As expected, Glen Sather has wasted little time preparing to bring in the next head coach of the New York Rangers after firing John Tortorella two days ago. Recently fired Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault as well as Toronto Marlies head coach Dallas Eakins are the first two the Rangers have been formally linked to.

Rangers granted permission to speak with Dallas Eakins and Alain Vigneault.Eakins in contention in Van, NYR and Edmtn (assoc coach).

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) May 31, 2013

During his time on Broadway, there was certainly no love lost between fan favorite Sean Avery and John Tortorella. It was tumultuous at best and didn't end well. When news broke Wednesday that Torts had been dismissed as Rangers' head coach, there may have not been a happier guy than Avery.

Larry Brooks of the NY Post caught up with Avery to get his thoughts on the surprising move:

“Oh, I had a huge smile on my face, no question about it,” Avery told The Post yesterday. “It’s not that I’m happy for myself. I’m happy for the Rangers and Ranger fans.

“When I was a Ranger, no one was happier to walk into the Garden every day than me. I loved the team. I still do. I want the atmosphere to be the best it can be for the players. I want everyone in New York to be proud of the team. That’s why I felt the way I did [on Wednesday] and that’s why I sent that tweet.”

Here's the tweet Avery was referring to:

Bob McKenzie at TSN says if Mark Messier is interested, he can't be ruled out as a contender for the Rangers vacant head coach position, but there's no hurry to get him behind the bench.

McKenzie adds that Edmonton talked to Messier about considering their head coach opening last offseason, however, he declined because he either wasn't prepared to commit to coaching or he didn't want to leave New York City.

...just like the rest of Rangers Nation, I'd love to see the Messiah swoop in here and lead the franchise to another Stanley Cup. But I'm sorry, putting nostalgia ahead of what's best for the success of the franchise could have devastating ramifications. Messier's only head coaching experience was for Team Canada in the Deutschland Cup and Spengler Cup in 2010. Not exactly Scotty Bowman. With the Tortorella firing and Lundqvist not getting any younger this team is obviously in win now mode, so I've got to think Sather isn't going to be willing to take a chance on Messier learning on the job. Can you say Brian Trottier?

...even with the Tortorella dismissal, I think Lundqvist is going to wait and see what the Rangers do this offseason and how the team responds to those changes to start the year before even thinking about an extension. If it gets ugly quick, you can count on Lundqvist's agent blocking all of Sather's calls and likely signing with another team next offseason. Yes, that's how huge this coaching decision is. If the wrong person is chosen, the Rangers franchise player is gone. I know Lundqvist loves the Rangers and New York, but from observing him during his eight years on Broadway, I can confidently say he loves winning more than both. Which is why, yes, taking a chance on the man who slayed "1940" could literally put the Rangers into another 54-year Cupless drought. How ironic.

Join the TheNYRBlog tonight at 9PM as we wrap up the Rangers' 2012-13 season, including the shocking news from yesterday that John Tortorella has been fired as head coach.

With John Tortorella being fired there's been a lot of posting of his top 10 media outbursts, but for me I'd rather post this video which shows how much the success of the Rangers organization meant to him...

...listen, I don't have my head in the sand when it comes to Tortorella's shortcomings. The power play was abysmal, his failure to adapt his system to the Rangers new personnel was the main reason for the team's roller coaster season and he creates his own problems with the media with his disrespectful attitude. But I truly felt the guy cared about the long term success of the franchise and had a plan in place to turn the Rangers into a perennial Stanley Cup contender by building from within. The first wave of that process was creating a core of home grown talent (ie Callahan, Dubinsky, Girardi, Lundqvist), developing youngsters like Stepan, McDonagh, Del Zotto and Hagelin while filling in the holes through free agency with talented, character veterans. With that now in place, the next wave of young players were on their way in the form of Kreider, Miller, Thomas and McIlrath to add much needed depth and continue the building process. With Torts now gone, does that process continue or will the next head coach be allowed to implement their own master plan? I'd really like to know, because I felt Torts organizational building strategy was perfect, but it was his inability to adapt to the strengths of his players that was the problem.

Larry Brooks at the New York Post reports that Glen Sather had no intention of firing John Tortorella after the Rangers were eliminated by the Bruins until a large contingent of players made it clear during their exit interviews that their head coach's "overbearing personality" was the reason for the team's lack of success this season.

While no ultimatums were given, Brooks adds that Henrik Lundqvist public non-commital to signing an extension with the Rangers was done to give a voice to the players frustration.

...if the players were so fed up with Torts and he was the problem, why did they finish the season on a 10-3-1 run and then bomb the Capitals in a Game 7? I'm not saying that they weren't frustrated with him, but I find it interesting that they finally began to live up to expectations after Sather's trade deadline moves. Isn't that more an indictment on the players underperforming up until that point than the head coach?

...to me, it looks like some of the players who had disappointing seasons and playoffs decided stabbing their coach in the back was more productive than looking at themselves in the mirror. Guess being coddled is more important than having a coach who got them to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 1997. If you remember, Renney was a players coach. How'd that work out?

...maybe the Hagelin "stinks" comment had more of a negative impact with the players than I anticipated. Or we're finding out just how much influence Lundqvist has on the decision making of the Rangers organization. BTW, there will be a ton of pressure on Lundqvist to perform this season or all of his success will be attributed to Tortorella's system. 

Meanwhile, during Glen Sather's conference call on the Tortorella firing yesterday, he briefly discussed Brad Richards being a healthy scratch in Games 4 & 5 against the Bruins saying it was an "organizational decision" and that he will decide on whether or not the Rangers will use their final amnesty buyout on Richards during their organizational meetings in June.

Teams can begin using their amnesty buyouts 48 hours after the Stanley Cup Finals ends.

Here's Sather's conference call in its entirety...

We're only a few hours removed from the announcement that John Tortorella has been relieved of his duties as head coach of the New York Rangers. And despite everyone still trying to fully grasp what has happened in the last 24 hours (including me), I'm going to - possibly prematurely - take our first look at potential candidates to replace Tortorella. Again, we're only a few hours removed from the announcement so we are very likely not anywhere close to finding out who the new guy is. So this is very preliminary guess-work. But what do we have to lose? Here are the guys who, in my mind, are in some capacity a candidate for the position or at the very least will be linked to us.

Update, 3:07 p.m.:

If you missed Sather's conference call you can listen to replay at Rangers Report by clicking here.

Update, 2:55 p.m.:

"Yes I am (going to continue as GM)" - Glen Sather #NYR

— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) May 29, 2013

...Sather has done a complete 180 with fans that last few years, but man, if the Rangers fall short again next season, he's got to be gone. Right?

Update, 2:27 p.m.:

Live audio of Sather conference call: http://betaplayer.radio.com/player/sports-radio-66-wfan-ny

Update, 2:25 p.m.:
Sather says, no decisions on Sullivan yet.

...LOL!!!!!!! I don't think anyone really expects him to survive.

...so when is Sather finally on the chopping block? Assuming this coaching decision will go a long way in deciding that.

Update, 2:20 p.m.:

#NYR GM Glen Sather says he thinks Torts "was a little bit shocked" when told he was fired

— Pat Leonard (@NYDNRangers) May 29, 2013

Sather also says he wants to have a new coach in place before the draft on June 30th.

Update, 1:54 p.m.:

Just a quick thought. You have to wonder how much Henrik Lundqvist's breakup day comments clinched this move. He said the team took "a step back" this season and "we'll see" about signing an extension. I guess his "we'll see" was whether Torts was around or not.

Proof:

There will be plenty of time this offseason to worry about Henrik Lundqvist's "We'll see" heard round the world and a potential Brad Richards buyout, so I wanted to take a few seconds to thank all TheNYRBlog readers for another amazing year on the blog.

Despite the torturous lockout, you guys came back in full force. TheNYRBlog broke numerous traffic records this season and for that I am truly appreciative.

More important, however, was the sense of community that was created this year. Tons of great discussions and debate in the comments section that spawned some true camaraderie between Rangers fans.

I also wanted to give a special shout out to the game day crew of ThrSage, Josh6, AG_Blue, ATCRyan, Betweentheworlds, DPSnotty, McPhee37, AnnoyingJoe, GLENsatherVSglennDANZIG, cb1, ivanricov, IcyCup, NYRfanInNC, johnnyb3910, PenaltySh0t, jmacwilli, NYR44, GraigGiuliani, Hotfreak, jslnyr1102, JustinRP37, AL55S, dsclaw88, Rex_Havok, craig_atherton, Jack, Dminches, thecaptain, greggray24 and everyone else who makes TheNYRBlog game notes their home base to interact with other Blueshirt fans during games. My gift to you is this...

Today officially marks the end of yet another unsuccessful season for the New York Rangers in their quest for hockey's holy grail. While not everything about this season should be looked at in a negative light, it marks the next step in the process of a team that will (at least in my opinion) be right back to, if not much further than they finished this season.

Rick Nash:

When asked to assess his playoff performance, Rick Nash said, "Good." When asked what surprised him about New York, Nash said, "Traffic."

— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) May 27, 2013

uhhh..... what?
Seriously, a player of Rick Nash's caliber doesn't go from what he did in the regular season to basically evaporating come playoff time. Somethings amiss...