Tortorella slams Panarin, Bobrovsky and Duchene

It’s been a rough offseason for Columbus Blue Jackets fans. After all, fans saw star players like Matt Duchene, Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky walk away via free agency for essentially nothing. Who’d the team replace them with? Gustav Nyquist and Marko Dano… ouch.

You have to feel for Blue Jackets fans. After all, they’ve suffered through some truly tough years and finally saw their team emerge as a contender last season, only to have their star players turn their back on the franchise. It’s a tough pill to swallow and Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella is reportedly “pissed off” about the team’s situation.

Check out some of these quotes from Torts during a recent conversation with Blue Jackets insider Aaron Portzline:

I’m pissed. Yeah, I’m pissed. I’m pissed for my players. I’m pissed for my organization. And I’m pissed on behalf of my city.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for all of them. I do. A tremendous amount of respect. But don’t talk about god damn winning, like you want to go somewhere to win. It’s right there in front of you. I say that very carefully because I like them all. We had lots of meetings. We had to straighten things out in certain ways at certain times last season when it was kind of going off the tracks. I’ll go individually. Dutchie (Duchene) … he’s a hockey guy, and I loved behind around him. He played really well for us. But he wanted to leave. Panarin … he just did so many great things. At 170 pounds, he’s one of the strongest guys I’ve ever coached. You know how I feel about him. It’s ridiculous (how good he is). But he left. Bob is one hell of a goalie. Bob, in the last three years, has taken step by step by step in the playoffs. He was really good, he improved in these playoffs. If he doesn’t make that save (start of the second period) in Game 1 against Tampa, who knows where it goes? That’s how it works. I respect them all. But I don’t want to hear “I want to win” when it’s right fucking here. I respect them, but I’m really pissed. It was right there, where we were really progressing. Maybe they don’t like playing for me. That’s fine. To me, eventually, you’re not playing for the coach, you’re playing for your teammates, and that’s where I saw the camaraderie and the arrogance … I could see all of that building. I guess I feel like the players. I think the players respect them, respect the rights they had to do what they did. But I’m pissed, too, just like the players. I’m saying “Hell with them, we want to be here, let’s get it together and get going.” I wish them nothing but the best, but I’m pissed that they leave Columbus, because I think we’ve got a really good thing going here.

Gotta say, I love Tort’s optimism, but I’m not sure I can share his outlook for the Blue Jackets this season. Losing Bobrovsky alone would be enough to torpedo most team’s odds… but add offensive stars like Panarin and Duchene amongst the losses and it just becomes too much to handle. 

Of course, the Blue Jackets still have the best defense pairing in the NHL with Seth Jones and Zach Werenski patrolling the blue line together. But they’ll need incredible offensive seasons from Cam Atkinson, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Nick Folgino if they’re to replace the offensive production of Panarin and Duchess. Stay tuned, Blue Jackets fans.

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