The Case For: John Tortorella Winning the Jack Adams Award

Here's his case for the Jack Adams Award, given annually to the NHL's top coach.

Stats

John Tortorella replaced Todd Richards on Oct. 21, 2015 with the Blue Jackets bottomed out at 0-7 and looking perilously lost at sea.

They lost their first game under his direction and fell to 0-8, all but assuring their playoff aspirations were gone and, in essence, rendering the final 74 games immaterial. But Tortorella summoned enough in them down the stretch – yes, they finished as a lottery team – to give him an idea of what they needed going into the summer and then into training camp.

He joined the Blue Jackets as the winningest American-born coach in NHL history and still holds that distinction. Tortorella won his 500th career game back in December (ironically against his former employer, the Vancouver Canucks) and has engineered one of the most impressive single-season turnarounds in recent memory.

After a dismal 76-point season a year ago, the Blue Jackets crossed the 100-point barrier for the first time in franchise history – and they did so in mid-March. They’ve set franchise records for wins, points and home wins and are challenging for the Presidents' Trophy, given to the club with the best regular season record.

They're now one win away from 50. Fifty! 5-0.

Making his Case

The Blue Jackets sorely needed an identity and Tortorella has provided it.

No, it’s not the defensive, shot-blocking and (insert your favorite Torts cliché here) style that many associated with his arrival in Columbus. In fact, his vision for the Blue Jackets and their style of play is quite the opposite; he knew there were several promising young players already in place (he took a liking to Alexander Wennberg early on) and a handful more on the horizon, and wanted to instill a fast and aggressive mentality in them.

“Safe is death” is a phrase Tortorella became known for back in his days coaching the Tampa Bay Lightning, and he felt the situation in Columbus, coupled with the club’s talented young players made for the ideal environment to revive it.

“We want to inflict,” he has said many times. Tortorella believes that focusing too much on the opposition can set his team up with a counter-punch mentality, rather than spending their energy worrying about what they need to do. Makes sense, right?

Perhaps most important is that they believe in what they’re doing. None of this works out if the players aren’t sold on what Tortorella and his assistant coaches (and he has two good ones in Brad Larsen and Brad Shaw) are preaching. The fact that it’s happened so quickly is a testament to Tortorella’s approach and how he’s handled each step along the way; it’s typical coach-speak to hear one say “we’re taking this one day at a time,” but really, they’ve walked that walk. It’s part of the reason why the Blue Jackets, who lost a ton of games last season, have made it 75 games into the season without losing three straight games.

The Field

By our estimation, there are two legitimate contenders along with Tortorella: Barry Trotz of the Washington Capitals and Mike Babcock of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Trotz has a sterling reputation working in his favor, and with lofty expectations entering the season, the Capitals have delivered as the NHL’s cream of the crop (at least in the regular season, which is the standard for the Jack Adams). There’s a reasonable argument that Trotz has done well to constantly push the Capitals to another level, but regardless of this award, this is a team that will ultimately be judged by what it does in the postseason.

Babcock left Detroit two years ago to become hockey’s highest-paid coach, taking on a challenge in Toronto that was quite different from his perennial playoff teams with the Red Wings. The Leafs were the NHL’s worst team a year ago, winning the draft lottery and getting the opportunity to select Auston Matthews at No. 1 overall, which has turned out well for them. Babcock has the Leafs in playoff position (third in the Atlantic Division as of Tuesday) and they’re being driven by their young stars who are thriving under Babcock’s leadership.

Should He Win It?

When you boil it down, no coach has meant more to this team than Tortorella has to the Blue Jackets. Several of the club’s top players are enjoying career seasons under his tutelage (Atkinson, Wennberg, Jones and Bobrovsky to name a few) and he has seemingly pulled all the right strings in a record-setting season. The answer is yes.

Will He Win It?

Smart money says he will. It’s hard to ignore the man who Vegas had pegged as the first coach to be fired (sorry Vegas, you were kind of really wrong here) now owning one of the NHL’s best records in its best division and not saying he’s the Jack Adams front-runner. My colleague Jeff Svoboda has said it before: the broadcasters (who vote for the Adams) tend to love the coach who is perceived to have done the most with the least.

And, as it’s written, “adjudged to have contributed the most to his team's success."

Recent Jack Adams Award Winners