John Tortorella and Brad Richards won a Stanley Cup together with the Lightning, but their time together with the Rangers ended with the star center benched.
Tortorella told TSN the deterioration of that relationship was the only regret he had from his time with the Rangers, which ended in his firing at the end of last season.
“It kills me. It kills me,” Tortorella, now the coach of the Canucks, said in a one-on-one interview.
“That kid there … that kid there, I grew up with him. I learned a lot from him in Tampa. We grew up together in Tampa. I don’t know where [the relationship] went — see, now you got me talking about him — but yeah, it’s been damaged.”
The two reportedly have not spoken since Tortorella was fired. Many hope Richards, who had one point in 10 playoff games last season, can turn his career around under new Rangers coach Alain Vigneault.
Tortorella originally said he has no regrets from his Rangers tenure before the topic of Richards came up.
“Yeah, that’s one. That’s a big one,” Tortorella said. “When the game’s done, relationships are all you have left. That’s important to me. That’s a tough one for me.”
Tortorella also expressed surprise at his ouster by the Rangers. In season-ending exit interviews, players complained about Tortorella’s overbearing approach.
“No, I thought our players and I had a real honest relationship. I know we did. No one came to me and said, ‘You know what? You’re kicking the hell out of us, you got to back off.’ That kind of threw me back. I am not sure what happened. My general manager said to me, ‘You lost the team, you’re out of here,’ ” Tortorella said.
The 55-year-old said his difficult relationship with the media in New York was a big obstacle in landing the job in Vancouver.
“Sure, it was an extensive interview process and part of that was the media … I need to be a little more respectful to certain people,” Tortorella said. “Some people to me are just dogs and they are going to have a tough time with me one way or the other.”