John Tortorella Says What The Rest Of Us Were Thinking

If you've been hanging around here for any length of time, you've noticed that Tampa Bay Lightning head coach John Tortorella is always good for a provocative quote or three. In his post-game comments following Friday night's loss to the Devils, however, Torts may have stepped over the line when he got personal in an exchange with N.Y. Post writer Larry Brooks (video after the jump, with the "good stuff" starting around one minute in -- warning: unless you work on the docks, there's some NSFW language in the clip).

The events that led up to the exchange -- late game rough stuff in a frustrating loss -- are pretty well-documented. Also well documented? Brooks' questionable reputation. For example, there was the time Brooks was sued by then-Vancouver GM Brian Burke for defamation for making allegedly-baseless accusations about Burke's role in the Todd Bertuzzi-Steve Moore incident. Brooks has implied that there was a League-wide conspiracy that prevented Jaromir Jagr from winning the Hart Trophy last year (though his opinion of J.J.'s value changed pretty quickly and is no doubt back to deification following a strong first round), and is routinely ridiculed on the Intertubes for his rumor-mongering.

Anyway, whether or not you think it's acceptable for a coach to curse at a reporter (personally, I don't, though the two reportedly were laughing about it later), I'd like to thank John Tortorella for saying to Larry Brooks what we've all said to ourselves about the scribe numerous times over the years: "Get the [expletive] out of here."