Torts Clashes With a Caps Fan in Game 5

While many of us watched the Caps-Rangers last night, few saw the incident where John Tortorella apparently threw a water bottle at a fan heckling and reportedly throwing beer on him.



From Yahoo Sports' Greg Wyshinski:

Fri Apr 24, 2009 10:54 pm EDT

Rangers coach throws water bottle, challenges Caps fans

By Greg Wyshynski

WASHINGTON, DC -- After witnessing a putrid performance from his New York Rangers in a 4-0 loss at the Washington Capitals, Rangers Coach John Tortorella arrived at the podium in the Verizon Center press room with a short fuse.

"No questions?" he said after a few seconds. "Then ask the damn things. I'm not going to stand up here and look at you."

On his decision to scratch maligned Rangers winger Sean Avery for Game 5, and then witnessing the kind of undisciplined and detrimental play that sent Avery into street clothes for the night: "I'm not going to explain it in this forum. It's my decision."

But the most uncomfortable moment came when Tortorella was asked about an incident with some Capitals fans behind the Rangers bench during the game -- an incident captured by TSN cameras (video).

What the cameras didn't capture involved a beer being allegedly dumped on Tortorella. But what's certain, based on video from the arena, is that Tortorella threw a water bottle over the glass from the Rangers' bench into the stands. The above is video shot inside of Verizon Center showing Tortorella hurling a water bottle at fans:

A reporter asked Tortorella about the incident with the fans. Tortorella responded:
"Ask me a question about the game."

The reporter continued, asking for elaboration: "Did you throw a water bottle?"

Tortorella: "Ask me a question about the game."

At that point, the Rangers media relations handler threatened to end the press conference if another question addressed the fan incident. It was an understandable bit of caution, considering a stick-toting Tortorella had been captured on national television and any comments about a case potentially reviewed by the NHL were better left unsaid.

Capitals Coach Bruce Boudreau was unaware that the incident had occurred, and wondered what the delay was about. Did Boudreau ever have something like that happen to him during his minor league days? "I can't even remember. But I was in 'Slap Shot,'" he said.

Game 6 between the teams is scheduled for Sunday afternoon in New York. Hopefully Boudreau won't need an umbrella.

As HockeyHero points out, Tortorella may be fined or suspended by the NHL. Kudos to him for posting this on the GOTN thread, and it is re-posted here:

NHL LOOKING AT TORTORELLA'S ALLEGED BOTTLE TOSSING INCIDENT

TSN.CA

John Tortorella has been preaching discipline to his players but he didn't exactly lead by example on Friday night.

The New York Rangers head coach could be facing a possible suspension from the National Hockey League for his actions in Game 5's loss to the Washington Capitals.

With 13 minutes 27 seconds remaining in the game, Tortorella was involved in a confrontation with a fan which led him to throw a plastic drinking bottle into the stands, which according to the Washington Post, struck a female fan in the head.

"He was losing and he was frustrated, I guess," said Claudette Chandonia to the Post, the women he allegedly hit with the bottle. "I couldn't believe it. I looked up, and he was throwing the water bottle -- and then it hit me right here, right in the head, and it bounced off me."

Following the incident, Tortorella grabbed a hockey stick and made gestures that he was going to head into the stands until assistant coach Jim Schoenfeld calmed him down.

League commissioner Gary Bettman and the National Hockey League are gathering the facts of exactly what happened between Tortorella and the fan(s) at the Verizon Center before making a ruling on whether the action requires supplementary discipline.

The three options would appear to be suspending him, fining him, or doing nothing. But with apparent video footage of the incident, it is highly unlikely that the league would do the latter.

I was watching TSN late(long after the game) and they showed that torts was squirting a water bottle between the glass at the guy(the guy had been heckling). They did not show any beer being dumped. (After seeing the guy, I doubt he was dumping beer, he probably drank it). Also TSN showed torts with a hockey stick trying to get at the guy over the glass. The TSN commentator was making fun of the attire of the fan.

the throwing was definately during the break when watching the actual game... and to the first post dave put here those reporters have some guts to try and keep pushing an already pi$$ed torts

He's definitely getting fined. Not sure if suspension in a playoff game is warranted, but his actions were certainly detrimental to the league's image, no matter how badly the fan was acting (apparently he got tossed?) I mean, what if there's a kid sitting behind the obnoxious fan that gets winged with a water bottle when the obnoxious guy ducks? You just can't do that.

I wonder if Avery is sitting in his hotel room, watching the video replay and chuckling.

Torts is suspended for one game per TSN.

A potential disaster for the Rangers--or a wake up call and rallying point?

Talk about drama.