Tortorella finalist for coach of year

It was challenging, but the Blue Jackets’ regular season put a smile on John Tortorella’s face.

The Jackets’ coach and his staff of assistants helped their team traverse a virtual sea of injuries that lasted three months, and now the head coach is up for an award he’s earned twice before.

Tortorella was named Wednesday as one of three finalists for the Jack Adams Award, which is annually given to the league’s top coach. Other finalists are Boston Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy and Philadelphia Flyers coach Alain Vigneault.

Despite numerous injuries to key players, the Blue Jackets were 33-22-15 when the NHL suspended the season in March.

“It wasn’t difficult, quite honestly,“said Tortorella, who has a 655-515-37-120 career record in 19 seasons split between four teams. ”The guys kind of took it upon themselves, and sometimes, because of such a lineup of players that we didn’t expect in there, we were just throwing lines out there. We weren’t worried about matchups. We were just throwing the lines out there and they kind of ran with it.“

Should Tortorella win, it would be his third time and second with the Blue Jackets. He also earned the honor in 2004 while presiding over the Tampa Bay Lightning’s lone Stanley Cup championship and in 2017, while guiding the Jackets to a franchise-record 108 points.

He is 209-140-42 in 391 games during his five seasons with Columbus, making the playoffs the past four years.

Dubois returns; Murray out

The Blue Jackets got center Pierre-luc Dubois back for practice, but went through the main group’s session without defenseman Ryan Murray,

Dubois skated on his own Tuesday because of an undisclosed reason, and Murray’s absence was also kept under wraps as part of the NHL’S new policy about injury/illness disclosures.

Dubois was centering a line with rookie Alexandre Texier at left wing and Oliver Bjorkstrand on the right. Murray had worked the left point on a defensive pairing with Dean Kukan in the first two days.

Start times, exhibition

The NHL released start times Tuesday for the Blue Jackets’ first two games against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the qualifying round of the Toronto hub, along with information about an exhibition game July 30 against the Boston Bruins.

The Jackets’ tuneup against the Bruins will start at 7 p.m., while Game 1 against Toronto will start at 8 p.m. on Aug. 2 at Scotiabank Arena. The second game on Aug. 4 will start at 4 p.m., while the starting time for Game 3 on Aug. 6 (and Games 4 and 5, if necessary,) has not been announced. bhedger@dispatch.com @Brianhedger