Tortorella slams his own player, calls him “off the rails”

Torts was fired up and delivered another classic rant.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Tortorella slams his own player, calls him “off the rails”
Zuma Press

In case you missed it, the Montreal Canadiens got past the Columbus Blue Jackets last night by a score of 3-2. The big story was that superstar Artemi Panarin was suffering from some sort of illness and did not play. In his place was the often scratched forward Anthony Duclair. When asked about Duclair, head coach John Tortorellla’s eyes lit up and, sensing another classic Torts rant, the Montreal media pushed him on the issue. What’s the problem with Duclair? Why can’t this kid seem to pull it all together? Why is he on his fourth NHL team in such a short span?



Ouch… that hurts… 

You think that’s rough? Torts was just getting started:



I’ll quote these underneath, as they’re difficult to read.

“I don’t know. Right now, I don’t know… I don’t think he knows how to play. I don’t. It seems to me he’s like a player that just feels he can get the puck, because he’s tremendously skilled, he can skate, he has all those things as you guys know, I just think he thinks he can go do whatever the Hell he wants on the ice. He can’t do it in the National Hockey League. We have spent a lot of time trying to teach him, trying to teach him situational player, away from the puck , all the stuff we do with players. Sometimes it looks like he’s understanding. So to answer your question, I don’t know. I don’t know if he just can’t comprehend or he’s just stubborn. But he’s running out of time.”

When asked if coaching Duclair is a challenge…



“I love that part of the game, the teaching part of the game. And I’ve said right along here, I think it’s worth it with him because I think there’s a tremendous upside. But here we are again, the fourth team and another coach pissing and moaning about him, scratching him, benching him. Somewhere along the line I think he has to understand, ‘I have to be more attentive and I have to start being more consistent.’ So in a roundabout way, I don’t know what it is. I thought I was learning him, but I don’t know what he is.”

When asked if Duclair’s problem is effort, consistency or mental mistakes:



“It depends what day it is. You can give me a list and I can check ‘em off. The thing that aggravates me the most is we want to stay with it here because we thinking there is something at the end of this tunnel. But for me right now, he’s off the rails. I’m not so sure we’re going to spend a lot more time trying to get him back on the rails.”

Yikes… how’s that for a pep talk?

For what it’s worth, Duclair went pointless on the evening with just one shot on goal. He declined to speak with reporters following Tortorella’s comments.

Source: Arpon Basu