Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Torts: ‘Our team is not going to dive’

Kesler Dive

The Vancouver Canucks have a reputation for embellishment. That’s a fact.

How much they actually deserve said reputation has been debated to no end; however, for new head coach John Tortorella, it’s a debate he hopes will peter out during his tenure behind the bench.

“When I wasn’t coaching here, everybody outside thought Vancouver dove and did some whining,” Tortorella said today in New Jersey, per NHL.com’s Dan Rosen. “Our team is not going to dive. I don’t think there is much whining going on either.

“It’s my chance to say we’re going to be an honest team, trying to be an honest team, and I hope we get some calls along the way.”

The Canucks, who Tortorella says he’s “talked to” about embellishment, haven’t been getting a ton of calls so far this season. In 11 games, they’ve had just 29 power-play opportunities, with 12 of those coming in their first two games. In each of their last nine, they haven’t had more than three. Four times they’ve only had one.

“I’m certainly not trying to accuse the league or refs of [having a bias against the Canucks],” said Tortorella, “but I know there’s been a reputation. Sometimes that hangs around.”