John Tortorella has been selected to be the head coach of Team USA for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
Tortorella is one of the most successful US hockey coaches in the history of the NHL, who has a total of 446 victories as a head coach in the NHL, which is 10 more than current Nashville Predators coach Peter Laviolette.
“I couldn’t be more honored,” said Tortorella, 57. “I couldn’t be more excited to be part of it.”
Tortorella has coached 3 different teams during his time coaching in the NHL, starting with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and also coaching the New York Rangers, with the Vancouver Canucks being the most recent team that Tortorella coached.
He helped lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a Stanley Cup championship in 2004. Tortorella has coached a total of 936 games as an NHL head coach, which is more than any other American born coach.
Tortorella intends on bringing his style and emphasis on setting the pace and motivating his players to Team USA for the World Cup of Hockey.
“My attitude towards playing this game is we’re going to go straight ahead,” Tortorella added. “We’re going to set the pace.
“I have a pretty good idea of how we want to play. We want to go. If we don’t have the puck, we’re going to go try and get the puck.”
Tortorella has long been a lightning rod on the bench, bringing a fire to any team he has coached, and encouraging his players to play with passion, to play with in an insatiable hunger for victory. That attitude is likely to help Team USA bond with each other quickly, which Tortorella believes will be one of the most critical factors for a short tournament like the 2016 World Cup of Hockey will be.
With Tortorella being named the head coach, the focus can now be on scouting enough players for Tortorella and the managing staff of Team USA to fill thee 23 man roster for the tournament. As the squad and assistant coaches continue to fill out, we will see how Tortorella brings the team together, and moves toward the tournament.