"He's Up And Down Like A Toilet Seat" - John Tortorella Is The Wordsmith Of A Generation
Len Redkoles. Getty Images.There are very few things that I think would completely cripple any shred of self-confidence I have quite like John Tortorella comparing my performance to a toilet seat.
When you think about what he's trying to say here, it's not really all that bad. It's not like Torts is saying that Morgan Frost is the actual toilet which is filled with piss and shit. He's just the seat. So sometimes he's up, sometimes he's down. Could be worse. He could be like a toilet seat in the Wells Fargo Center which always just stays down and then gets covered in piss midway through the 1st period. But I like to think Torts is talking more about his personal toilet seat. Goes up when it needs to, goes down when it should be, well-maintained, regularly cleaned, the whole deal. At the end of the day, it's not the worst thing for a 23-year-old player to hear while he's still trying to find his game at the NHL level.
But if we're taking connotation into consideration here, I just don't think that referring to someone as a toilet seat is ever meant to be taken as a term of endearment. This is premium Torts instilling either a level of fear or a level of motivation in his players of the likes which they've never felt before. It's up to each player if they decide to take it as fear or motivation. You either shit your pants on your way out of the league, or you turn into an absolute weapon. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens to Morgan Frost.