John Tortorella is a polarizing figure in the world of hockey. You either love him or hate him.
Well, I’m willing to bet that fans of the Columbus Blue Jackets are having a serious love-in right now.
After simultaneously stifling and overplaying Daniel and Henrik Sedin, missing the playoffs, and being chased out of Vancouver by a regime change, Torts had to wait a year for his next job opportunity. When Todd Richards was fired early in the 2015-16 season, Columbus brought in Tortorella to whip its young players into shape.
Canucks fans rejoiced. By giving up Torts (then still under contract with Vancouver), they received a second-round draft pick as compensation. Win-win, right?
Or maybe not.
Initially our smug suspicions were confirmed: Torts was a dud, clear as day. Columbus finished that season with 76 points, good for 27th in the league.
This year, however, he has proven all pundits wrong, and rewarded the patience of Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen. Columbus sits fourth in the league, with at least three games in hand on each team sitting above them. Their goal differential is second only to the powerhouse New York Rangers. Their power play is ranked first in the NHL.
And on Sunday afternoon Tortorella exorcised his West Coast demons with a win in Snowcouver. And he finally made sense to me. All his talking points were on display. A consistent, hard forecheck, balanced scoring and a sound defensive structure.
Did Vancouver make a huge mistake?
There are some interesting parallels between today’s Blue Jackets and the likely future Canucks. First, they have no true star power up front. That is to say, they don’t have a franchise centre or winger blazing the trail. (One could yet emerge, Alexander Wennberg perhaps, but it hasn’t happened yet.)
Vancouver obviously has a couple of franchise players, but the Sedins are approaching retirement. When they go (whenever that may be), Vancouver will likely turn to scoring by committee like Columbus is doing.
The Jackets are an extremely young team, particularly on defence. Their top defenders include Seth Jones (22), Ryan Murray (23) and rookie Zach Werenski (19).
With Troy Stecher (22), Ben Hutton (23) and Nikita Tryamkin (22) all playing big roles this season, Vancouver has a similar youth movement on the back end.
No. No they really didn’t
OK, do I actually think John Tortorella would have had similar success here? No, I do not.
Columbus has forward depth and youth that Vancouver can only dream of. With Brandon Dubinsky, Wennberg and Boone Jenner, they’ve got quality centres for days. Their supporting cast of Nick Foligno, Cam Atkinson and Brandon Saad makes for a dynamic mix.
Vancouver has the makings of a fresh start. Bo Horvat is impressive, and Sven Baertschi and Markus Granlund seem promising. But Columbus is miles down the road.
On the back end they are even wealthier. Does anyone miss Ryan Johansen in Columbus? Seth Jones is the big, two-way defender other teams dream of landing. Zach Werenski has been a revelation this season, a likely Calder Trophy nominee.
Oh, and they’re backstopped by a Vezina winner in Sergei Bobrovsky. Columbus is on the upswing, while Vancouver is still trending in the opposite direction.
Torts recognized it years ago. Remember his famous remarks on Vancouver’s roster?
“This is a group that has been together for a long time. It's stale. It needs youth. It needs a change. I felt that from day one. We're not in 2011. We have to stop talking about 2011. The team needs to be retooled. It's a young man's game.”
Tortorella seems to coach best when there’s top-to-bottom buy-in from his players. The team I saw play on Sunday was a (fairly) well oiled machine, each player doing his part. This is a big factor in his success. Torts has always waxed intransigent on the importance of playing away from the puck. Lo and behold, for at least two periods they absolutely stifled the Canucks. Vancouver had just 17 shots all game, including overtime.
That buy-in didn’t happen in Vancouver. The Canucks had a stack of veteran players used to playing a very different style of hockey for a very different coach for half a decade; I believe Torts got tuned out.
The media didn’t help matters either. Tortorella seems to get very easily distracted sparring with combative journalists. The smaller market in Columbus is probably better for his focus.
Tortorella is in a better situation, has the buy-in from his players, and has more pieces to work with. Columbus’ PDO ranking suggests some overachievement, but by all measures he’s been wildly successful. Go figure!
Not to diminish what Tortorella has achieved in Columbus, but everything is going this team’s way. I suspect things would not have gone quite so smoothly if he’d stayed in Vancouver.
The takeaway might be this: when the Sedins someday retire and the Canucks are in full youth movement mode, management ought to carefully select a coach who can truly help give their young players the structure to succeed.
