  john robert tortorella (born june 24, 1958) is an american ice hockey coach. tortorella has held the position of head coach of the vancouver canucks (2013â2014), the new york rangers (2009â2013) and the tampa bay lightning (2001â2008). he led tampa bay to the 2004 stanley cup championship and compiled a 239â222â36â38 record with the lightning.http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080603/ap_on_sp_ho_ne/hkn_lightning_tortorella ==early life== tortorella attended concord-carlisle high school in concord, massachusetts, and he is listed on the school's athletic hall of fame wall (1976). he also attended the university of maine, graduating in 1981. john's brother jim tortorella is also listed on the wall. tortorella, nicknamed 'the paper italian',http://www.fyouth.com/hockey/the-beast-of-the-east- played right wing for three years (1978â81) at the university of maine of the national collegiate athletic association (ncaa). while at maine, he played along with his brother jim, the goaltender, who now serves as assistant men's coach for the university of new hampshire wildcats. after college tortorella went to sweden to play a year in kristianstads ik (1981â82), after which he came back to the us to play four years of minor pro hockey (1982â86) in the atlantic coast hockey league (achl). during these years he skated with the hampton roads gulls, erie golden blades, nashville south stars and the virginia lancers.http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=5440 during his days in the achl, tortorella briefly played with oren koules while with the hampton roads gulls. the two later reunited in tampa bay, as tortorella was the coach and koules was one of the new owners of the lightning. he never played a game in the nhl. === echl === tortorella has been credited by east coast hockey league founders henry brabham and bill coffey with coming up with the name for the league during a league meeting at a ramada inn in winston-salem, north carolina. at the time, tortorella was the head coach of brabham's virginia lancers, but left the lancers to become the assistant coach of the american hockey league's [[new haven nighthawks
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