John Tortorella asked point blank if he expects to be fired.

The Columbus Blue Jackets have had a bit of a rough stretch and now their controversial head coach is facing the heat.

The Blue Jackets have now loss 5 consecutive games in a row and as you would expect this has put John Tortorella on the hot seat, at least in the eyes of the media. If there was any doubt about that fact, all doubt was erased on Sunday when veteran Blue Jackets reporter Aaron Portzline, for my money the best Blue Jackets insider in the game today, asked Tortorella point blank if he was concerned about his job status as a result of the losing skid.

"You know what... I never worry about that," said Tortorella in response to the blunt question. "I do my job the best I can. If people want to make decisions on me, that's their decision. I never worry about that. I go about my business, and I'm going to coach this team the best way I possibly can."

It was a rather genuine answer on the part of Tortorella and honestly I don't know that you could have expected him to field the question any better. Tortorella had indicated during the press conference that he didn't want to talk about his team's performance yet again, feeling he had said all that needed to be said during past media availabilities, so I think it is safe to say he was in a bit of a sour mood following another loss. In spite of that I give him full credit for handling the question in a rather dignified manner. 

Perhaps egged on by the question from Portzline, Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno was also asked if he was concerned about a potential coaching change behind the bench. Here's what he had to say on the matter.

"I don’t know, I hope not," admitted Foligno. "I mean, for us, that’s not something we can worry about. We’re not in a position right now, with however many games we need to start winning, to be worrying about personnel changes. That’s a loser’s mentality, first of all. You’re already thinking about what changes are going to happen, so for me, I’m not going to be focused on that. I can’t be. I’m worried about our room, who’s in the room at the time and that other stuff is left to Jarmo or however this works. I think for us, we feel like the answer’s in the room. We feel like we can turn this around. A lot’s been talked about, about this group, and it’s been a week of struggle here- which is magnified, I get it, with a 56-game season. But we get home, regroup, get a win and all of a sudden get another one, get another one and we’re talking about different things here. So, I’m not going to go down that road. You can’t. I mean, it’s pointless. And at this point of the season, I still have a lot of belief in the group and in our room, and know that there’s better hockey to be played. And if we do that, I think we’re going to find ourselves winning a lot more hockey games coming up."

It would appear the pressure is ramping up on Tortorella, and one has to wonder how much time he has left if things continue to trend in this direction.