The Loop
John Tortorella absolutely lambasting the refs and the NHL's review process is the best John Tortorella
It's been awhile since we've checked in on our good friend John Tortorella, which is probably because his Columbus Blue Jackets, while still in the playoff hunt, aren't having as magical of a season as they did a year ago. But mainly, it's because Torts hasn't been, well, Torts. The guy that produces press conference gold seemingly once a week. There's been no rants, no fights with cell phones and no brutal, sometimes even disgusting honesty from the NHL's content king.
Apparently, he was saving all that pent-up rage for a special occasion, and that special occasion was Sunday's postgame press conference after a gutting loss to the Chicago Blackhawks in a shootout. However, the rage was not directed at his team nor the opposing team, but the referees and the NHL's review process in general.
The situation: After blowing a two-goal lead, the Blue Jackets were forced to try to win the game in overtime, and they had a prime chance to do so when Chicago took a too many men penalty with 19 seconds remaining. Well, according to Torts, it should have been 19.2 seconds, because that's when the whistle was blown. But another full second and a tenth of a second ran off the clock, and the officials never corrected the error. The Blue Jackets went on to score as time was expiring, but after review it was determined the puck did not cross the line in time. Had that 1.1 seconds not run off the clock, the goal would have counted and the Blue Jackets would have won the game. Instead, they went to a shootout, where starting goalie Joonas Korpisalo was injured on the Blackhawks' first shot attempt. Chicago went on to win in the shootout.
Needless to say, Torts was NOT thrilled with the course of events:
Nobody slams the podium better than Torts. You know he wants to take the Tim Hortons cup and whip it at someone, then rip the podium apart piece by piece and whip all of those pieces at someone, then find the head official in the locker room and kick the shit out of him. But all he can do is attempt to remain calm and slam the podium with an open palm and scream "I'M NOT TAKING ANY GODDAMN QUESTIONS." By the way, he's 100-percent right. Between this, the Clemson-Ohio State game and the Seattle-San Francisco game, it really makes you wonder why we keep allowing old farts both on the field and in a control room to have such a huge impact on the outcome of games. It's maddening. We need more coaches to call out this garbage like Torts does here, not that that will actually accomplish anything.