Raw emotions on display in Toronto
This is how a playoff series can turn on a dime.
Sunday night, the Blue Jackets are a paragon of discipline and tight-checking defense, backed by the terrific goaltending of Joonas Korpisalo. They stifle the Toronto Maple Leafs and win Game 1 of their best-of-five, play-in series in Scotiabank Arena. Final score: 2-0.
Coach John Tortorella, the mastermind behind the greatest first-round playoff upset in NHL history — last year’s sweep of the mighty Tampa Bay Lightning — is once again exerting his genius.
Tuesday night, the Jackets look like a minor-league team as they are steamrolled by the Leafs 3-0 in Scotiabank Arena. If not for Korpisalo, the score
would have been 7-0. At the end of the first period.
Tortorella is seen screaming at topline center Pierre-luc Dubois on the bench in the second period. Dubois ultimately returns fire, which is to say the young star is dialing out his famously abrasive coach. Surely, then, Tortorella is nearing the end of his tenure in Columbus.
That is one storyline pulsing through Toronto, the Wonderland of the hockey world: Torts has lost his team. Another storyline: Dubois should be suspended for a cross-check to the back of Leafs defenseman Jake Muzzin, who suffered a neck injury and was stretchered off the ice in the third period. And yet another: The hyper-talented Leafs have this series in the bag.
This is how a playoff series can turn on the dime, especially when viewed in the fun-house mirror of Toronto, the Wonderland of hockey. Let us discuss.
Tortorella’s reputation will always precede him. He melted down in his previous job, a single season in Vancouver that ended, for all practical purposes, when he attempted to storm the opposing locker room between periods. Forever will he live in infamy on Youtube.
For five years now, Tortorella has sanded his rough edges in a self-described effort to be a better coach. His humanity continues to defy his reputation.
Tortorella turned 62 six weeks ago and he is, generally speaking, in a golden age of self-awareness. For instance:
This man who once bristled when he saw Colin Kaepernick kneel during the national anthem, who once threatened to bench any Team USA player who might similarly protest, absorbed what happened in the wake of George Floyd and softened his stance this summer.
Every coach has a shelf life. Is Tortorella’s shelf life shorter than most? No. In fact, he is the fourth-longesttenured coach in the league right now. He also lasted six years in Tampa Bay and five years with the Rangers. Why? Because he’s honest (sometimes to a fault), he is dedicated to his players and he can flat-out coach. The job he has done with the Jackets is extraordinary.
Tortorella has had his family feuds (see: Vinny Lecavalier) over the years. There are those who think that he has made a shell out of Alexander Wennberg. He was getting pushback from Dubois before the coronavirus pandemic hit and the league shut down in March. How out of the ordinary is all of this, for any coach? Hard to say. I don’t perceive the beginning of the end, or the end of the end, for Tortorella. He is still wringing out the best of the Blue Jackets.
That said, Tortorella shouldn’t be surprised when an on-bench meltdown goes viral. NBC Sports has 32 cameras perched in the all-but-empty Scotiabank arena. The only surprising thing is audio has yet to emerge. For a coach who demands discipline from his players, it was stupid of him to lose his cool in that setting.
As for Dubois suddenly turning into the next Darius Kasparaitis, well, that’s bunk. Look at the whole of the play in question:
Zach Werenski dumped the puck and Dubois chased it. Muzzin turned to get inside position on Dubois, who had a full head of steam. Muzzin took his left hand off his stick to road-block Dubois. Muzzin with his free arm held Dubois from the top of the left circle all the way to the goal line. Dubois, clearly frustrated by the hold, popped Muzzin with a short cross-check to the back. Muzzin went down parallel to the endboards and continued to play the puck.
Muzzin was clearly disengaged with Dubois when he, Muzzin, strangely launched himself into the knee of Oliver Bjorkstrand. Muzzin injured his neck in a collision with Bjorkstrand’s knee.
Dubois probably deserved a minor penalty for cross-checking. Why wasn’t it called? Probably because the refs ignored Muzzin’s hold, so they let the cross-check go, too. Or maybe because the refs were letting those little shots go all night. Why did Muzzin strangely launch himself? Because he didn’t want to undercut his own teammate, Mitch Marner, who was in Muzzin’s direct path. And he didn’t see Bjorkstrand.
This was an unfortunate incident. But it was not a dirty play.
What is in the offing for Game 3 on Thursday night? What will carry over to Game 4 on Friday?
Maybe the hyper-talented Leafs and their young coach, Sheldon Keefe, who once played for Tortorella, have solved the Jackets, who can’t score.
Maybe John Tavares, Marner, Auston Matthews, et al., are too much to check. Maybe Game 2 was the turning point and the Leafs have this qualifying-round series in the bag.
We’ll have to wait and see. A playoff series can turn on a dime. marace@dispatch.com @Michaelarace1