NHL fines New York Rangers’ coach John Tortorella $20K over Pittsburgh Penguins’ outburst-NHL News
New York Rangers’ coach, John Tortorella, has landed himself into serious trouble over his postgame outbursts against Pittsburgh Penguins.
The coach criticised Penguins’ players and accused them of playing a ‘cheap’ and ‘dirty’ game against Rangers, which they lost by a two to five (2-5) goals' margin.
Going a step further, the coach called Penguins an arrogant club.
He also hit at Penguins’ centre, Sidney Crosby, and another player with the same tirade.
As it was feared by many commentators, the National Hockey League (NHL) took note of the remarks and decided to come with the stern action of the $20,000 fine.
This is for the second time that the coach has been made to pay the penalty. He was fined $30,000 for criticising officials in the Winter Classics in January this year.
Rangers coach said in his postgame comments:
"I wonder what would happen if we did it to their two whining stars? Wonder what would happen?" So I'm anxious to see what happens with the League. There's no respect amongst players. None."
He then went on to say of Penguins:
"That's one of the most arrogant organisations in the League. They whine about this stuff all the time. It's ridiculous. But they'll whine about something else over there, won't they? Starting with their two (bleeping) stars."
However, Penguins’ coach remained calm and cool, calling his statements ‘gamesmanship’.
It all started with a hit from Penguins’ defenseman, Brooks Orpik on Rangers’ Derek Stepan.
He accused the player of deliberately planting the hit on Stepan, who was knocked down on the ice.
Interestingly, nothing has been reported about the injury of the player after the game and the player’s status is still unknown.
Yet the coach flayed the entire Penguins’ organisation in the strongest possible terms. Had Penguins’ coach opted for equally befitting reply, it certainly could have led to a new controversy.
It is to note here that Penguins had faced a similar situation in the game against the Philadelphia Flyers a couple of days earlier.
The incident had brought Penguins’ assistant coach and Flyers’ head coach face-to-face, screaming and shouting at each other. Both officials were fined $2500 and $10,000, respectively, by the league.
It was for the second time in a week that two teams have become involved in a rivalry. However, apparently the Rangers-Penguins rift seems to be very much settled with the penalty on Rangers’ coach.
NHL office has been very tough about handling any controversial situation involving its officials. On many occasions, it has imposed higher amount of penalties on the players or coaches who criticised its officials.
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