Tortorella challenges top players
Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella was bothered Tuesday night by his team’s effort in the final two-plus periods of a 4-1 home loss to the Devils.
Wednesday, he was utterly agitated.
As much as he initially thought the Blue Jackets were “outworked,” it was “twofold” after he reviewed video of the game, a terse Tortorella said. His described the Jackets’ play as “unacceptable” and “embarrassing,” and said his players gave Devils goalie Cory Schneider “probably the easiest (42)-shot game a goalie could play.” Of his team having “bite,” he noted, “I thought it was coming, but flush it down the toilet after last night’s game … We’re starting over.”
Tortorella’s anger didn’t stem from this one bad performance in an 82-game season that had featured eight wins in the Jackets’ previous 10 games. But this “fall off the ledge” did cause his simmering frustration with his top players’ “season-long funk” to spill over.
“That’s been an underlying concern right from the get-go,” Tortorella said. “It can’t keep on going around like this. You’re not going to win games consistently in this league, and be the team you want to be, if you don’t have your top players being your top players — no matter what situation they’re in.”
Nick Foligno has three goals in the past six games, but just five goals and 11 points through one-third of the season. Alexander Wennberg has one goal and 10 points. Boone Jenner has three goals and eight points. Cam Atkinson, who figured to play freely after signing a sevenyear contract extension last month that shed the pressure on him, hasn’t recorded a point in the past five games and has nine points (six goals) for the season.
“Nope. Haven’t seen him,” Tortorella said when asked if Atkinson’s made progress.
The Jackets’ recent sixgame winning streak did nothing to alleviate Tortorella’s concern about his core players playing harder and better.
“We can slice it 10 different ways and talk about it 10 different ways — our top players haven’t been our top players,” he added. “And they have to start being our top players.”
Noted Wennberg: “Right now, I feel like we have more potential than we’re showing. … At the end of the day, you have to face reality. Right now, I’m not playing good enough.”
A putrid power play — the Jackets are 2 for 42 (4.8 percent) the past 15 games and rank last in the NHL at 8.64 percent for the season — has exacerbated their struggles. Even an average power play would boost their offensive statistics significantly.
Tortorella again refused to discuss the power play after Wednesday’s practice, and assistant coach Brad Larsen, who’s in charge of the unit, was not made available to the media.
The Jackets have managed a 17-10-1 record by relying on defensemen Zach Werenski (eight goals, seven assists) and Seth Jones (three goals, 10 assists) to provide scoring. They’ve gotten 21 goals and 27 assists combined from their top line of Artemi Panarin, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Josh Anderson.
Opponents are certain to focus on shutting down that trio moving forward, but as Tortorella pointed out, “If they’re going to use their top players to match up against a 19-year-old (Dubois), the other guys should be able to take advantage of that.”
During a team meeting Wednesday that delayed the scheduled start of practice almost 15 minutes, Tortorella emphasized that “Any player, (it doesn’t matter) what type of player you are, what you do for the team, nothing works if you don’t have an edge or compete.”
Tortorella blamed himself for some of his players’ struggles.
“One of the biggest responsibilities for me as a coach is to get our top players to play, so I’m right in there,” he said. “And that’s why I’m frustrated and not enjoying winning four, five games in a row as I watch our team play. … But eventually, the responsibility falls on them to figure this out.”