Tortorella won a Stanley Cup while coaching the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004.
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After an 0-7 start to the season, changes are coming to the Blue Jackets.
The penalty kill has also had problems this season, and while those may plausibly be tied to goaltending too it’s useful to remember that Tortorella’s New York Rangers teams were consistently strong while shorthanded. “But it’s a group that’s going to be accountable, and they’re going to work very hard”.
“We know we’re in for a good challenge, but the focus is the same for us. I am going to walk if a cell phone goes off”, Tortorella said, cutting himself off. “Expectations that weren’t there past year with this club”.
Columbus made the playoffs in 2014 and almost toppled second-seeded Pittsburgh in Round 1. “Everything kept snowballing and losses kept piling up”.
In the short term, it will be the last seven games – all losses – that Richards remembers most. The same, who once got into a shouting match with former Devils head coach Pete DeBoer in a game against New Jersey. The same man, who guided them to their effort last season. “By no means does this let anyone off the hook”. Tortorella makes his coaching debut, Thursday night, in Minnesota.
Understandably, they weren’t thrilled about having to surrender a high pick to Vancouver in one of the next three drafts – the Blue Jackets determine if it’s 2016, 2017 or 2018 – especially since they were forced to pay a premium for an in-season hire. So I guess that pretty much sums it up.
Tortorella leads American-born coaches with 446 wins. To replace him, Columbus has turned to veteran National Hockey League coach John Tortorella. “Although those types of things happened a little bit, at the end of the day he made me a better hockey player without a doubt”.
“From where this team was at when I first got here, that’s one thing I’m proud of”, Richards said. “He’s part of that heartbeat of the club. He needs to be a conduit between the players and the coaching staff until I get to know the other guys”.
And Tortorella is suddenly in demand after his year off.
Tortorella acknowledged spending the past year soul-searching to determine what he might have done differently in Vancouver. “I have searched and looked at situations of what I could’ve done a better job there, and I do have a few answers with that”, he said. “But what I would say is it’s quite obvious what their motivation level is going to be and what we can expect from them as far as going out there and laying it all on the line”. That was the lone playoff appearance for Richards in six seasons as a head coach, including two with the Wild before he took over in Columbus in January 2012 when Scott Arniel was sacked. They each scored goals in Saturday’s 6-3 win over San Jose….
“We feel responsible”, captain Nick Foligno said.
“You can talk X’s and O’s and analytics and all that stuff there”, he said. “Peter Laviolette’s a good coach, clearly a good coach”.
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“I came (to Columbus) guns blazing and fired up, and a lot of it I owe to the way he coached me”, Dubinsky said.
