Tonight, Todd Richards makes another return to Columbus as an assistant with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Make no mistake: we’re in the midst of a damn good Blue Jackets run under John Tortorella. We fondly remember the hiring of Ken Hitchcock — the first legitimate head coach in franchise history — and we try to forget the disaster that was the short tenure of Scott Arniel, who had to be fired in the middle of a road trip because things had gotten so bad.
But sometimes lost in the shuffle is the tenure of Richards, a four-year period that set the Blue Jackets on the course they’re charting today.
Arniel hired Richards as an assistant coach and to help the club’s ailing power play. Richards has always been a sharp offensive mind and was one of the better players to ever come through the University of Minnesota, so his transition to coaching was pretty natural. He won at every stop — IHL, ECHL, AHL — before getting his first head gig with the Minnesota Wild. His record there, in his home state, was average at best and not good enough for the Wild, who let him go after two seasons.
When Richards landed in Columbus, he landed on his feet in a perfect situation.
Arniel’s run was coming to a merciful end. On the same bench was a guy in Richards who had head coaching experience and had a reputation for being relatable, organized and a strong communicator. He was the ideal interim coach. At the end of his interim season, it was a no-brainer for Scott Howson to make Richards the full-time head coach. That was May 2012, and Richards enjoyed the most successful coaching stint in Blue Jackets history before it ended seven games into the 2015-16 season.
The Blue Jackets grew up under Richards. They took their biggest steps forward and had three of the best seasons in club history, one of those a playoff appearance in 2013-14 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. In Richards’ first season, a 48-game slate shortened by the lockout, the Blue Jackets finished on a tear and missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker. The momentum rolled into the next season and they were a 40-win, 93-point team that put a scare into their new division rival.
If you asked Richards about his biggest regret here, I’d bet he would have wanted those first seven games of 2015-16 over again.
Expectations engulfed the Blue Jackets. They blew a 2-1 lead with three minutes left on opening night (losing in regulation!) and the canoe capsized before going over a waterfall. One loss on opening night isn’t a big deal, but one loss become two which became three and eventually became too much to recover from. Getting fired after making such progress was disappointing for Richards, who had become integrated into the central Ohio community along with his wife Maryanne and their two sons.
It’s a shame it had to end that way because of all the good that came before.
Don’t feel too bad for Richie; he’s got a good gig with Jon Cooper in Tampa and the Lightning are again on track to be one of the Eastern Conference’s top teams. I’ll cheer for the guy as long as he’s coaching (he's a tremendous person), but tonight, I hope the Blue Jackets win by seven.
HANG TIGHT, JACK
There’s been plenty of discussion about the pending contract decision for the Blue Jackets and GM Jarmo Kekalainen. Sergei Bobrovsky, Cam Atkinson, Artemi Panarin and Zach Werenski are all on the docket in the next year or so. All four players are due for significant pay raises and there will be some tough decisions along the way. One of the players who could be affected by the aforementioned situations is Jack Johnson, who will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
It’s believed that Johnson, 30, wants to remain in Columbus and the Blue Jackets reportedly want to keep him. He’s become a fixture on their second pairing and has reinvented himself since taking on a more focused role under assistant coach Brad Shaw, a deployment master.
Elliotte Friedman touched on the situation in his 31 Thoughts column, which ran on Wednesday:
Wonder how much Columbus’s decision-making process depends on extending Jack Johnson. They’ve talked with the pending unrestricted free agent, but I don’t get the sense anything’s close.
There’s plenty of time for the Blue Jackets and Johnson’s camp to come to an agreement if that’s what is decided. Johnson is in the final season of a seven-year contract that pays him $4.35 million annually.
YOU'RE DERN RIGHT
Big day yesterday, folks.
I’m a huge Laura Dern fan and have been predictably stoked since Rian Johnson announced her as part of The Last Jedi cast. In recent months, we’ve gotten more information on her character, Resistance Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo, and got a sneak peek of her during Vanity Fair’s shoot that ran in the spring.
Guesting on Ellen yesterday, Dern shared a new photo of Admiral Holdo in what appears to be a Resistance cruiser or base (possibly on Crait?) The situation looks dire and the Resistance’s numbers dwindling, and I’m really excited to see how her character fits into the relationships between Poe Dameron and General Leia.
YOU SHOULD BE READING
- How good is this best start in Blue Jackets history?
- Jeff Svoboda talks about forgiving, forgetting, and booing.
- Here's how the Blue Jackets dominated the Winnipeg Jets.
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