He wants your compete level 100 per cent all the time. He wants his best players to be the best players every night and a lot of pressure falls on them. It’s about learning his ways.

[On getting called out in New York] Oh, yeah. For sure. If you’re on his team, you’re going to get it but you have to understand sometimes that’s how he tries to get the message across. It’s an easier transition as long as you play his way.

—higgins on playing for tortorella 

We need to be tougher to play against — we need to piss teams off and I like that he expects it from everybody. I’ve been doing it my whole career, so my game is not going to change much. It’s about compete.

—Kesler on Tortorella’s “more bite” mandate

As a player you want honesty, I don’t think it matters how it’s put towards you. It’s going to be a great fit for us, he expects a lot out of his players and that’s all you can ask for.

—henrik sedin on john tortorella