For John Tortorella, the Blue Jackets’ recent run of success coupled with a depleted lineup presents the perfect storm of opportunity.
He’s allergic to comfort and complacency. It’s a trait he wants to permeate his team’s dressing room. For young players and veterans alike, there’s an air of accountability that keeps everyone honest. If you don’t play well, you sit. If you play well, you get more minutes. It’s pretty straightforward.
In this situation, missing the likes of Alexander Wennberg, Matt Calvert and Lukas Sedlak, Tortorella doesn’t have the ability to healthy scratch some of his underperforming stars, but he does have another card to play. He’s going to continue tinkering with the line combinations — between games and during games — to keep his players on their toes and ready to go.
There are plenty of problems. Nick Foligno has three goals, or in other terms, three fewer than defenseman Zach Werenski. Boone Jenner and Brandon Dubinsky have combined for fewer goals than Sonny Milano, who can’t find a way get more than a few minutes each night on the fourth line (though he’s seen some power play time lately). Tortorella has a list of players he wants to get on track, and while they work through it, he’s going to test them in different situations.
On the other hand, one of their problems is not their record: they’re 12-7-1 entering tonight’s game in Buffalo against the Sabres. It’s the second-best 20-game record in franchise history, behind only the 14-6-0 start under Scott Arniel in 2011-12.
Christ. That’s a bad memory.
Tortorella sent a message on Friday to one of his trusted veterans, defenseman David Savard. He and Jack Johnson were important to last season’s 108-point team and handled many of the tough defensive assignments, but this year, they’ve been passed by Ryan Murray and Markus Nutivaara in both minutes and standing.
So until the Blue Jackets get back to full health — and they may not be that far away — expect Tortorella to shuffle the deck and do whatever he can to keep his top players looking over their shoulder. They’ll have new-look power play units and forward lines tonight in Buffalo, and perhaps by Wednesday, those combinations will be all-new once again.
SHORT-LIVED EMBARGO
Ok, I lied.
It’s absolutely impossible for me to institute a 30-day embargo for The Last Jedi. I was able to do it for The Force Awakens because there wasn’t as much information leaking out and we knew nothing of the story, so it wasn’t as easy to put the pieces together. But now that we have the first installment of the new trilogy in place and expecting The Last Jed to take us even further into a layered and emotional story, it’s hard to not get wrapped up in it.
Entertainment Weekly is debuting all-new covers (a set of four) this week to go along with its big cover story. You’ll find me canvassing the city to get all four of them in my possession.
YOU SHOULD BE READING
- Kyle Morrison dug into a few on-ice headlines and a huge off-ice headline in this week's "What We Learned."
- We've got reaction from around the hockey world on Cam Atkinson's seven-year extension.
- In an interview with Bob McElligott, Atkinson discussed the process of getting his new deal done.
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