Sports play a role that dances dangerously close to the hearts and minds of Vancouver fans, and the arrival of John Tortorella, a man who very well may become the Canucks new coach, was not an event that inspired mirth. The controversy stems from Tortorella's philosophical differences with the team's general manager, a philosophical clash that might reverberate throughout Vancouver's sports scene.

John Tortorella is on the verge of becoming the next coach of the Canucks, and the Vancouver fans and news media appear anything but happy about that prospect.

A bad idea that just got a whole lot worse,” Ed Willes, a Vancouver Province columnist, said on Twitter. Fans said on Vancouver sports radio shows that they would boycott the Canucks if Tortorella became the next coach.

Tortorella arrived at the Vancouver airport Friday afternoon for a third meeting with team management and was whisked out of the terminal by Canucks officials to a black limousine past a group of reporters and camera crews.

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