Posted by By Jon Gabrielle, NY Rangers correspondent
There’s an expression in horse racing and it goes something like this, “don’t go to the whip too early and too often!”
The inference is that when you do use the whip, you will usually get a that little extra kick from the horse that you might need down the stretch. Use it wisely, and it can win you the race.
Using the whip is a tried and tested technique that all jockeys employ, however some use it differently than others. And some better than others.
Using the whip? (photo by rogerbarker/flickr)
Beating a horse too often and too early can result in diminishing returns.
Last night at Madison Square Garden, during an ice hockey game between the New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers, the Rangers coach, John Tortorella decided to go to the whip…again!
It was a little more than halfway through the first period when the Flyers scored their third consecutive goal giving them a 3-0 lead. At this point Tortorella called timeout.
What followed in front of the Ranger bench can only be described as a verbal whipping. Anyone within 20 rows of the Blueshirts bench could hear the expletive-ridden tirade by the irascible bench boss. Those in the cheap seats but blessed with eyesight able to read lips, didn’t need a course in sign to decipher some of the coaches choice adjectives.
The message was sent, the players were lambasted and the game would continue.
John Tortorella has called early timeouts before. In fact, he did it only a few minutes and few games into the season, in New Jersey, with his team trailing 1-0 early, and it worked like a charm. Final score that night, Rangers 3, Devils 2. Score one for the whip.
Later in the season, on a Monday night at MSG, and with the Columbus Blue Jackets in town, the emotional coach called timeout early again. This time his team was trailing 2-0. Ensuing result: the Rangers scored 7 unanswered goals to stun the slumping Blue Jackets. Score two for the whip.
Last night the score was 3-0…early.
So what did the fiery orator do? Hey, it’s worked before…so why not a timeout?
This time the whip fought back. Final score: Flyers 6, Rangers 0.
Timeouts are great. Motivational tongue-lashings good. Verbal whippings have their place. Sixty minutes of solid hockey is better.
John Tortorella has a fire in his belly, no one can deny that. He has passion…and he’s especially passionate about winning.
Two weeks ago, with the Rangers in the midst of a month long slump, the coach stormed off after a loss to the Islanders only to give a scathing post game press conference. He had tried to remain “positive around here” but that was it. He had had enough. That effort was “unacceptable.”
Sure enough, Wade Redden and Matt Gilroy would feel Tortorella’s wrath. Gilroy to the American league and Redden to the press box.
Once again the team “responded.”
The next four games produced wins, albeit against bottom dwellers, and once again the coach had righted the ship with some motivation, both verbal and decisive.
But after a 6-0 whitewash last night to a Flyer team, that’s beginning to look like most early season’s prognosticaters favorite to take the east, where does the coach go from here?
Luckily for the Rangers they will get back on the horse, pun intended, and play Carolina on New Years Eve. And it cannot happen fast enough, as far as the embattled coach who called himself, “stumped at how we played that game,” and added, “the best thing for us is to get on a plane and go play a game.”
There is one thing that this former Stanley Cup winning coach does know. “If we have to go with a coach losing his mind and making an idiot of himself every five games, then we’re beating our heads against the wall…it cannot be that way, ” the coach said.
Sounds like Tortorella may just have called timeout again. But this time on himself.
Some Other Articles That You May Enjoy:
Timeout: Rangers!
Rangers at it again!
John Tortorella Loses Cool…Game 5
John Tortorella: media savvy!
Politically correct!
My Prayers are Answered as the Rangers Fire Tom Renney
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