Breaking News: John Tortorella Fired As Rangers Head Coach

The New York Rangers announced today that they have relieved John Tortorella of his duties as head coach, according to sources. The news comes four days after the Rangers saw their season end with a loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday night.

According to Elliotte Friedman of Hockey Night In Canada, the comments Lundqvist made following the season "'changed everything,' according to [a] source."

To say that I'm shocked would be an understatement. In no way did I think the Rangers would fire John Tortorella, especially not after they actually won a playoff series and his comments made on breakup day. One thing you can bank on is that Henrik Lundqvist is essentially running this organization. This firing speaks volumes of how much Glen Sather and Co. value Lundqvist's input, and they must have felt like he was serious about holding off contract talks if the team didn't make a change. Lundqvist spoke about how frustrated he was and that he thought this team took a step backwards this year, while John Tortorella disagreed. Very, very interesting.

It also makes me wonder if Sean Avery's comments on Twitter from a few months ago that John Tortorella's players hate him actually had any merit.

Expect more in the upcoming hours/days. I'll be very interested in seeing who the Rangers will target following the firing of Torts and what type of coach they'll look at hiring.

Reports are that Glen Sather will have a conference call soon to discuss John Tortorella's dismissal as Rangers head coach.

More to come.