Being an assistant coach in the NHL is a pretty sweet gig. You get paid less than the top guy, for sure, but you also get fewer hours, fewer meetings, fewer non-hockey responsibilities, fewer headaches.
Many head coaches understand little about goaltending and mostly leave their goalies alone. But Richardson, conversely, “thinks about the goalies all the time.”
The Blackhawks’ awful record isn’t Richardson’s fault — his team was designed to be awful — but it nonetheless is his problem to deal with. He’s figuring out on the fly how to keep morale up without fostering complacency.
Watching the last month of Blackhawks hockey has been a grind, so it can be a refreshing departure from the on-ice grind to see the human side of things.
Luke Richardson got his first taste of what it’s like to be an NHL head coach in Montreal with the Canadiens organization.
Practice, practically speaking, ended 10 or 15 minutes earlier, but Derek King was still out there on the ice, feeding one-timers to wingers.
When Luke Richardson was hired as the permanent head coach, the Blackhawks desperately wanted to keep Derek King around in some capacity.
The Blackhawks have become one of the NHL’s early surprises of the campaign after stringing together three straight multi-goal comeback wins after an 0-2-0 start, in a season where they were projected to be in the hunt for the No. 1 overall pick.
‘Been waiting for this’ after being assistant for three NHL teams since 2009.
Most NHL interim head coaches leave for new organizations if they don’t get the head job permanently. But King isn’t like most coaches.
Jimmy Waite returns as goaltending coach, Matt Meacham returns as video coach on Luke Richardson’s staff
Richardson joins Chicago with nearly a decade of NHL coaching experience, plus 21 seasons as an NHL defenseman.
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