The top moments from John Tortorella's Blue Jackets career

It's the end of an era in Columbus as John Tortorella and the Blue Jackets
have mutually agreed to part ways
.
It's fair to say he will go down as the top bench boss in the Jackets' first two decades. Not only did Tortorella's six-season tenure produce a franchise-record 227 wins and the best four seasons by point percentage in team history, he was voted the coach for the franchise's 20th anniversary team selected this past year by media, players and other notable names.
The 12th-winningest coach in NHL history and fourth longest-tenured NHL boss before today's announcement, Tortorella also led the team to four of its six postseason appearances thus far as well as the only two postseason series victories in franchise history.

On top of that, he helped build a winning culture in Columbus, helping mold the franchise into a consistent winner with his fiery personality and emphasis on accountability.
"I love the guys on the team," Tortorella said after last night's win against Detroit to end the season. "The guys that we have been working with for the past four or five years in trying to build this, I love those guys because we grew up together. I know I'm old, but when I came here, this was a new challenge and we all accepted that to try to gain respect and get this organization on the right track. I learned so much from them, and it was just a togetherness as we were going through it, through some turmoil with some of the (crap) that was going on with our club. We became close."
Here are some of the top things we'll remember from Tortorella's tenure with the Blue Jackets.
The Tampa sweep: There's no question what the top accomplishment in Tortorella's tenure was, and two years later, it's still stunning how it all came together. After making a series of big moves at the trade deadline, the 2018-19 team was dead in the water, five points adrift from a playoff spot with eight games to play going into a game in Vancouver. While in the city, the team -- which dealt with constant rumors about its future, in particular that of free agents-to-be Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky, all season -- staged a team meeting, then went out and beat the Canucks by a 5-0 score. That ignited a run of seven wins in eight games to finish the year and clinch a postseason berth, but all that got the Blue Jackets was a first-round series with a stacked Tampa Bay team that tied the NHL record with 62 regular-season wins. Given no chance by just about every pundit in the hockey world, Columbus was down 3-0 after the first period of Game 1 before rallying to win a 4-3 final. A 5-1 win followed and put Tampa Bay on the ropes, and Tortorella's squad seized the opportunity back in Columbus, captured Game 3 by a 3-1 score before a 7-3 win to complete the sweep in front of a roaring Nationwide Arena. Hockey fever gripped the town like never before after the first series win in franchise history, and Columbus would go on to give Boston all it could handle before a 4-2 series loss in round two.
The 16-game win streak: It started innocently enough. After Tortorella spent the 2015-16 season getting to know his team after taking over seven games into the campaign, not much was expected of the Blue Jackets the next season, but a young core and veteran leadership meshed nicely as the year began. Columbus got off to a solid 11-5-4 start, but nothing could have prepared fans or the NHL for what was about to happen. The Blue Jackets beat Tampa Bay by a 5-1 score on Nov. 29, 2016, then wouldn't lose again for more than a month. By the time Columbus beat Edmonton, 3-1, on Jan. 3, 2017, the Jackets had won 16 games in a row, easily a franchise record and one short of the NHL's consecutive wins mark. The streak finally came to an end Jan. 5 in Washington, but by then the Jackets were 27-5-4 and all but assured of a playoff spot. By the end of the year, Columbus won a franchise-record 50 games, and while playoff success eluded the team with a first-round loss to eventual Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh, the season was the best in team history to that point Tortorella won the Jack Adams Award as the top coach in the NHL for the second time at the conclusion of the campaign.
The Toronto series win:Tortorella was a finalist for the Jack Adams a second time in his tenure, again earning the honor during the 2019-20 season that was interrupted by a pandemic but still showed the true depth of what the Jackets built during Tortorella's tenure. Columbus was counted out by the experts going into the season after the losses of such names as Panarin, Bobrovsky and Matt Duchene, and those pundits looked smart when the Blue Jackets got off to a 11-14-4 start. But even as injuries mounted on an almost daily basis, Columbus turned it around, going 19-2-5 over the next 26 games to get back in the hunt. They were still battling for a playoff spot when Covid-19 forced a pause to the NHL campaign, and the Blue Jackets were one of 24 teams invited to the postseason bubble when play resumed in August. Columbus was given an 8 vs. 9 matchup with an offensively stacked Toronto team, and the series went back and forth, with Columbus overturning a 3-0 deficit to capture Game 3 in overtime before Toronto did the same in the dying moments of Game 4 to force a deciding Game 5. Most expected the Jackets to wilt after the stunning loss, but Columbus instead showed its resilience by shutting out the talented Leafs, taking a 3-0 victory to win the series 3-2. Tampa Bay gained revenge in the next round on its way to the Cup -- aided by a five-overtime win against the already tired Jackets in Game 1 -- but it's fair to say Tortorella wrung the most out of the Jackets a year ago.
Off-the-ice persona:There are few personalities in the NHL who can make headlines like Tortorella over his career, and that was the case in his time in Columbus as well. His fire and passion often helped Columbus take on big challenges and establish a culture of hard work and grit, and his candor was unique and appreciated in a sports world that sometimes doesn't reward it. As such, sometimes those traits got him in trouble, especially in press settings. But whether he was answering a reporter's cell phone during a press conference, ranting about officiating or discussing Panarin's gastrointestinal distress, Tortorella was often must-see TV. Outside of those noteworthy moments, though, he was never afraid to peel back the curtain and give honest, detailed, well thought-out answers to matters that particularly interested him. Add in his work in the community -- particularly with rescue animals, which he discussed each week on his "Hockey and Hounds" spot on local radio -- and Tortorella spent a lot of time trying to make a difference, even if he rarely wanted such efforts publicized. On top of that, he often went out of his way to defend the Columbus community and fan base when he felt it was being unfairly attacked by those across the league. He's one of a kind, both on and off the ice.