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John Tortorella is not one to sugar coat things. When it comes to the Columbus Blue Jackets, there's not much to sugar coat anyway.

After the Blue Jackets lost a 5-3 decision to the Vancouver Canucks despite holding a 3-2 lead in the third period, Tortorella didn’t want to dwell on the positives after the game as he has a few previous times this year.

“We’ve got to stop these moral victories,” a visibly frustrated Tortorella said after the game.

He later noted that he thought the team played well for the most part, but that they found a way to lose again. The Jackets gave up three goals in the last half of the third period, including an empty-netter, to watch the game slip away.

The Jackets have also needed more out of their best players, namely captain Nick Foligno.

Though the Blue Jackets eventually did grab the 3-2 lead in the third period, Foligno had a golden opportunity to take the lead a bit earlier with the whole net to shoot at. He didn’t manage to put it in, thanks in part to a spectacular effort from Jacob Markstrom to get back in his net to get a piece of the shot after a brutal giveaway. Foligno was inches from scoring.

Tortorella was asked if Foligno is just unlucky or snake-bit. The head coach wasn’t about to let his captain off the hook.

Via Michael Arace of the Columbus Dispatch:

“That’s great. Snakebit. We need a big play out of him. He had a couple of chances to score. We’re going to say, ‘Nick, his game is coming.’ But to me, he needs to make a big play.”

The coach may be right here, however unlucky that particular play was for the Blue Jackets skipper. Foligno has just one goal this season and six points over 16 games. He is currently on pace for a 30-point season after notching a career-best 73 points last year.

Some don't agree with Tortorella's approach, but the honesty about certain things is fairly refreshing. He's also probably not saying anything Foligno doesn't already know, but it reiterates the message in a public forum. Perhaps it's a motivational tactic, or simple button pushing, but Tortorella's remarks throughout his postgame presser that you can watch above were made with purpose.

They need more from Foligno, no doubt, but if they were expecting him to be a 70-point man again, that was probably a pipe dream anyway. Foligno notched 31 goals last year, trumping his previous career best by 13 goals. Last year was his eighth year in the league. At 28 years old, it is very difficult for a player to repeat that kind of season without much proof in the larger body of work.

The more analytical among hockey writers didn’t even need advanced stats to openly doubt if Foligno could sustain last season’s performance. His shooting percentage came in at 17 percent, well above his career averages. Take nothing away from what he did last year, because he was very good, but when you’re expecting that to become the norm for a player getting ever closer to age 30, it’s risky.

Foligno's performance this year is not lost on him, but he's trying to remain positive as he feels like he’s on the verge of breaking out.

Foligno also called the Blue Jackets' performances on home ice "embarrassing" after the loss to the Canucks. He's obviously not the only one that is struggling for this team, but as the new captain of the club and playing on a big salary, a lot of the blame is going to run through him.

The team needs Foligno to be better than he has been. The offensive dropoff this year is probably even more extreme than would have been predicted coming into the season. He is currently shooting 2.4 percent on 41 shots on goal this year and he’s shooting even more than he did last year when he posted a career-best 182 shots on goal.

The captain is getting opportunities to score, like the one last night. Eventually the pucks will go in with more regularity, even if it would appear unlikely he’ll match his 31-goal total again.

Until then, however, there could be more truth bombs on the way from Tortorella as the Blue Jackets continue trying to dig out of this incredibly deep hole they’ve found themselves in to start the season.

John Tortorella was critical of his captain after another Blue Jackets loss. (USATSI)
John Tortorella was critical of his captain after another Blue Jackets loss. (USATSI)