What are they thinking??
The Columbus Blue Jackets have decided to try to correct their disastrous 0-7 start by firing coach Todd Richards and replacing him with none other than our old friend, John Tortorella.
The man who was fired after one season as the Vancouver Canucks dropped 17 places in the NHL standings in 2013-14 bounces back to coach again.
The Canucks will visit Columbus next month, in the third game of a seven-game road trip on November 10th, then Torts will make his return visit to Rogers Arena on Thursday, February 4.
My mind is blown. I'll be watching with great fascination to see how Torts and Willie line up head-to-head. I'm also pretty excited to see Torts face his nemesis Bob Hartley again. The Blue Jackets host the Calgary Flames on January 21st.
I admit, I was one of the people who thought Columbus would be a team to be reckoned with this season. They had that great finish last year and Todd Richards seemed to do a masterful coaching job when he guided Team USA to the bronze medal in Prague at the World Championships.
Elliotte Friedman dug deep into the Jackets' situation in his
30 Thoughts column yesterday. He mentioned Guy Boucher and Jacques Martin as being other possible candidates for the Jackets, but said Boucher's unavailable because he's coaching Bern in the Swiss League this year and doesn't have an out clause.
Martin is currently the special assistant to the head coach in Pittsburgh. With the Pens also floundering in the early going, I'm not so sure they'd have been willing to let Martin go right now, either.
So, the Jackets are left with Torts. And it sounds like the Canucks have "retained salary," if you will, to make the hiring happen:
It'll make for an interesting sideshow to the season—and it's great news for the Canucks.
That's one way to recoup a draft pick, Jim Benning!
The only downside—the Jackets can defer the pick for two seasons if they choose.
It could easily be five years before we know whether the Canucks got a useful player out of the deal.
To illustrate this point, does the name Quinton Howden mean anything to you? He's the player that Florida chose with Vancouver's 25th-overall pick from the Keith Ballard trade back in 2010.
Ballard hasn't played since he was injured on a terrible hit last December and is leaning towards retirement. I noticed last night that Howden, now 23, recorded his first-ever two-point game. It was his 38th career NHL game: after playing parts of the last two seasons, he may now be on his way to becoming a regular.
The Torts situation will be very interesting to watch. His first game behind the bench will be on Thursday in Minnesota.
Now—back to our regularly-scheduled Canucks news.
The team is practicing at UBC again today after unveiling another round of new line combinations on Wednesday.
We can put the rumours of a feud to rest. At last, Radim Vrbata is back with the Sedin twins.
The twins can use a spark as well. Henrik has just two points in his first six games and while Daniel has four point, the one that got away on Sunday is haunting him.
Hopefully the offensive chemistry will kick in quickly. The Washington Capitals looked scary-good as they dominated the Calgary Flames with a 6-2 win on Tuesday—not just chasing Karri Ramo from the game, but from the team!
The Flames put Ramo on waivers today after signing him to a one-year, $3.8 million one-way contract last July. Is there a team that needs goaltending and can take on that kind of cap hit?
Injured Canucks Jacob Markstrom and Chris Higgins were both on the ice on Wednesday, but there's no timeline yet for the return of either player.
One final highlight from Wednesday's practice:
I saw some reports yesterday that it was Jared McCann, rather than Adam Cracknell, who was centring the fourth line, while Cracknell skated as an extra defenseman. Sounds like that's the same configuration we're seeing today:
Both Chris Higgins and Jacob Markstrom took to the ice once again before the main practice began.
Higgins is a strong supporter of BC Special Olympics. He was out last night, along with the rest of the team, at the Sports Celebrities Festival dinner.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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