Over the past couple of weeks the Vancouver Canucks season has quickly escalated from a small dumpster fire to an out of control inferno that is consuming everything in its path.
Mike Gillis does not want to comment on John Tortorella’s future
Mike Gillis passed on the opportunity to give John Tortorella a vote of confidence.
Rich Lam
Their third period collapse against the New York Islanders on Monday, where they turned a 3-0 lead after two periods into a 7-4 loss, simply threw more gasoline on top of it as the team seemed to hit rock bottom for the season. And if that wasn't rock bottom, it's hard to imagine the type of performance that could be worse.
They've lost 21 of their past 27 games, have traded their two starting goalies within a year, and have to figure out what they're going to do with Ryan Kesler after the season. It's not a great situation, and it has led to speculation that John Tortorella, in his first year behind the team's bench, could be in trouble.
General manager Mike Gillis met with the media on Wednesday and refused to address the rumors surrounding Tortorella and his future with the team, passing on the opportunity to give the dreaded vote of confidence.
“I am not going to comment on specific things about John,” Gillis said, via CBC’s Elliotte Friedman. “It is unfair to him and to the team.”
Gillis also added that addressing the rumors would only lend credibility to them, while he refused to say whether or not Tortorella has “lost the room.”
But his most interesting comment was this, via Stephen Whyno of the Canadian Press.
Gillis blamed injuries & "an incident in January that was hard to describe" for #Canucks' woes. Tortorella in Calgary was in January.
— Stephen Whyno (@SWhyno) March 12, 2014 Calgary, of course, is referring to the mayhem that unfolded on Jan. 18 when a line brawl off the opening face off ended with Tortorella trying to storm the Flames’ locker room after the first period.
He was suspended for 15 days. It would be easy to pin the Canucks’ struggles on that incident, as well as the suspension that followed, but their season had already started to go down the tubes in the weeks prior to that.
Prior to that game against the Flames the Canucks had lost eight of their previous nine games and were already starting to slide down the standings.
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