O’Neil remembered Tortorella the player as tough and relentless.

“He wasn’t a fighter, but he always had his nose in on stuff,” O’Neil said. “He was always hitting guys, sticking guys. When I got him, I wished there were four or five of him. He wasn’t a talented hockey player, but he was hard-nosed. He gave 110 percent every time he played.”

When O’Neil retired before the 1986-87 season, Tortorella took over as full-time coach, leading the Lancers to the league championship. Tortorella remains, in many ways, the same coach he was in Virginia.

He wants a team that forechecks rather than one that sits in wait in the neutral zone, which is Vigneault’s approach. He relies heavily on his best players, as he did in Tampa Bay with Martin St. Louis and Brad Richards. The forwards on his top line, Ryan Kesler, Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin, are logging more ice time per game than any other forwards in the N.H.L. except Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby. The Canucks are in the top 10 in blocked shots, after finishing 27th last season.

A Breaking Point

When Tortorella was fired, Sather’s official explanation was that it was time for a change. But some players whispered off the record that they had become fed up with Tortorella’s slights, benchings and mercurial moods.

According to the recently retired goalie Martin Biron, a Ranger for the last half of Tortorella’s tenure, the truth lies somewhere in between. “I don’t know that I would say he lost the team,” Biron said. “Last year being a half-season lockout year with no training camp really threw everything into a shambles, too. There are a lot of organizations that have made coaching changes over the last 12 months, involving some of the best coaches in the N.H.L. It’s nothing to do against an individual.

“If I look at Peter Laviolette in Philadelphia and Lindy Ruff in Buffalo and Torts, those are three very headstrong, intense coaches that walk that fine line between being on the good side of it and the bad side of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if years down the road we look and say that lockout year really changed the plan and the way these coaches were able to send their message to the players. And they walked the other side of the line, and it didn’t work so well for them.”

The benching of Richards during last season’s playoffs may have been a breaking point between Tortorella and the players. Tortorella and Richards won a Stanley Cup together when Tortorella was coaching Tampa Bay in 2004.