Tortorella regrets incident with fans

April 30, 2009   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

Earlier today as the Rangers were wrapping things up at their Greenburgh practice facility, coach John Tortorella admitted that he was wrong for his awful reaction to some fans during the third period in Game 5 against the Caps in which he squirted water and tossed a plastic bottle that hit an innocent female bystander.

The foolish behavior earned him a suspension for Game 6 which the Rangers fell flat under Jim Schoenfeld on home ice losing 5-3, forcing a deciding game they couldn’t win, becoming the first team in franchise history to blow a 3-1 series lead. When it ended following a much closer 2-1 loss Tuesday night, he wouldn’t say whether or not the incident negatively impacted his team. Finally breaking his silence following another run-in with NY Post pest Larry Brooks, Tortorella shared plenty of regret about the incident.

“It’s a bad mistake by me,” he said. “I regret it. I put the New York Rangers organization in an embarrassing situation. I’m embarrassed by it. I am an intense person, which is a positive, but it also turns into a negative sometimes.

“Was it a distraction? Of course it was. How much it played into that next game, I don’t know because I thought we played a good first period and I know I had capable coaches on that bench.”

The fiery coach took full responsibility for his actions adding that it crossed the line.

“It can’t happen. I preach discipline. I preach team concept. I am disciplined. I am a team concept guy. I stepped out of bounds and I made a huge mistake.

“We all make mistakes. … I’ll be honest with you, my heart was in the right place. I was protecting my players, at least I felt I was at that point, but I did not do it the correct way. I stepped way out of bounds.”

While Tortorella apologized, other Rangers lamented blowing a great opportunity against the favorite Caps.

“We just didn’t play a good enough game,” team captain Chris Drury pointed out following playing six games of the series with a busted hand. “I don’t think it was because he wasn’t there. It just showed how intense he is and how much it means to him and how fired up he was.

“It was a mistake. He didn’t want to do it. If he had to do it again, he wouldn’t do it again. When you see that passion coming from your coach, it’s going to rub off on you.”

“It’s a game where sometimes emotions take over and you lose it a little bit,” second-year pivot Brandon Dubinsky added. “We can’t fault the guy. He has passion, he cares about the team and he wants to help the team. It’s not like he was trying to do it to hurt the team.”

As for suspending Sean Avery for his own lack of discipline for Game Five, Tortorella stood by that decision.

“I would do it again for the short term and for the long term,” he indicated. “I felt it was building up to that point. I know that guy wants to help this team win.

“I just felt that he couldn’t get control.”

Regardless, none of it means a thing anymore. This circus of a season has finally run its course. Hopefully, the way it ended will stay with Tortorella and his players who have all summer to think about what went wrong.