Rangers Coach John Tortorella Has Concord Roots

He’s told the Caps to stop whining and admonished reporters over their questions, and now John Tortorella’s postseason ride brings his New York Rangers to Boston, to take on the Bruins in the NHL’s Eastern Conference semifinals.

It’s the first time the two Original Six squads have faced each other in the postseason since Bobby Orr was in black-and-gold, but there’s a definite familiarity between the two sides. And it runs deeper than their being Eastern Conference rivals.

Tonight’s game—the puck drops at 7:30 p.m. at the TD Garden—will be a homecoming of sorts for Tortorella, the fiery Rangers coach, who attended Concord-Carlisle High.

His team topped the B’s twice in three games this season, and Tortorella told the Globe he sees no reason to deviate from the team’s style.

“We are going to continue to play the way we are supposed to play,” Tortorella told the Globe. “We don’t need to do a lot of adjusting. We go straight ahead and play our style.”

A member of the CCHS Hall of Fame, Tortorella graduated in 1976 and went on to play at the University of Maine and professionally overseas. He also played a few years in the minors in the U.S. before getting into coaching, where he’s had arguably as much success as any American-born coach in recent memory.

Tortorella might be famous for his outspoken nature and occasional outbursts -- check out the video above for his "Top 10 comments" -- but he has the coaching chops to match the personality. Tortorella has notched more than 400 career wins and led the Tampa Bay Lightning to the team’s first Stanley Cup title in the 2003-2004 season.

In Concord, some say John Tortorella the NHL coach is the same “Torts” or “Torty” they remember from his days captaining the CCHS hockey team.

“He’s a spunky guy as we know,” Dick Kerr, the CCHS lacrosse coach who was a young teacher when Tortorella graduated, told 7News. “My understanding from the people that know him is that he’s always been like that. He’s a hard-nosed competitor.”