from Kevin Hirschfield at the Toronto Sun,

And he's also looking forward to entering what he thinks will be a looser environment in the Rangers dressing room.

Former coach and current Canucks bench boss John Tortorella, known for his fiery demeanour, took a lot of heat for the team's underachieving superstars which led to a second-round playoff exit last season and he was canned soon after.

Asham says he enjoyed 'Torts', but says some of the players were getting fed up with his act.

"He's very intense and he wants to get the most out of his players," said Asham. "He does a decent job of doing that, but when you're in the same spot for a certain amount of years and you have the same players, the guys seem to get fed up with all the screaming and stuff.

"Having a new face coming in and having a little more fun will be good. It was pretty intense in the dressing room, guys were a little uptight, but now we have a new guy and we can start laughing and having some fun."

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