VANCOUVER – New Vancouver Canucks coach John Tortorella doesn’t want his players to get too social on Twitter.
Tortorella said Thursday he wants Vancouver players to limit their Twitter use, but he won’t impose an outright ban.
“I’m not going to handcuff them and treat them like little kids,” he said.”There better be no information coming out of the locker-room with that damn Twitter.
“It’s nothing but trouble.”
Several players on the team regularly use Twitter, including goaltender Roberto Luongo. But Tortorella hopes Luongo “stays out of it.”
Luongo’s tweets have received extensive media coverage on several occasions. A number of other Canucks, including wingers David Booth and Alex Burrows, also use it.
Other players stay away from it altogether.
“I don’t have any social media of anything — Facebook, Twitter, I don’t know what else there is,” said winger Jannik Hansen. “But I’m on e-mail.”
Hansen added he “couldn’t care less” about social media.
“The people I need to communicate with, staff and friends, I don’t need to do that in the public spectrum,” he said.
Winger Chris Higgins said he agreed with Tortorella’s position.
“I don’t have Twitter,” said Higgins. “I know a lot of guys on the team have fun with it, and they trade jabs back and forth online. But it means nothing to me, because I don’t like it, personally.”
Ironically, Tortorella, a dog lover, has his own Twitter page, which he uses for fundraising causes related to canines.
“I think it’s tremendous for charity work,” he said. “It helped me tremendously in our dog walk out in New York, and we raised a ton of money. It’s not for (posting): ‘Here I am. I’m having a roast beef sandwich. I’m saying hello to my fans.’
“I mean, that’s just ridiculous.”
Tortorella, who is known for being overly candid with players when evaluating their performance, said he respects social media “and all that stuff,” but wants players to be careful when tweeting.
“I just hope they respect the sanctity of the locker-room,” he said. “That’s the most important thing to me.”
Tortorella was known for clashing with media during his days as coach of the New York Rangers. He is trying to get along better with reporters and improve his public image, but said “some of the stuff needs to stay in the room, too.”
A Canucks spokeswoman said the team has social media guidelines that cover all members of the organization but she did not reveal any specific guidelines for players. The NHL also has a social media policy.
Tortorella was asked if he had issues with social media in his previous position in New York.
“Well, obviously, I had issues with media in New York — period,” he said.
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