With the Rangers off to such a promising start, much attention has been paid to all the new players, and rightfully so; but what of this new coach? Despite a short stint at the end of last year he is also new. So who is John Tortorella really, and what mark will he make on the Rangers?

For the moment lets see past the fiery personality - that most don't bother to look behind - to find the man and the coach. Perhaps best known as the coach of the Tampa Bay Lighting, Tortorella took a moribund franchise and turned it into a Champion. But he also did something that was less tangible perhaps, but no less remarkable. His former GM Jay Feester had this to say: "He did something I think is very, very difficult for anyone to do, but certainly difficult for a coach to do. That's change the culture...this was a country club, a retirement home. It was a place players came to retire...John came in and changed the culture, changed the way we do business, and the ATTITUDE. And in doing, he raised expectations".  While much has been made of how he challenged the face-of-the-franchise - Vinny Lecavalier, not enough has been made of the fact he turned a perennial last place team into a club that made the playoffs in 4 of his 6 years and won a cup.

What does this portend for the Rangers? His words at the opening of this year's camp were interesting. " We need a different culture here. "We're not out to injure them. But you find out about where people are through activity, anxiety and the situations you put them through, and at the end you see if you have someone who is ready to be a Ranger."

Ready to be a Ranger! When has that question been asked so forcefully, so directly, and in equal measure to rookies and millionaires alike, by a coach of the Rangers? I submit to you that the phrase "ready to be a Ranger" now has a different meaning in New York.

If you listen closely you can already hear John Tortorella making his mark on this team.  Consistently during interviews his players speak of ‘the process" and of "embracing success".  Perhaps a nebulous term, "the process" is something Tortorella passionately believes in.  In the Christian Klemash book "How To Succeed in the Game of Life", Tortorella describes "the process" like this: "There's always a process ... to be successful. " He goes on, "...success is looking at the ultimate goal, setting your goal as a team or an individual, going through the process of the ups and downs of trying to attain that goal, and finally getting it done." Failure, Tortorella said, was " allowing the process to beat you."  When Tortorella speaks of "the process" you can hear echoes of John Wooden telling his teams "there are no shortcuts to success." More importantly this team is listening and "getting it."

On the desk of Coach Tortorella sits a piece of crystal engraved with the following phrase: " Dare to Do what you Dare to Dream."  Perhaps this phrase, more than any other, encapsulates the man. There is no back down in Tortorella, no compromising on commitment, no wavering from the goal, no fear of success. These are traits he attempts to instill in his teams.  Make no mistake; he is not here to put up a good fight or to earn respectability.  He is here to win.  To teach these men under his charge how to navigate "the process" of becoming champions in life and hockey, while daring to do what they dare to dream.  So as this season unfolds with all its ups and downs, watch closely and listen intently for the echoes of John Tortorella in his player's actions and his player's words. Something new is emerging here.

We are all just starting "this process" together but you can already feel (and hear) the culture starting to change. On Sunday October 11th in a 3-0 win over the Ducks, this team got a glimpse of what it can be. The faithful got a glimpse too. Certainly there will also be challenging times ahead - but that's the point. It's all part of the process. Embrace the success. Now is the time to dare to dream, to dare to do.  Break free of the ghosts of seasons past spent waiting for the other shoe to drop and embrace success. Do you dare to dream? Do you dare to do? Are you on-board? Or as Coach Tortorella would put it; ARE YOU READY TO BE A RANGER?