups and downs that Michael has, I think he’ll mature. I know I use it ad nauseum, the process. But that’s what it is. These are young people. This is a young team that is still going through the process and for some of them, it’s been a little herky jerky along the way, but that’s still a process. It’s how you handle those situations.”
On if there comes a point where they say, “We’ve got a lot of kids now, we’ve laid the foundation, we’ve got a lot of second/third-line depth … maybe now we can trade some tomorrow for today”:
“It doesn’t have to be a trade, but if that right piece is there, maybe in free agency, yeah. Because I think we, and I felt we really stuck with it this year through the trading deadline. We kept our kids and the kids kept on growing, so I think our foundation has grown. If there’s an opportunity to add that piece that isn’t a kid, that will help you in a position, sure. But let’s not upset the building process of getting rid of all our kids for a ‘Maybe.’ I don’t think it has to be in a trade. It could be free agency. I haven’t looked at the free agency list (ED. NOTE: I thought about calling B.S. on him when he said that). We’ll have to look at that and that’s what we’re just starting to do now. But I agree with you. There’s timing in this stuff here. And I think as we’ve added a lot of kids this year and they’ve grown into some pretty big pieces to our team, you’ve got to look at that, maybe that top-line player, that top skilled guy. Sure, we’re going to look at that guy.”
…great insight by Torts and of course amazing job by Carp getting it to us.
…would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on what Torts is saying.
Remember to follow me on Twitter & Facebook or e-mail me at [email protected].
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
