A person familiar with the decision confirmed to the Associated Press on Monday that Tortorella has been selected to coach the United States team competing in the World Cup of Hockey tournament next year. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because USA Hockey is scheduled to make a formal announcement late Monday, September 21, 2015.
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Laviolette seemed like the smart money choice to coach this World Cup team, along with Bylsma and maybe Todd Richards of the Columbus Blue Jackets. He was also a two-time assistant, most recently serving under Ron Wilson on the US team that won a silver medal at the 2010 Vancouver Games. Simunic missed the 2014 World Cup over the incident in the qualifying playoff against Iceland in 2013. The USA won the inaugural event in 1996. It will feature teams from the United States, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic and two All-Star teams made up of young stars from North America and Europe.
Tortorella, a native of Boston who played collegiately at Maine, has been known to be outspoken and his news conferences following games have been contentious at times. Tortorella said he’s worked on controlling himself.
He coached the New York Rangers for four full seasons before that after being named the Rangers head coach midway through the 2008-2009 season. His brief reign included a 15-day suspension from the National Hockey League for a run-in with Calgary coach Bob Hartley between periods on January 18, 2014. He needed to be restrained by players and coaches.
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For a short tournament like the World Cup of Hockey, Tortorella said it won’t necessarily be the team that has the best players that wins but rather the one that jells quickest that will have the most success.
