Canucks hire fired Rangers coach John Tortorella

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) ? The Vancouver Canucks hired John Tortorella to be their new coach on Tuesday.

Tortorella was recently fired by the New York Rangers after they lost to the Boston Bruins in the second round of the playoffs in five games.

The 55-year-old Tortorella replaces former Canucks coach Alain Vigneault, who took over for him as the Rangers coach last week.

Tortorella has been an NHL coach since 2001. He led the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup championship in 2004.

The Boston native said during a news conference on Tuesday that he has longed to coach a team in Canada.

"To be involved with this, I couldn't be more excited," Tortorella said. "It's always something I thought about and wanted the opportunity."

As coach of the Rangers the past five seasons, Tortorella led New York to the playoffs three times.

"John has coached championship teams and is passionate about winning," Canucks general manager Mike Gillis said in a statement. "He has a proven ability to bring the best out of his players and we believe he has all of the qualities to bring our team success."

Tortorella has reached the playoffs eight times and won the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year in 2004. Known for his fiery and often abrasive style, he was let go four days after the Rangers' season ended against the Eastern Conference champion Bruins.

"I know how important that part of the job is here," Tortorella said of dealing with the media. "When you lose your job, you crawl into a hole a little bit, you reassess yourself, you try to learn, and I have certainly gone through that process.

"Have I made mistakes? Absolutely. I make my own bed in this type of situation with the perception of myself in the media. But I know how important it is with this job here, especially in this city and this province."

However, the demanding coach said he won't change his stance on player accountability, and said everyone including scoring stars Henrik and Daniel Sedin will have a lot asked of them ? including killing penalties and blocking shots.

"We have a really good leadership group ... but we have not won the Stanley Cup," he said. "There's going to be more asked of (the players), and that starts from the twins right on down."

Tortorella was an assistant with the Rangers in the 1999-2000 season and took over for John Muckler as coach for the final four games. Tortorella later spent seven seasons as coach of the Lightning before returning to the Rangers in February 2009 after head coach Tom Renney was fired.

Vigneault was let go after the Canucks were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the second straight year. He guided the Canucks to a berth in the Stanley Cup Final in 2011 and helped the team win two Presidents' trophies and six Northwest Division titles.

Tortorella, the career leader in wins by a U.S.-born coach with 410, served as an assistant for the American team that won silver at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. He also handled head coaching duties for Team USA at the 2008 world championship and served as an assistant coach at the event in 2005.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/canucks-hire-fired-rangers-coach-john-tortorella-163913195.html

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