If blue jackets lose tonight they have to play something like 22 over .500 to make the playoffs. They might be eliminated shortly. That's why talk of changing coaches

Hard to make trades to impact your team this early. Jackets spent money and had higher expectations. Coach is toast

Supposedly they want Claude Jullien. But lawless says Carlyle and Torts are first in line. Id fire my coach early to get Carlyle before someone else does, if I was in the market for a new coach

 

 

That didn't take long.  

 

@DarrenDreger is reporting that the @BlueJacketsNHL have fired head coach Todd Richards. John Tortorella has been named interim coach.

 

I can't believe anyone would hire Tortorella....

We play in Columbus Oct 31.  Should be fun.

I agree.  How on earth does that clown get jobs.  Sure, he will yell and scream and punish the players and they might even perform better under duress.  But I cant imagine it lasting very long.  In fact, since he's "Interim", if Im the players, Im tuning him out sooner rather than later to prevent "Interim" turning into a multi year deal.

 

I had heard he still had time on his Canucks deal to the tune of $2m per year.  So Jackets must be paying him a ton.

Blue Jackets have to give the Canucks a 3rd round pick in compensation for hiring a guy they fired. Such a weird system...

So they get Torts as a coach AND they give up a 3rd round pic. Just gets worse and worse.

Blue Jackets have to give the Canucks a 3rd round pick in compensation for hiring a guy they fired. Such a weird system...

Because he's still under contract?

 

But shouldnt the Canucks be thrilled?  I'd assume this means they are no longer obligated to pay him.

So they get Torts as a coach AND they give up a 3rd round pic. Just gets worse and worse.

I can only assume they went to Randy Carlyle and he said no.  Because passing up Carlyle for clownshoe is mind boggling.  Hell, if its interim, I'd have considered Noel.

I'd guess the happiest people with this are the media. A whole new season of sound bites.

Media has corrected themselves and it's actually a 2nd round pick b/c the hire was made in-season.

Blue Jackets have to give the Canucks a 3rd round pick in compensation for hiring a guy they fired. Such a weird system...

It's so stupid that teams have started doing that now. Just so petty. They should be happy that they don't have to pay fired people never mind trying to milk draft picks out of the team hiring these people. It goes against the spirit of the rule. Compensation for hiring people that teams want to keep makes 100% sense, draft picks for fired people totally ridiculous. 

Yup

 

Greg Brady ‏@bradyfan590 17m17 minutes ago
Utter incompetence in Columbus. Canucks might get a Top 40 pick for privilege of stopping payments on fired coach they were thrilled to fire

Randy Turner is one of those guys that thinks he's hilarious but he's actually not remotely funny.  But this is his best line ever:

 

randy turner        ✔ @randyturner15

FYI, original premise of Back to Future 2 was for Marty McFly to travel to Oct. 21, 2015 to stop Blue Jackets from hiring John Tortorella.

@Teddier: Now if Chevy could roll Buff into Saad whilst the Blue Jackets are going through this bi-polar period that would be great...

@Real_ESPNLeBrun: On the 2nd-round pick going to Van for Torts, the Jackets have until June 1 to decide if it's 2016, 2017 or 2018 pick

@TSNBobMcKenzie: John Tortorella's contract with CBJ is for this season and two more, same as his remaining time on VAN contract. VAN paying "some of it."

yikes, talk about taking cyanide to cure a headache...just ridiculous.  Torts is the worst coach in the NHL right now.  Hiring an underling would have been so much smarter than this.

Columbus management has made so many mistakes that the coach takes blame for, should never have signed Horton to free agnet contract as insiders had always thought he was a bit damaged, signed goalie bob which at the time seemed like a good deal but will be an albatross contract, gave Foligno way to much money and the trade for Saad is still up in the air, add to it there best player has 5 guys making more money than him.

This must be exhilarating for anybody in the Canucks management. They save money, move on from a bad hire and get a high daft pick back in return. They must be thinking about who else they can fire.

And Bob Hartley and the Calgary Flames must now be marking their date with the Blue Jackets on their calendars.

"Stay away from the corridors, Bob!"

Happy to see John Tortorella back in the NHL. An idiot doesn't win a Stanley Cup, make eight playoff appearances, and win 444 regular season games by accident (First American coach to win 400 games by the way). It's not his fault Mike Gillis killed the Canucks, and it's unfortunate most people's opinions of him are based off of that season, and his temper. If he wins (and his track record proves he does that quite regularly) then that's what matters most. If you choose not to like the guy because of his antics, so be it I get that, but he's a winner, bottom line. Great hire by Columbus.

Happy to see John Tortorella back in the NHL. An idiot doesn't win a Stanley Cup, make eight playoff appearances, and win 444 regular season games by accident (First American coach to win 400 games by the way). It's not his fault Mike Gillis killed the Canucks, and it's unfortunate most people's opinions of him are based off of that season, and his temper. If he wins (and his track record proves he does that quite regularly) then that's what matters most. If you choose not to like the guy because of his antics, so be it I get that, but he's a winner, bottom line. Great hire by Columbus.

I think the question that needs to be answered is does his coaching style still fit in today's NHL. Even if he does turn things around in Columbus and makes them into a winner, I wouldn't want him representing and being the face of my franchise.

Happy to see John Tortorella back in the NHL. An idiot doesn't win a Stanley Cup, make eight playoff appearances, and win 444 regular season games by accident (First American coach to win 400 games by the way). It's not his fault Mike Gillis killed the Canucks, and it's unfortunate most people's opinions of him are based off of that season, and his temper. If he wins (and his track record proves he does that quite regularly) then that's what matters most. If you choose not to like the guy because of his antics, so be it I get that, but he's a winner, bottom line. Great hire by Columbus.

 

No coach in the NHL is worth a top 40 draft pick, IMO. Torts antics aside, it's a pretty bad move made of desperation.

Torts is 100% pure clownshoes.

 

And Vancouver should have been the final nail, but the coffin was years in the making.  Zombie Torts rising from the dead, just in time for Halloween.

I love all the stories about how Torts knows he has to change and has evolved and will be better and different.  EXACTLY the same things he and the media said when Vancouver hired him.

I hope Ryan Johansen and Foligno are in great shape because they are going to be playing 40 minutes a night now.

The difference is... the media barely exists in cbj. Also torts wasn't the guy who traded loungo

Another BJ loss.

 

OT: Watching the WSH/VAN game on SportsNet. I can not believe the amount of crap inplace adverts they have on the glass. It's horrible.

Those ads are starting to creep in other sports too, i guess they need  more and more revenue to balance the amount paid for broadcast rights. Not a fan either.