John Tortorella isn't afraid to say what's on his mind.
That, coupled with a disappointing loss in Toronto in which the Blue Jackets out-shot the Maple Leafs by a 57-28 margin, made for quality radio.
In his weekly radio hit on Carpenter and Rothman on 97.1 The Fan in Columbus, Tortorella emptied the tank when discussing the play of his backup goaltender, Joonas Korpisalo.
After the conversation began with a fair analysis of his team’s ability to generate chances but fail capitalize offensively, it took a turn when the topic of conversation turned to Korpisalo.
“I don’t think Korpi’s that good on the first two goals, quite honestly, but we gave them something for free," Tortorella said. "You work hard on a back-to-back and you get squat for it. That’s my concern.”
He continued: "I thought it was an off night for Korpi. We have the puck all night long. They didn’t have the puck much at all, and we gave them two bad goals and two goals for free. It’s hard to win (playing like that).”
Later, Rothman, one of the show’s hosts, asked Tortorella specifically about the second goal, in which David Savard was attempting to clear James van Riemsdyk out of the net-front area, and how that may have taken away Korpisalo’s ability to see the play, or the puck.
“Gahh, he’s gotta be ready. He’s not ready. He’s not ready. I don’t care," Tortorella said. "I don’t care who’s in front of him, you need to be square and on your post. He’s not ready. You need to be square on your post, you don’t see the puck, that cannot go in on the short side. It should hit you just through your positioning. Korpi’s good at that. I’m not upset with him, he’s played really good hockey for us, but we can’t have a sloppy game like that at this time of year."
"We get 25-30 scoring chances for us. And it makes it tougher on him, cause he’s watching that guy (Toronto goalie Frederick) Andersen down there making save after save. When we’re down 2-0, the scoring chances at that time, we have eight scoring chances, they have three. And two of them are in the back of the net. So it can’t happen that way, so don’t even start with me, Anthony, about making excuses for him on that goal.”
He wasn't done there, either:
“Stop the damn puck. He needs to stop those goals. And he made some really good saves in the third people, he kept us in there. And listen, Korpi’s a really good goalie, and he’s got such a bright future. But we cannot be down 2-0 at that point in time. That’s tough to overcome. And as it’s always talked about with goalies... you get judged by the saves you don’t make as a National Hockey League goalie. That was an off night for him.”
There's no doubt that the responsibility for the Blue Jackets loss falls at least somewhat on the play of Korpisalo. Their offense, which is last in the NHL in shooting percentage, managed just three goals on 57 shots, despite numerous chances to capitalize.
But Korpisalo will be counted on again this season to give relief to his star-netminder, Sergei Bobrovsky.
"Korpi's going to have to play some, here. As a coach, you have an idea of about 58-60 games that I want Bob to play," Tortorella said. "As you get down the road here, if we don't get on a run, and we're trying to find that (playoff) spot, I may have to make adjustments as far as how much Bob plays. You can have a rested goalie in the playoffs but you need to get in the damn playoffs, first.
"I'm not getting too far ahead of myself, I know Bob is going against Philly and Bob's going against Pitt, and we'll see where we go from there. But I think he's fully rested."
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