JOHN TORTORELLA SUSPENDED

I can’t decide if this will help or hurt them.

I don’t really understand a man who “punishes” players for not playing hard enough in his own estimation and benching others for not living up to the highest ethical standards (even if their role is to instigate and irritate) yet doesn’t have the self control to ignore a heckler. The NHL found that our fine coach squirted the fan before getting doused with beer. Guess what: find me one heckler that wouldn’t dump their beer on a coach in that situation (notwithstanding that its a waste of a precious good). It looks like Torts is more of a control freak than anything else. Boo.

Avery should play, and be on a line with Gomez and Antropov. Callahan, Dubi and Naslund, followed by Zherdev, Korpi, and Sjostrom. Betts, Orr, Voros to round it out, but not to anchor the f-in powerplay. Drury has a clipped wing and needs to heal, give him a chance, so he can be of use in May, if we get there. He’s not helping anyone on the boards, draws, passing, shooting, etc . . . His goal had an element of trickery, but after listening to his analysis was nothing more than luck.

Clearly Torts was trying to send a message to “his” team by playing a guy he benched for 18 games on the PP (Voros). Clearly he tried to send a message by benching Avery. Clearly he failed his own standards by dumping a water bottle on a fan. Perhaps an apology would have served him better than denial and avoidance. In any event, this hypocrisy leaves me believing that he’s not the right guy to coach my team.