Tortorella will be, and should be, back with Rangers

It's a statement of fact: John Tortorella will be back next season as Rangers coach.

It's also an opinion: John Tortorella should be back next season as Rangers coach.

There have been muffled cries from many corners - fans, media, even some players - that Tortorella is too nasty, too mean to get a team like the Rangers on the right track. And this season's failure to make the playoffs is an example of that.

This, quite simply, is nonsense. Some may not like his methods or his demeanor, but it's hard to figure out exactly what this group would have achieved without Tortorella.

The Rangers had one star-caliber player in Marian Gaborik, who scored 42 goals. In classic Tortorella fashion, the coach declared during yesterday's breakup day session with writers that Gaborik "stunk" on Sunday in Philadelphia; perhaps that's cruel, but Gaborik was not an impact player in the Rangers' biggest game.

These Rangers had a star-caliber goaltender in Henrik Lundqvist. They had two moderately consistent veterans in Vinny Prospal and Michal Rozsival. They had Chris Drury, battling his behind off and fighting himself for much of the season.

And they had a group of young players still learning how to be pros, promising talents such as Ryan Callahan, Artem Anisimov, Michael Del Zotto, Marc Staal and Dan Girardi, with Matt Gilroy in there, too.

The rest? Well, it says a lot about what the Rangers had to start this season that some of the key players down the stretch were languishing on other teams' healthy-scratch lists or not even playing in the NHL for much of the year.

Tortorella made it quite clear that his team needs more guys like Jody Shelley and Brandon Prust, who upped the character quotient in a locker room that had been far too meek.

"We don't have enough of those guys," Tortorella said. "We also need to be realistic about what the Rangers are. Are we a [ninth-place] team, are we a 14th-place team or are we a top-four team?

"I don't think we're ready to win right now."

Tortorella weeded out a few players he believed weren't willing to put up with his intensity last summer; this summer, there will be more, though not nearly as many. Olli Jokinen won't be back; Wade Redden will, but you can bet the Rangers will make a free-agent play for the Senators' Anton Volchenkov and plan on stashing Redden in the minors the first chance they get.

But this is not the Penguins of 2008-09, who were an enormously talented team in need of new direction when Michel Therrien was jettisoned for Dan Bylsma. These are not the Devils, who have a structure in place and can rotate coaches the way some teams rotate forward lines.

This team is a work in progress, a franchise trying to build from within instead of without. Prospal, who practically announced his intention to come back despite being a free agent, said it best of Tortorella:

"This is the only way he knows how to coach. Sometimes a player may not react the way he should, but Torts is a great coach. He's won at every level. And he's always done it this way."

Tortorella will be back, and he should be back. The Rangers need him.