The Blue Jackets did not hire John Tortorella simply because of their 0-7 start last season. There’s a bit more to it.
At the heart of it, there were two factors: first, the obvious bad spot the team was in with no confidence and an apparent lack of direction in the midst of adversity.
They needed a cultural overhaul and management felt Tortorella was the guy to get it done.
There are few coaches in the NHL who are as old-school as Tortorella – and that’s a compliment. When he arrived in Columbus, he knew right away that a few things needed fixing before they could even think about climbing out of their winless hole and talking about getting back in contention. It wasn’t about X’s and O’s or drastically overhauling the way they play the game…the Blue Jackets needed some help between the ears, and Tortorella could see it from afar before he took the job.
They needed to figure out who they wanted to be, and how they were going to collectively get there.
He felt that, often times, individual players were a little too satisfied with their individual performances. He felt that “putting in a good effort” and not getting a result was not seen as the end of the world, which is both problematic and indicative of a cultural issue.
Thankfully, the situation was right in his wheelhouse. And from his first day on the job, he set forth on a mission with one simple goal: to raise the standard.
You will often hear Tortorella, a guy whose teams rarely if ever miss the playoffs, say things like “if you think it’s good, it’s not nearly good enough” and “don’t let it get good to you.” He hates the word "good." It bothers him. That’s why he called it out in his exit day press conference, dropping a terrific line that embodies the precarious spot on which the Blue Jackets currently sit.
“Good is the enemy of great,” he said.
Tortorella can sit in front of a microphone and tell reporters that he doesn’t care about what happened here in the past, and he’s probably (mostly) telling the truth. But don’t get it twisted: he knows full well what happened previously. And the mere thought of history repeating itself is enough to drive him crazy.
“We're out in the first round. That's the problem. That's the problem right there. So that's not success.” – Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella
When the Blue Jackets made the playoffs in 2013-14, they won their way in with a lights-out stretch run and, as the No. 7 seed, drew the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round. They were an underdog, yes, but when it’s a race to four wins, the Stanley Cup playoffs have a tendency to produce the unpredictable.
They won a couple of games but faded in Games 5 and 6, bowing out gracefully in a series that many thought would bring the Blue Jackets further along on the road to respectability. What happened, however, was the opposite: the Blue Jackets cratered in the next two seasons, including an injury-riddled 2014-15 campaign and the disaster that was 2015-16.
Complacency played a role in it. How much? Tortorella didn’t know, but he knew that establishing a new mentality and a new hunger in these young Blue Jackets was paramount in making sure they rebounded from last season’s nightmare.
He instilled in them two things:
1. You have no respect in this league. Go earn it.
2. You’ll have to earn it as a team.
Which leads us back to the original point: the Blue Jackets must make sure this season is a launching point, not a mere playoffs staycation like 2013-14 before falling backwards and having to fight like hell to get back up.
“If we're just going to be satisfied with having a good regular season and getting in (the playoffs)…that's what scares me,” Tortorella said yesterday.
As they go forward, this is the new standard. They’re not going to reach 108 points every season or have Bobrovsky on Vezina form on an annual basis, but because of what Tortorella has done with this group in a short period of time, the Blue Jackets know that anything less than repeated playoff appearances is unacceptable.
He proved that he has no hesitation to shake things up to get his point across. Tortorella gave Cam Atkinson, his leading goal scorer, a front-row seat in the 81st regular season game. He benched Brandon Saad after an underwhelming effort in Game 1 and scratched 15-year veteran Scott Hartnell later in the playoffs.
The head coach was brought in to take the Blue Jackets up a rung on the ladder, and in more ways than one, he’s done it.
