Oftentimes, new Columbus Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella is a man of too many words. The blustery, boisterous Torts has been known to shout them at players, coaches, even fans. But on Wednesday, at his Blue Jackets tenure-opening press conference, Tortorella was all about one word - confidence.
"You can talk X's and O's and analytics and all that stuff there," Tortorella said, via Jason Brough of Pro Hockey Talk. "But it's how you feel about yourself. It's amazing what you can overcome if you have that arrogance - the right type of arrogance - and strut, within your game."
Tortorella, who brings a wealth of hockey experience and a 444-371-78 career coaching record to Columbus, is set to take over a 0-7 Blue Jackets squad. He made it clear during his press conference that while analytics have taken on a larger role in the hockey world he believes NHL success comes from relentless work and a blue collar mentality.
"My coaching style, it's a pretty simple approach," he said, per Brough. "We want to pursue. We want to be aggressive. We want to go north-south and play very quickly. There's really no secrets. A lot of coaches are doing the same thing. It's making sure you're doing it better."
With a strong forward corps comprised of hard-nosed players like Brandon Saad, Nick Foligno, Boone Jenner and Scott Hartnell, under Torts, the Jackets should be able to find plenty of space on the ice and plenty of lanes for a sniper like Ryan Johansen. Unfortunately, it likely won't be the forward group that determines the Jackets success or failure this season. That falls to a blueline group that simply hasn't been up to snuff and a goaltender in Sergei Bobrovsky who recently admitted that his confidence was already "shot."
In the end, strut or no, the Blue Jackets will need more than a shot of confidence if they're going to right this season.
"There's some good players in that room, and it's a good team," said Tortorella. "It's just gone...the confidence isn't there. And so to come into a situation where we haven't gotten a point as the season's started, it's a pretty good challenge.
"But I think it will make our team better. Once we get through it. In the big picture of an 82-game schedule, this will make us better, once we do get through it."
