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Ryan Dzingel describes an epic Tortorella meltdown in detail.
Geoff Burke  

Ryan Dzingel describes an epic Tortorella meltdown in detail.

Ryan Dzingel goes into detail about an epic John Tortorella meltdown after just days on the team.

Jonathan Larivee

Veteran National Hockey League forward Ryan Dzingel has failed to secure himself an NHL contract prior to the start of the 2023-24 season, and it is perhaps for this reason that he is feeling a little bit more comfortable sharing some behind the scenes stories of his time in the league.

Dzingel, who was recently released from a professional tryout offer with the Arizona Coyotes, was a recent guest on the Coming In Hot podcast with former NHLers Bobby Ryan and Jason York and it was during his appearance on that show that he went into some detail regarding an epic meltdown from NHL head coach John Tortorella.

Dzingel described a meltdown that happened shortly after he was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets, alongside veteran NHL forward Matt Duchene, one that came only days into their tenure on the team.

"So we get traded to Columbus and were in this closed door meeting, I think maybe two days in, and I kid you not for 3 hours in Vancouver's practice rink or something me and Duchy, our heads are down, and we are trying not to die laughing," revealed Dzingel. "Torts is annihilating everybody in there."

Tortorella was obviously unhappy with what he was seeing from his players, but it sounds like it was star forward Artemi Panarin and star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky who took the brunt of his wrath.

"He walks in and he grabs a thing and throws it over Bob's shoulder and he's like 'Yeah I knew you wouldn't stop that!'" revealed Dzingel. "Oh man I was just crying."

It seems as though Tortorella's barbs failed to have the desired effect on the two Russian stars however, with Panarin remaining defiant despite the tirade from his head coach.

"So I remember he was going after Panarin because Panarin wants to play with Duchy and didn't want to play with Atkinson... and Panarin's like 'Ah you know Atky is good but I play with Duchene' the complete opposite of what you want to say."

The matter of fact response from Panarin in the face of the heated head coach was simply too much for Dzingel who couldn't hold back his laughter.

"I was crying laughing," admitted Dzingel. "I think Torts didn't even know what to do."

You can listen to Dzingel's retelling of the story in the short clip from the podcast below: