MoeBartoli
Checkers-to-Jackets
- Jan 12, 2011
- 13,954
- 10,154
Well, Quinn is out in NY. Will there be a Torts revival on Broadway?
Item #2: Tortorella nearly quit after 2019-20
Tortorella informed the Blue Jackets in late April that he was ready to move on from the organization after six seasons behind the bench. It became official, announced as a mutual parting of ways, last Monday.
The Athletic confirmed this week, however, that Tortorella tried to step down last offseason after the Blue Jackets were bounced from the bubble in Toronto following a qualifying-round win over Toronto and a first-round playoff loss to Tampa Bay. The veteran coach was reading the room and reading the tea leaves, realizing the direction of the club was heading was nothing close to what he thought they were building just two years earlier.
Two issues brought Tortorella back behind the bench for the final year of his contract, however.
It’s only fair to wonder how many regrets there were throughout this season, which was an awful one for the Blue Jackets.
- The Blue Jackets wouldn’t fire him, which is to say they weren’t going to pay him the $2.5 million (per his contract) if he wasn’t coaching. They’d find other work for him to do within the organization for the final year, but at a lesser rate than $2.5 million. Well, the coach is a coach; that’s what he does. The coach is also human, so the money was important.
- Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno had lunch with Tortorella, during which he urged the coach to return for one last season to “finish what we started” after four straight playoff berths with the same cluster of veteran players. Tortorella may have a flammable temper, but he’s an old softy for personal appeals, and Foligno’s pitch worked.
Tortorella is looking for his next coaching job, GM Jarmo Kekalainen is looking for a new coach, and Foligno is in Toronto, getting ready to play for the Maple Leafs in the postseason.
Yup, thanks Nick .So this really was a throw away year in every sense. Torts didn’t want to be here and it showed.
Yup, thanks Nick .
This irks me for a multitude of reasons. Question though. If Torts did just up and quit before this year, would he still have been due his salary? That's the part that confuses me, because it sounds like he didn't want to "quit", he wanted Jarmo to "fire" him so he could still get paid. Can't really blame ownership for not wanting to eat that cost during COVID.
Blame Nick all you want. Ownership getting extremely cheap isn't what you want to see.
Sounds like we were screwed from day one of this past season. Coach didn't want to be here, Players didn't want to be here. Sort of makes sense when people like Pierre LeBrun were saying things about Tort's decision making wondering if he was trying to get fired.
His comment wasn't specifically about benching Laine but an accumulation of things. With that being said, if anyone has zero f*cks to give about their job they are more inclined to subconsciously do whatever they want because they have zero care about the consequences.Porty was the first to suggest it, long before Lebrun did, and was pilloried for the suggestion. I'm still not sure you could infer that he wanted to quit from the way he handled the benchings. Torts has never been shy about handling those things his way.
I don't think he sabotaged anything on purpose but I do think he chose to things his way regardless of how management handled it. If they didn't like it it could accelerate his exit.I don’t think Torts sabotaged anything. He didn’t do anything any different this year than he did any other year here. If players thought he was sabotaging or doing anything other than his best, they wouldn’t have been so high on him and praising of him on the way out.
Actually you should be thanking Jarmo and Priest and the (effectively )absentee owner.Yup, thanks Nick .
Actually you should be thanking Jarmo and Priest and the (effectively )absentee owner.
Could have settled with him for $1.5m to $1.75 m and been done with it. What a clown show
You would pay a severance to a quitter, even though they weren't entitled to anything?
Torts a quitter? You're absurd.
He saw the writing on the wall. It's called a negotiated settlement. It happens all the time in the real world.
Atleast Koivu did the honorable thing . He knew he didn’t have it in him with covid , age , and didn’t want to let his teammates down .You would pay a severance to a quitter, even though they weren't entitled to anything?
Torts a quitter? You're absurd.
He saw the writing on the wall. It's called a negotiated settlement. It happens all the time in the real world.
Torts brought more to this franchise than any other management person in its history. He wasn't paid in the upper echelon of coaching salaries. A non brain dead organization would have recognized that his time was up and looked at it as payment for services rendered. A $1.5 million settlement would have amounted to roughly 1% of revenues. You must not have any business experience.