Blue Jackets fire Todd Richards, hire John Tortorella

Tortorella previously coached the Tampa Bay Lightning, the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks.

Considering the Blue Jackets have only made the playoffs twice in their 15-year history and have a franchise record of 451-532-33-105, it’s kind of remarkable that the 2015-16 edition of the team is off to the worst start ever. “It’s a group that’s going to be accountable”. That number dipped a bit during the lockout season (52 percent) and took an even more precipitous drop when Tortorella was hired in 2013-14 (50.9).

Tortorella’s last head coaching job in the NHL was with the Vancouver Canucks, when he took over a team that had made the playoffs for five straight seasons and finished sixth-last in the league.

Tortorella, who was given a three-year contract, is a completely different personality than Richards. There’s expectations (now) that weren’t there past year with this club.

Actually, after last night’s 4-0 loss at home to the New York Islanders, they’re off to a historically bad start. That was fine when the Blue Jackets were winning and he was seen as a calming influence, especially last season as he navigated a team-record 508 man-games lost but led the Blue Jackets to a 15-1-1 record to finish the season. A half point a game is what you would expect from Atkinson so it’s tough to say he’s underperforming. “Everything kept snowballing and losses kept piling up”. He’s close at minus-eight, but Dalton Prout and David Savard are a whopping minus-nine each through seven games. “We can’t hang our heads and feel sorry for ourselves and make excuses”.

The Blue Jackets begin the John Tortorella era on the road in Minnesota as Columbus looks for their first victory of the season.

“There’s a few good players in that room, and it’s a good team”, said Tortorella. “We’re 0-6. I think (Atkinson) – and there are other people, too – that we we need more from”.

Still, the players anticipate the Blue Jackets will be energized in their first game under new coach John Tortorella. I personally loved the guy.

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.

They essentially said that it was Tortorella’s turn to terrorize the Columbus Blue Jackets, for now. “He’s part of that heartbeat of the club”. I do believe he’s one of those coaches that can get the most out of a team in the short term but his message gets old pretty quick in the long term.

In a bar where hockey die-hard fans wear their emotions on their sleeves, frustration over the Blue Jackets season is easy to find. “There’s really no secrets – a lot of coaches are doing the same thing”. “We’re going to spend time on how we play”, Tortorella said.