Vancouver Canucks coach John Tortorella is now in the spotlight after the announcement of Trevor Linden becoming the president of hockey operations for the team.
There is much speculation that Tortorella will follow Mike Gillis and be fired from the team, but Tortorella said he is not concerned about that.
“I’m going to coach the team until Sunday and as I’ve said many times, I’m going to work every day until they say ‘you know what? We don’t want you here’,” he said.
Perhaps surprisingly, Tortorella said he is concerned for Gillis.
“I feel responsible for Mike,” he said. “Mike’s a friend of mine. I worry about him and I worry about his family.”
“A lot of people don’t understand when these things happen, there are kids, there’s a wife, there’s family involved. So outside the game, he’s a friend of mine, I care about him, and sure, that’s a little bit different, someone was let go, someone was told he can’t do something he loves.”
The Vancouver Canucks play the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday, the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday and the Calgary Flames on Sunday to finish up their season.
Ryan Kesler, Kevin Bieksa, Alex Burrows, Henrik and Daniel Sedin all commented on Linden’s new job today as well.
“I don’t think it falls on him to get us back,” said Henrik, “he’s part of it.”
Kesler said Linden has a good head on his shoulders and is a good leader. “He’s well liked in this city, he’s a great leader for me, he took me under his wing when I was a young kid and really helped me along the way,” he said.
WATCH: Players react to the news:
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