It seems like all this guy ever does is complain about something when it doesn't go his way. I remember him whining during the 2004 playoffs, when the Tampa Bay Lightning won the freaking Stanley Cup, and after the game last night between his New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers, he had some other things to whine about.
His main beef wasn't the fact that the Flyers shut out the Rangers for the second straight time. No, that would have been what a responsible coach wanted to talk about after the game. His problem was that Dan Carcillo had decided to pick a fight with Marian Gaborik, who is the best player that the Rangers have. Normally, I would agree with an assessment like that. I mean, you don't see the best players on teams getting into many fights. I don't think I ever saw Wayne Gretzky drop the gloves. There's the rub, though. While Tortorella wants to complain about Carcillo going after Gaborik, he doesn't mention that Gaborik actually dropped his gloves first in the middle of a scrum.
Clearly, Carcillo isn't going to just stand there and get punched in the face. If you've ever seen a game where Carcillo plays for more than a few minutes, you know that isn't going to be the case. I've made it clear before that I don't like the way Dan Carcillo plays. I think the way of the goon in hockey is well past it's time, and teams like the Flyers that keep a guy like that around are only hurting themselves, but that's another story for another time. Last night, Carcillo did nothing wrong. When an opposing player drops the gloves first, that's an invitation to start fighting, and that's what Carcillo did. I don't care if it was Marian Gaborik, Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby or Wayne Gretzky. I would be saying the same thing today if Carcillo responded the same way. That's just how it is in hockey. You can't drop the gloves and not expect to get punched, especially if you're a finesse player.
Hey, Tortorella can talk all he wants about honor in the game, but when you have Sean Avery on your team, you shouldn't talk that much. I mean, it was only last year when Avery was basically blackballed from the Dallas Stars for talking about someone's "sloppy seconds." Oh, and Avery got into two fights last night, too. Yes, they were against Scott Hartnell and Dan Carcillo, but he still fought twice. Also, the last time I checked, Carcillo doesn't have a rule against anything he's done, while Avery does. Oh, and then there's the fact that the Rangers have Donald Brashear on their team as well. I'm not going to bad mouth Brashear, because he's a former Flyer, and I don't roll that way, but the fact of the matter is that Brashear is the same type of player that Carcillo is. I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see Brashear go after Jeff Carter or Danny Briere the next time the Flyers and the Rangers play. Then I want to see Tortorella talk about honor.
One last thing about this, and then I'm going to put it to bed. Where the hell were Gaborik's teammates during this whole fight? If Gaborik's really the best player on the Rangers, then why didn't anyone else on the ice step in while Carcillo was using his face as a heavy bag? There was at least one New York player that could have stepped in a few times. Instead, he just stood and watched. It's insane to think that someone could just stand there and watch his teammate get punched in the face, but that's what happened. If you want to look at someone who doesn't have honor, and apparently doesn't respect his teammates, then you should look at that guy. I'm not a fighter myself, but if I was standing next to one of my friends and I saw him getting punched in the face, I would certainly try and help him out. I think that's an obvious human reaction.
Lost in all of this fighting is the fact that the Flyers have quietly moved into the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference. I mentioned it about a week ago, but right now, the Flyers are playing their best hockey of the season. The team is 10-3-1 in their last 14 games, and have climbed to within two points of the Rangers for the six seed in the conference. Ray Emery has returned from injury, and he's 2-1 in his first three starts back, including last night's shutout against the Rangers. I'm not saying that this team is going to make a deep run into the playoffs, but if they keep playing like they are right now, I wouldn't put anything past them. At least they're playing like a decent hockey team again, and if that means I have to put up with Dan Carcillo fighting in almost every game, I guess I can do that.
Here's Tortorella's little rant, if you're interested:
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