The man who will begin a new chapter in his tumultuous NHL head coaching career with the Philadelphia Flyers this fall has never been unanimous in the locker room of the teams he's led. And as J.B. Gagné of GoHabsGo reports, an incident, involving Tortorella and one of his former players, has surfaced in recent days.
On the most recent edition of Paul Bissonnette and Ryan Whitney's Spittin Chiclets podcast, Brad Richards, who played under Tortorella with the Tampa Bay Lighning, revealed a not-so-great story towards the coach that involved him with a current member of the Habs organization.
Rest assured, it is not Martin St-Louis, but a certain Vincent Lecavalier, now a special advisor within the organization.
It is well known that he and Tortorella were not on the same page with Lighning and according to Richards, the latter has already tried to engage in a fight with his star player in the team's dressing room. Excuse me?
Actually, it was a bit of a questionable tactic by the coach to bring out the best in his players and one day when he wasn't happy with Lacavalier's performance, he walked into the locker room, took off his jacket and wanted to fight with him to wake him up.
Let's just say that we understand a little better some NHL players who said they hated playing for the American coach and let's hope that he could have changed over the years.
Despite this incident, Lecavalier had a very successful career in the NHL and even won a Stanley Cup with John Tortorella as coach in 2004, along with a certain Martin St-Louis, but we hope that the latter does not use the questionable methods of his former coach.
POLL | ||
AOUT 23 | 313 ANSWERS Tortorella has already taken off his jacket and wanted to fight with Vincent Lecavalier Do you think Vincent Lecavalier deserves a greater role with the CH? | ||
Yes | 194 | 62 % |
No | 119 | 38 % |
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