Rangers coach John Tortorella was fined $30,000 by the NHL last night for his criticism of the officiating after the team’s 3-2 Winter Classic win in Philadelphia on Monday.
“There is no acceptable explanation or excuse for commentary challenging the integrity of the League, its officials or its broadcast partners,” said NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell. “People can disagree with calls by officials on the ice, but even in instances of the utmost frustration there is no justification for speaking as inappropriately and irresponsibly as Mr. Tortorella did.”
Following Rangers practice earlier in the day, Tortorella apologized for his postgame comments, in which he described the officiating as “disgusting” and implied the NHL and NBC might have influenced questionable late-game calls, with the interest of seeing the showcase game go to overtime.
“My tongue-in-cheek comments regarding NBC, the league, the refs, as far as what’s come about here, people thinking, was it fixed, are you trying to get it to overtime or that type of thinking, that was not even in my mind,” Tortorella said. “Not for a second did I think anything like that goes on with our league or ever will.
“It was wrong with my sarcasm, with my frustration and I apologize to everyone involved. It was not my intent. I certainly handled it the wrong way, especially to the two refs.”
Tortorella, who said he “tainted the Classic with [his] mouth,” also said he apologized to Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren over the phone and will wait to apologize to the referees, Ian Walsh and Dennis LaRue, until he sees them in person.
“Using the word ‘disgusting,’ I don’t think was the proper way to go about it talking about Dennis and Ian,” Tortorella said. “I was wrong there. I’ve known them for a long time and they do a great job. It’s one of the toughest jobs in the game. For me to put them under a microscope in that type of setting, the Classic, was wrong.
“I screwed up with my mouth at the end and I regret it. I apologize to those who were involved.”