John Tortorella has made no secret of his affinity for Mike Sullivan, his counterpart and former top assistant. During last week’s visit to Pittsburgh, the Blue Jackets' volatile coach called Sullivan the best coach he’s ever worked with and “a great coach and even better person.”
However, Tortorella has no such affection for the team that now employs Sullivan. After Wednesday’s morning skate Tortorella let that be known again, saying of the Penguins: “Quite honestly, I don’t like the team.”
Why is that, coach?
“Oh, a lot of things,” Tortorella said. “But I’m not going to talk about them now.”
Fair to say, Tortorella has never liked the Penguins. Five years ago while he and Sullivan were coaching the Rangers, Tortorella did talk about the Penguins, infamously ripping into Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and the entire Pittsburgh organization.
On April 6, 2012, Torts called the Penguins "one of the most arrogant organizations in the league," adding that "they whine about this stuff all the time, and look what happens." He then referred to Crosby and Malkin as “their two (bleeping) stars.”
Of course, Crosby and Malkin played a central role in the Penguins' 3-2 shootout win over Columbus last week in which the two teams combined for 24 penalty minutes. In that game, Malkin fought Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno while Crosby tangled with Seth Jones.
Tortorella said Wednesday that the Blue Jackets’ rivalry is just developing after two postseason meetings the last four years, both won by the Penguins.
Tortorella walked back his comments about not liking the Penguins by saying it’s “not in a personal way. But it's a team that we want to beat. Maybe I’m defining it as a little bit of a rivalry. It’s a great building. We respect the team. It’s a really good hockey team we’re playing against but you have to have a little bit of an edge when you play against them and that’s the way we have to play.”