On Wednesday, Todd Richards became the first coaching casualty of the 2015-16 season after his Blue Jackets opened the year 0-7-0. To replace him, Columbus has turned to veteran NHL coach John Tortorella.
The decision to make a coaching change is deeply unsurprising, given the team’s record. The decision to hire Tortorella, who combines a reputation as a fiery, combative presence with long experience coaching at the highest level, is an obvious one. And, as is usually the case in these things, it is debatable the degree to which coaching was really the problem.
The press conference announcing the change was streamed live on the team website and was interesting in terms both of what was and what wasn’t given much attention. Tortorella repeatedly emphasized the virtues of confidence and the need to get some positive momentum; general manager Jarmo Kekalainen focused on the urgency of changing direction. Somehow goaltending didn’t really come up.
Make no mistake: If Sergei Bobrovsky and Curtis McElhinney were delivering NHL-calibre goaltending, Richards would still have ...
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Article written by Jonathan Willis
John Tortorella’s Success with Blue Jackets Largely Outside of His Control
October 21st, 2015 by Jonathan Willis Leave a reply »
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