Jul 23
+37 notes
“
I did. It was Pavel Kubina. I don’t know what I did — but I did.

—Tortorella on whether he made a player cry

filed under: ,john tortorella  ,canucks  ,vancouver canucks  ,quotes  
Jun 25
+5 notes
“
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 

filed under: ,chris higgins  ,john tortorella  ,canucks  ,vancouver canucks  ,quotes  
Jun 25
+39 notes
“
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

filed under: ,ryan kesler  ,john tortorella  ,canucks  ,vancouver canucks  ,quotes  
Jun 25
+9 notes
“
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

filed under: ,henrik sedin  ,canucks  ,vancouver canucks  ,john tortorella  ,quotes  
May 22
+10 notes
“

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Aquilini family, Mike Gillis, Lorne Henning, Laurence Gilman, Stan Smyl, Victor de Bonis and the entire management, scouting, training and front office staff with the Vancouver Canucks. The past seven years have been an honour for me to coach and work for a great franchise in a wonderful Canadian city. To work in a city with such passionate and loyal fans is a privilege – I enjoyed every moment of it.

I am grateful to Dave Nonis and Steve Tambellini for the opportunity they provided me eight years ago. Over the past seven years, I have made many good friends in Vancouver and had the chance to coach quality players who cared deeply about their profession and were committed to winning. I am grateful to the players and their families for the sacrifice and dedication they showed in an effort to be the best they could be. Watching as many of our players started families, became fathers and grew as men, on and off of the ice, was equally rewarding.

To Rick Bowness, Newell Brown, Rollie Melanson and Darryl Williams – I say thank you for your tireless effort every day – I am grateful for your friendship and dedication. You should all be very proud of your achievements.

I am proud of many of the things we accomplished as a group these past seven seasons in Vancouver and only wish we were able to win the Canucks first Stanley Cup. I am a career coach and it is what I love to do. I hope to coach again in this League and will always have good memories of my time and the fans in Vancouver.

—Alain Vigneault’s statement upon his firing on wednesday

filed under: ,canucks  ,vancouver canucks  ,alain vigneault  ,quotes  ,misc  
May 09
+42 notes

“I feel like I am in a stage of my life where I want to play. Whether that’s here or somewhere else remains to be seen. But what has happened over the course of the last two years suggests that maybe it’s not my place to be the starter here anymore.”

“First of all I’d like to thank them for everything and just apologize that I wasn’t able to bring them a Stanley Cup two years ago.” (Van Sun)

filed under: ,roberto luongo  ,canucks  ,vancouver canucks  ,quotes  ,video