John Tortorella doesn’t want anything to do with Sean Couturier

John Tortorella is quite a character. He was loved by many of his former players (Martin St-Louis is a good example), but he also had many of his former slave foals crowned.

Clearly, St-Louis drew on Torts’ drive and field hockey knowledge for his challenge in Montreal, but he took a different approach to managing the players themselves.

You can see how much the guys in Montreal like St-Louis more than the old players (as a rule) like Tortorella.

Whether you think of André Roy, Marc Denis, Kevin Hayes or many of the other players who played under him, the consensus is that his techniques are 100% old-school.

And as a result, he receives public criticism on a regular basis.

Yesterday, for example, Sean Couturier criticized his coach after learning thathe was going to be left out of tonight’s game, even though he was healthy. He didn’t take it.

But he wasn’t the only one to criticize him. Brandon Dubinsky, in connection with the Couturier situation, threw his former coach under the bus, saying he was out of his depth and had humiliated his (new) captain.

But don’t think this whole situation hurts Torts. He’s got a tough rind.

Questioned after his team’s game (a win over Toronto), Tortorella wasn’t about to laugh. He systematically refused to talk about his captain, saying only that he wanted to talk about the 20 guys who helped him win.

I’m not talking about Sean, I’m not debating with you [a journalist who asked him a question]: that’s between Sean and me. – John Tortorella

That’s just one of many examples, since he actually refused several questions on the subject. He refused to be held accountable for his decision (which turned out to his advantage!) when a simple generic answer would have prevented adding fuel to the fire.

But you don’t know Torts well if you think he won’t speak his mind. He’ll do it even if it puts the Flyers, Daniel Brière, Sean Couturier or anyone else in a funny situation.

In brief

– The season has begun.

– Hum…

– Patrice Bergeron is well and truly retired.

– Still.