Columbus Blue Jackets confer title of head coach on Todd Richards -NHL Update
Columbus Blues Jackets have a new head coach, well, not exactly. Todd Richards had the “interim” word removed from his title, making him the team’s sixth head coach in franchise history after he replaced Scott Arniel earlier in January.
Arniel was appointed only at the start of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season but after Blues Jackets’ woes continues despite spending money to acquire some of the best players during the offseason, they did not see any significant
change.
Obviously, taking over a team that has ended at the bottom for the past couple of seasons, taking over as head coach was not at all what Richards wanted to do seeing how he could be scrutinised in the future, but he accepted the challenge.
According to Todd Richards, players need to play like a team and trust each other instead of focusing on individual performance.
"I don't think there was a lot of trust built up in our players from one to another," Richards said. "We started to build up that trust. We started to play more as a group, started to play more as a team. That's why I'm excited. Despite losing guys to trade
or injuries — we had kind of a makeshift group — we had some young guys and a lot of guys up from the American (Hockey) League and we were finding ways to compete and win games."
For Columbus’ senior adviser of hockey operations, Craig Patrick, Richards has done more than required by the team and could be the coach they have always needed.
"Todd has developed into an excellent NHL coach," Patrick said.
This is not the first head coaching job that Richards has been bestowed. The young coach led Minnesota Wild for two seasons and went 77-71-16 before being let go by the organisation as they were also looking to make changes.
With the coaching position being settled at the moment, Columbus Blues Jackets have a lot of other issues waiting to be tackled. One of the most important is the one in which captain, Rick Nash, is demanding for a trade, forcing Blue Jackets to lose the
face of their organisation.
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