VOORHEES, NJ — John Tortorella made it very clear he isn’t interested in discussing the past.
The Philadelphia Flyers coach enjoyed his six seasons in the same role with the Columbus Blue Jackets but isn’t spending much time dwelling on his return to Nationwide Arena when the Flyers play the Blue Jackets on Thursday (7 pm ET; BSOH, NBCSP, ESPN+ , SN NOW).
“I’m going back there to coach a hockey team,” Tortorella said Wednesday. “I have a tremendous amount of friends there, it’s a great spot. But I’m going back to coach the Flyers and try to win.”
It will be his first game in Columbus since he stepped down as coach on May 10, 2021, and although he isn’t much for sentimentality, there’s no doubt he had a positive impact on the Columbus hockey community.
“I think [the fans] will appreciate him and what he did for the organization and the community and all that,” Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said. “So I think he’ll get a warm welcome.”
Tortorella is the winningest coach in Blue Jackets history with a record of 227-166-54. They reached the Stanley Cup Playoffs four times, and in 2019 Columbus won its first postseason series, a four-game sweep of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Tampa Bay Lightning. He also won the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year in 2016-17 after leading the Blue Jackets to a franchise-high 108 points (50-24-8).
He worked as an analyst for ESPN last season.
“He is one of the biggest reasons why we had the success we did during his six years as a coach,” said the Flyers forward. Cam Atkinson, who played six seasons under Tortorella with the Blue Jackets. “And obviously it wasn’t an overnight thing, but he got us all thinking the same way and believing in each other. We started winning games and making the playoffs four or five years in a row. He’s the most successful coach in Blue Jackets history thus far and I think it’s going to be a great night for him.”
The biggest impact Tortorella had with the Blue Jackets was on the culture and building a standard of play. Prior to his arrival, Columbus had reached the playoffs twice in 14 seasons.
“As soon as he showed up, he changed the culture from Day One,” Atkinson said. “We started building that brick-by-brick mentality. He weeded out the guys that didn’t want to be there, that didn’t want to work hard. He didn’t care about who you were and how much money you made. or how old or young you were. He just demanded hard work and he got it out of his best players, and every player.
“Every team wants to win the Stanley Cup, but just making the playoffs and earning our respect around the League that every time you play the Blue Jackets it was going to be a hard game. He built that culture in the six years he was there. just with his core guys and fortunately for me I was part of that group.”
Tortorella said he couldn’t compare the building effort in Columbus with his time so far in Philadelphia, which is off to a 7-3-2 start.
“I look at this as we’re just trying to go about our business every day trying to define a standard and become that,” he said. “I’m not going to put it with any other team I’ve coached. This is a whole different type of situation, different city, different situations. So this is its own entity as far as I’m concerned.”
The Flyers said they can see similar traits to the Blue Jackets teams that Tortorella coached.
“Playing Columbus all those years, they were such a hard team to play against and you knew exactly what they were and how hard they were going to work when you played them,” forward Scott Laughton said. “I think we’re trying to build that identity.”
Tortorella, whose 680 wins in 20 seasons as coach of the Lightning, New York Rangers, Vancouver Canucks, Blue Jackets and Flyers are the most by a United States-born coach, built that identity in Columbus, and the fans will get a chance to thank him for it Thursday.
Whether Tortorella wants the attention or not.
“I know ‘Torts’ on a more personal level and he’s not a softy by any means, but he’s … an emotional guy,” Atkinson said. “I’m sure he’s looking forward to getting it over with. He’s the type of guy that doesn’t like getting any recognition, but he deserves it. I’m sure he’s going to definitely be a little emotional.”
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