John Tortorella is a lot of things, but he is not a hypocrite.
He has made it very well known throughout the various stops on his coaching career that if he does not like your play, or your attitude, that you will not play for him. There are very few exceptions to this rule. Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, Marc Staal, Tony DeAngelo, Kevin Hayes, Travis Konecny, and Travis Sanheim, among a host of others, have all been either benched or healthy scratched throughout Tortorella’s time as head coach here. He is not someone who will coddle egos, and when he thinks you are not earning your ice time, he will cease giving you any.
But he’s done that a lot thus far; he’s only been coach for a year and a half, and he has been willing to push that button very quickly, sometimes even after a short down period that followed a stretch of extended success, like the Farabee benching recently.
This isn’t going to be a discussion about whether or not benching a struggling player is always an effective tactic, that is probably better served being analyzed on a player-by-player basis. The actual question comes in asking if “Torts” will still be able to sustain this type of discipline for the long term. Playing under John Tortorella is rewarding, but it also can be a grind. From the “rope skate” in training camp, there is a precedent and a tone set that if you do not adhere to, you are going to be on the outs.
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