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Video: Tortorella calm, analytical following loss to Jets

Tortorella

John Tortorella’s most famous dealings with the media tend to be the ones with, let’s say an edge to them, but the new Blue Jackets bench boss was calm and reflective following last night’s 3-2 loss to Winnipeg.

The general theme was that the Blue Jackets need to rebuild their confidence.

“I know it’s in the room, I know they’re better players offensively. We’re going to try to allow them to play and hopefully something happens the right way and it snowballs,” Tortorella said.

Some might have hoped that event already happened when the Blue Jackets won back-to-back contests, ending their season-opening eight-game losing streak. However, they’ve lost two games since then, dropping to 2-10-0 this season.

All of Columbus’ recent contests have been close and that at least is a change. Still, the at best mixed results towards the end of the month emphasize just how deep a whole the Blue Jackets are in. After all, this is a team that’s already nine months behind in the playoff race.

Tortorella did briefly touch on something else during the presser: That this is a young squad. There was a fair amount of hype about Columbus going into the campaign, which makes what’s happened all the more painful, but the core of this squad is almost entirely compromised of players still in their 20s. Brandon Saad and Ryan Johansen are just 23 and they could end up being a great duo for years to come.

So there’s still reason for cautious optimism in Columbus, even if this campaign is already looking bleak.

You can see Tortorella’s full press conference here: