John Tortorella blasts Penguins: ‘Pittsburgh whines enough for whole league’

Columbus Blue Jackets center Brandon Dubinsky was suspended for Saturday night’s game against the St. Louis Blues after giving Sidney Crosby a cross-check to the head, and then another one to his back while he was down on the ice.

Dubinsky argued that his stick rode up on Crosby and that the Pittsburgh Penguins star put himself in a prone position. The NHL answered that argument in its suspension video, rather effectively.

The Blue Jackets could have used Dubinsky in a tightly-played game against the St. Louis Blues, which Columbus lost 3-1 on two Blues goals in the third period.

“He’s contagious. All the things you need to do against a club like this, Dubi brings that,” Coach John Tortorella said after the game. “We still have some guys that need to jump aboard, as far as what you have to do to win these games. But Dubi certainly would have helped.”

But he wasn’t, and Tortorella was asked after the loss if he felt the suspension was justified. And … well, he went the full Torts:

“You know what? It is, what it is. We’re not going to whine here. Pittsburgh can whine. Pittsburgh whines enough for the whole league, so there’s no room for any other team to whine. We’ll just go about our business. We missed him. But you can’t get involved in what happened in those types of situations.”

This is not the first time Tortorella has gone after Pittsburgh.

In 2012, when then-Penguin Brooks Orpik went knee-on-knee with Derek Stepan, then-Rangers coach Tortorella said:

“I wonder what would happen if we did that to their two whining stars over there. I wonder what would happen?” he said. “It’s one of the most arrogant organizations in the League. They whine about this stuff all the time, and look what happens. It’s ridiculous. But they’ll whine about something else over there, won’t they? Starting with their two [expletive] stars.”

The Blue Jackets visit the Penguins on Dec. 21 in Pittsburgh.

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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