PARENTEAU SCORES FIRST

Congratulations to P.A. Parenteau on scoring his first NHL goal in his first game as a New York Ranger on his first shot as a Blueshirt no less. It was a great personal achievement and comes as a result of years of hard work. He should be very proud of himself. More so than even the goal was the fact that he was also the best player on the ice for much of the game for the Rangers. The MSG cameras seemed to be on him constantly. But in terms of the goal itself, for those of us who have seen him play as much as we have, it was a typical goal for the youngster from Hull, Quebec.

So today should be a day of happiness and celebration, at least if he doesn’t read this comment by head coach John Tortorella, who was asked to assess the right winger’s performance after the game. “He was OK. I worry about his skating at this level. You can see he has a nose for the net, he’s an offensive guy. But I worry about his skating.”

Gee, thanks coach…

Our first thought after he said that we can’t print. But our second thought we can. It comes from Bull Durham. After Nuke pitches a great inning he comes back to the dugout for this exchange:

NUKE

I was great, eh?

CRASH

Your fastball was up and your curveball was hanging--in the Show they woulda ripped you.

NUKE

Can't you let me enjoy the moment?

CRASH

The moment's over.

Sound like Tortorella to you?

This display was another, in what seems like, an endless series of disgraceful and childish reactions by someone who's supposed to be a leader of men. Tortorella displayed, once again for the whole world to see, why the Rangers are going nowhere with him at the helm. His team showed just how vulnerable they are without Marion Gaborik in the lineup. To his credit, Tortorella's system is interesting and exciting to watch when he has the players to pull it off. For the first severn games they seemed to get it and played phenomenal and well over their heads. But in terms of the long run, Tortorella doesn't have the troops on this team to pull it off. It's his job to fix it. We're not seeing it.

The Rangers were out-everything-ed by a last place Islander's team that had only won ONE game in regulation. Last night proved one thing and that is that without Gaborik in the lineup, this is a team going nowhere. Even with him in the lineup, they just are a slightly better than average team.

By the way, do you think that Joe Michaletti can say just once that a Rangers oppenent  is NOT a hard working team? Everyone they play that's the first words out of his mouth and repeated throughout. It would be interesting to ask if he feels the Rangers are a hard working team.

But what about the stars of the team?

Let’s look at them to this point.

Vinnie Prospal

There is no player on the team who has benefited more from having Gaborik in the lineup that Vinnie Prospal. Gaborik is making him look like he’s a $7mm/per Center. Without him in the lineup, the $1.5mm he’s getting is about right. Prospal shines because Gaborik finishes so often on the chances that Prospal gives him and conversely benefits from the opportunities Gaborik creates for him.

Ryan Callahan

I'm prejudice when it comes to Cally. We knew him well when he was in Hartford and he was always willing to share plenty of info and taught us a lot about the game. We said to anyone who would listen that Cally would make a great pro. But the truth and the bottom line on is that Cally is a solid and talented third line checker who has the talent to put the puck in the net. But because this team is so thin on talent, he's being called on...as it's been Ranger history...to be someone he's not, a top line scorer. He’s getting pressure from Tortorella to score more and that’s not his game.

Sean Avery

When Avery is on his game as an agitator there is NO ONE in the league better at it than him. As a hockey player overall, he’s okay. He’s not great. He’s not bad. He’s alright. But since the start of the season he looks like he’s playing on medication. Where is the agitation that gets other team off their game? In terms of offense he’s doing fine. In fact in that department he’s off to a good start, but he's not on this team for his offensive output. It’s good that he is, but don’t get that worked up. He’s a 15 goals a year guy. Avery has six points after his nine games (2g, 4a). Terrific. But if he's not agitating and getting the grit in the game that the Rangers need, then he’s being massively overpaid at $4m per for 15 goals.

Chris Drury

We have been rooting for Chris Drury since he was the best player in Little League in Trumbull, CT, the next town over from us. We have hoped to see him in the red,white and blue for as long as we can remember and were thrilled when he was signed to come here. But let’s be real about this. AT BEST, at this point in his career, he’s a third line center…maybe a second, but really a third. But as is the way in Ranger-Land, he’s being asked to do more than he is capable of doing. He’s not been good.

Michael Rozsival

Do I need to even go there?

Wade Redden

While Redden has been a better than he's been in the past, that's not saying all that much. He’s been…at best…okay.

Dan Girardi

Can someone please explain to me who kidnapped the real Dan Girardi and put out this impersonator? If he doesn’t turn it around and soon, I’d trade or release him and bring up one of the youngsters in Hartford. Michael Sauer, Bobby Sanguinetti and Corey Potter are all playing better than Girardi is right now.

Christopher Higgins

He’s holding his stick tighter than Ebenezer Scrooge would to his last shilling. If he can’t come to “grips” pardon the pun, and start relaxing and putting the puck in the net, then he needs to sit and chill out a while. Maybe a stint in Hartford to get his confidence back. He doesn’t pass through waivers and gets claimed, fine. There are enough kids, like Parenteau, like Dale Weise, like Dane Byers that are knocking on the door to play in the Big Apple.

But getting back to Parenteau. The kid was clearly the best player on the ice for the Rangers throughout. We do need to say that at times he looked a bit slow in getting back to the defensive zone and seemed to us like he was coasting a bit at times, but that’s not why he was there. He was there to score goals and he did that. Granted he’s not Alex Ovechkin and he needs to get back and get involved, but that doesn’t excuse the comments that Tortorella made on him on a night when the kid is in his first game as a Ranger and scores the only goal for a team that needed goals and a lift so badly. To say what he did of Parenteau shows the total lack of class this guy has.

He couldn't have said, "The kid had his first goal as a pro tonight and we're happy for him. We'll need to look at the tape and continue evaluating his game at this level, but tonight we're happy for him." Tom Renney would have said something like that albeit in a paragraph and not a sentence, but could you ever imagine Tom Renney ripping the kid like that? We can’t.

Now, it’s clear that Tortorella is not Renney. That was probably a key in the reason the guy was brought here in the first place, but it’s not too much to ask for the guy to show even a little class?

Bottom line is that The Rangers all seem to be playing on edge like scared children afraid of their lunatic father exploding at them rather than a group of players all focused and relaxed looking to do well for one another.

Congratulations P.A.. Your coach might not say it, but you deserve a pat on the back for a job well done.

Comments

[Bryan]

So when a coach makes an assessment of a players overall game are we to assume he should just sugarcoat everything because said player scored his first goal? Truth is that it's a tough, tough world out there and the people in life you meet that are honest with you and tell it like it is are the people you will benefit from and not those who just blow smoke up your backside!

[Mitch Beck]

Not at all Bryan... You're copmpletely missing the boat on this. It has nothing to do with assessing or not assessing a player. It's about class and style. If he has those feelings it's not necessary to trash the player in public. He could have just said as I wrote, "I was happy for the player to get that goal. We're still asessing him in tems of how he'd fitin with the organziation."

It's just totally unnecessary to poop on his parade. How do you think Tortorella would have felt after winning his first game as a coach if the owner was asked and he said, "Well, we did win the game, but I'm still very concerned abut Tortorella's maturity and whether or not it's something that I can live with." It just wouldn't be right to do that.

It's just rude and inappropriate. Personally, I thought there were more than one or two occassions where I was saying to the screen to P.A., "Come on...hustle back...!" BUt I still insist that he had the best game of any Ranger on the ice. It's just not necessary to dwell on the things that he's there to learn. For crying out loud, he's only played now six NHL games. There were far more players on the ice who have far more experience that he should be conerning himself with rather than knocking the one player who was the best on the ice for his team.

[Brenda]

Thank you for a great article. Congratulations to P.A. for his 1st NHL goal. He earned it & deserved it after years of hard work, dedication & constantly improving his game. Shame on Tortorella for his comments. Rather than acknowledging his achievement, he completely overlooked & ignored it. I just hope P.A. didn't hear what his coach had to say. It isn't worth repeating.

[Jay]

Exactly what is the Rangers record? You make it sound like they are the Islanders. Tortorella has one championship, which is one more than most NHL coaches, so knocking him does a lot more to your credibility than to his. I like to read your blog, but today's rant and analysis is really poor.

[Bryan]

Mitch,

I understand your point but this is the NHL, not the AHL, ECHL, etc, etc, etc. When your playing with the "big boys" you better be able to handle what your boss has to say! Your taking umbrage with the fact that Tort's responded to a question he was asked honestly. Frankly I think if more people took the same approach, not only in pro sports but in life, we would be a much better country for it. In life people who sugarcoat things to worry about other people's feelings are doing themselves and that person an injustice.

The fact of the matter is that you learn from both positive and negative feedback and if you can't accept that from your coach or any person of higher authority then you need to be your own boss or you're in for a rude awakening.

Incidentally, Tort's has been like this from day one and to expect him to change is asking him to change his style which most people consider a "winning mentality." Would you change your writing style just because people were critical of it or would you keep it the same because that is what makes you successful?

[Mitch Beck]

Let me ask you a couple of questions Jay...

1) After the 7-0 start (and really, who did they beat?) what is the Rangers record? This team, as I've written previously, even with Gaborik will be lucky to make the playoffs.

2) Are you seriously going to hold the positions that the Islanders didn't outplay the Rangers in virtually EVERY aspect of the game? Are they a better team? No, absolutely not. But on this day it would clearly have appeared that their records could just as easily been reversed. Without Gaborik, the Rangers are a last place team.

3) I didn't knock Tortorella's ability to coach. I knocked him for having no class. If you think I'm wrong, ask any of the people that have to deal with him on a regular basis. Not a one would disagree with me...and trust me I communicate with most of them.

4) What I did write was that I said that I felt that they are not going anywhere with him at the helm. Why? Because "HIS" system requires a level of skill and an ability to play a certain style that this team clearly does not have. Are you going to say the talent that he had in Tampa is less than or the same as what he has now? Come-on! He has a defense that has two rookies (Gilroy & Del Zotto) that are very inconsistent...which is to be expected...I expect both to be all-stars down the road, but they clearly aren't there yet. Then, they have two guys who they are stuck with that are virtually lost (Rozsival & Redden). To be fair, Redden has been mediocre, but he's taking up a giant chunk of cap space so mediocre doesn't cut it. They have a future top 10 d-man in the league (Staal) and a guy who it would appear who's topped out and beginning a slide back into obscurity (Girardi). This group does not have the ability right now to defend at the level that his system requires. Tortorella at the beginning of the season talked about the mistakes that he made in Tampa in not adjusting his system to the defense that he had. In my opinion anyway, he's not doing it again.

5) Sather & Co. assembled the team for him that HE WANTED and as I said, this team doesn't have the ability to do what he wants to do. He does not have Vinnie Lacavalier (although some might argue that Gaborik ...when healthy... is better. But who's the Marty St. Louis? Who's the Brad Richards? And you can't possibly compare defensive talent as I already remarked.

6) The fact that Tortorella has won a championship does not make him Scotty Bowman. It makes him better than a lot of other coaches, that's true, but to me that's yesterday and with a totally different team. While you may or may not like Tom Renney...I do...he took a mess of players that had no business being as good as they were and restored respectability to this franchise and took them to the second round twice and to the playoffs every year he was here except when he came in and took over from Sather and even then he almost got in. He had a LOT less to work with than Tortorella has.

7) But most important of all is the fact that you completely missed the point of this piece. The story had nothing to do with anything other than Tortorella calling out a young player on the night that he was arguably the best player on the ice for the full 60 minutes and who just scored his first NHL goal. You and Bryan both are missing it. I am not concerned with his opinion of P.A. Parenteau at all. He's entitled to that opinion and like I said, there were times where I would agree with his assessment of the right winger. My point is that there was no reason to PUBLICLY state anything other than a pat on the back for a job well done. It doesn't concern you or me in any way if he questions his skating or not. He had a very good game and that's all that was NECESSARY to say in public. The rest he should have dealt with P.A. directly on.

Now Bryan, your retort here makes no logical sense whatsoever. This again has ZERO to do with whether or not P.A. can take criticism. He can. You can take all the umbrage that you want it has nothing to do with anything. It was completely unnecessary to say what he did about P.A. He was angry at his team for a god's awful and embarrassing performance and he took it out on a kid that didn't deserve that. That's the whole point.

I also disagree with your assessment of a "winning attitude." I'll use Tom Renney as an example again. He put in a winning attitude to this franchise again. There are different styles and different ideas that all work. I find disrespect and rudeness unacceptable. Tortorella's style rubs me...AND MANY PEOPLE...the wrong way.

In terms of taking criticism and growing from it as you mentioned in my writing? I've been doing it for a long time and the reason for my success has been just what you say that I wouldn't do. I have certain people whose opinions I respect and listen to them when they make suggestions...or coach me if you will. I then interpret it how I feel I can implement it and do. That's what winners do. What does it say about Tortorella if he can dish out harsh criticism but not take it himself?

So to recap, this article is about Tortorella’s lack of class in how he handled his terrible temper and criticized a player publicly that didn’t deserve it. If he felt that way he should have handled that internally. That’s the cohesiveness and teamwork that he so LOUDLY endorses and it’s a standard he expects his players to keep...he should too.

[LI Joe]

Mitch well said both in the article itself and in the comment area. you are right about the public criticism of a guy scoring his 1st nhl goal in his 6th nhl game. now i don't expect a lot from PA but he deserved a lot better from his coach with that answer. feedback could have been given privately and even then there are ways to say things in a constructive way without killing a guys confidence.

again very well thought out piece.