Breaking: John Tortorella tells rival coach to “stop whining.”

The war of words has officially begun between Columbus Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella and Washington Capitals head coach Barry Trotz.

Trotz went after one of Tortorella's players of the weekend after what was frankly a pretty blatant case of embellishment from Blue Jacket Nick Foligno on a high stick from Nicklas Backstrom. Trotz however may have gone a little hard on Foligno when he said the play was "disrespectful to the game", especially when you consider that while Foligno did embellish it appears he was genuinely tagged with the stick on the play.

Well on Monday Tortorella wasted no time in publicly defending his player, and he did so in epic Tortorella fashion by calling out his rival coach telling the media that Trotz needs to "stop whining," very clearly objecting to the characterization of Foligno from Trotz.

Tortorella strikes me as the kind of a coach who keeps a grudge as well, so don't be surprised if we see some fireworks when these two teams face off ahain in January. In fact this one may cover for all three of the remaining match ups between the two squads this season.

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