Canucks fire coach Tortorella

Vigneault now leads the New York Rangers, Tortorella's former team. New York is playing in the second round of this season's playoffs.

“Today we are making an important change in the direction of our team,” Canucks president of hockey operations Trevor Linden said in a statement. “On behalf of the entire organization, we extend our thanks to John, Mike and their families for their commitment to the Canucks and wish them the very best.”

“We have a lot of important work to accomplish this off-season as we build our management and coaching staffs, improve our roster and connect with our fans,” added Linden. “Our general manager search is well underway and we will begin assessing head coaching candidates immediately.”

Tortorella's firing is the latest move in a busy off-season for the Canucks. General manager Mike Gillis was fired in early April and the team named former Canucks captain Linden president a day later.

Firing Tortorella was the first significant move for Linden in his new job, though it didn't come as much of a surprise.

Linden is in the process of hiring a new GM and has said that person should be in charge of hiring Vancouver's new coach.

The Canucks' season had its moments before Christmas when they strung together seven wins in a row, but really started to come off the rails after a mid-January home game against the Calgary Flames. A furious Tortorella stormed towards the Flames' dressing room at the Rogers arena, spoiling for a fight with Calgary coach Bob Hartley.

The NHL suspended him for 15 days and the team went on a skid that saw them go 2-4-0 during that period, then 10-13-2 after he returned to finish the season at 36-35-11.

The team got little from its stars this season. Captain Henrik Sedin managed only 11 goals and 40 points in 70 games. In the last lockout-shortened season he scored 11 goals and had 45 points in just 48 games.

Twin brother Daniel had 16 goals and 47 points in 73 games this season, his worst full season since 2002, and Ryan Kesler was the only Canuck to break the 20-goal mark with 25.

Gillis said after dealing goaltender Roberto Luongo to the Florida Panthers in March that the move was made as part of a retooling effort, not a total rebuild. Yet even his statements about this season were not glowing.

“This season has been a real struggle for this hockey team for a lot of different reasons,” Gillis said at the time, adding that he hoped the trade would be a wake-up call to his team.

“I think the players now know that we're not satisfied with what's happened this season and we're not happy about what's happened this season. We haven't met the expectations that we've had as a group — all of us.”

The wake-up call had little effect with Vancouver staying ahead of only overmatched Calgary and Edmonton in the Pacific Division.

Injuries played a factor. Both Sedins, Alex Burrows and defenceman Chris Tanev all missed a significant number of games and the Canucks managed just 196 goals, leaving them tied for second-fewest in the league.

At his season-ending news conference last month, Tortorella took some of the blame but also threw a lot on the players, saying the Canucks are getting old, the core group has become complacent and the team needs to get younger.

“I felt from Day 1 that it's stale,” he said. “That's not their fault. This is a group that has been together for a long time.

“It needs youth. It needs a change. The team needs to be retooled. It's a young man's game. It's certainly not a criticism of (the veterans). We need to surround them with some enthusiasm.”

Tortorella said it was time to forget their 2011 Stanley Cup run and his biggest regret was leaving too much to the players.

“I needed to be pounding away at the details,” he said. “I think that hurt us in situational play. I think that hurt us in trying to understand how you change momentum. That's not the team, that's me. That's my biggest regret.”

by paNOW Staff

Canucks fire coach Tortorella

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