Will Todd Richards get fired before the end of the season?

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Most forwards are back. The team supposedly has D depth and now has Murray and Tyutin out for extended periods and has taken to the waiver wire to pick up more D.

If this team can't start putting together 60 hard working minutes a game with the core of players they have now, that seat is going to start getting hot soon. They cannot wait for Dubinsky to come back to have a leader and figure it out.

 

[We Want Ten]

No way this guy makes the new year.

 

[stevo61]

Yeah.... He might need to go. If the players aren't using injuries as excuses, why are the fans still?

Because if a player ever comes out and says yeah we have injuries so what can you expect then he has to go. This team isn't playing good hockey and is being lazy. Yeah they are missing skill but you don't need skill to play hard, look at Calgary this year or even us 2 years ago. Yeah it's up to the coach to a point to get them going and try and find what works but other then a couple guys it's a bunch of passengers.

 

[ndd17]

Again no......

Again yes.
#firerichards
ME.WANT.COACHING.CHANGE.

 

[blahblah]

Biggest issue for Richards is that the team isn't playing to their identity. JK/JD seem to tolerate his questionable coaching decisions, so that part won't hurt him.

 

[stevo61]

Who's even available for coaches? And anyone who says Bylsma really doesn't know what they are talking about

 

[WannabeFinn]

Who's even available for coaches? And anyone who says Bylsma really doesn't know what they are talking about

Torts

 

[stevo61]

Torts

Well he wouldn't be scared to make a tough decision. Best send Wennberg down now

 

[JacketFanInFL]

Regardless of the injuries and personnel I would expect that the players go out, forecheck their ***** off and maintain discipline, while playing hard.

This team is doing nothing of the sort. The forecheck mentality of last year is gone. We don't win any battles including face offs.

I'm okay with losing games on skill differential, but this team is simply not schemed correctly and has lost its identity.

A coach sometimes has to make lemonade from limes.

 

[JKG08]

When this thread first came up my initial thought was no but I'm really starting to second guess him a lot lately. He messes with the lines too often, he's still playing wennberg at center instead of wing, and the team looks horrible in the defensive end.

I'm not ready to ask for his head just yet but boy does this team need to start playing better defense soon or else I'm gonna be all on the anti HCTR bandwagon.

 

[db2011]

The team lacks resiliency, but that is the mark of a young team. Many of the regulars have only this year's worth of history playing for Richards.

I won't deny that the seat is getting hot but it's just a shame he's not able to ice his guys. Richards with the full complement of Jackets, this is easily a playoff team.

 

[Mayor Bee]

Regardless of the injuries and personnel I would expect that the players go out, forecheck their ***** off and maintain discipline, while playing hard.

This team is doing nothing of the sort. The forecheck mentality of last year is gone. We don't win any battles including face offs.

I'm okay with losing games on skill differential, but this team is simply not schemed correctly and has lost its identity.

A coach sometimes has to make lemonade from limes.

Tough to expect the same cohesion as last year when breaking in Gibbons (UFA), Wennberg (rookie), Dano (rookie), Chaput (rookie), Cracknell (waiver pickup), Leopold (trade), and Connauton (waivers) night in and night out.

How can a coach even figure out what he was when 1/3 of the lineup on any given night is new guys who, with one exception (Chaput), weren't even in the system at all just a year ago?

 

[jackets4life]

Biggest issue for Richards is that the team isn't playing to their identity. JK/JD seem to tolerate his questionable coaching decisions, so that part won't hurt him.

What Identity?

 

[Jackets Fan]

When this thread first came up my initial thought was no but I'm really starting to second guess him a lot lately. He messes with the lines too often, he's still playing wennberg at center instead of wing, and the team looks horrible in the defensive end.

I'm not ready to ask for his head just yet but boy does this team need to start playing better defense soon or else I'm gonna be all on the anti HCTR bandwagon.

Same here. EXACTLY the same here.

Guys are beginning to get healthy, but the team is still playing poor. If this team doesn't string together wins soon, HCTR will be history before the start of 2015.
Also, I'm usually not against Richards' line jugglings, as they seem to work more often than not, but splitting up guys with proven chemistry mid-way through the game, as well as sending out 4th line/AHL plugs late when the game is still up for grabs, and as mentioned, keeping Wennberg at center, is puzzling. It hasn't worked, and Wennberg can't win a faceoff to save his life.

I'll say for the meantime my vote is still "no", but when Dubi comes back, and the team is still losing, I may have no choice than to hop on the bandwagon as well. Right now, it seems there is no end in sight to this losing, which is scary, because the Jackets haven't been in a situation with so much negativity around the team in a long, loooooooong time. In all the post-game interviews after a loss, the players keep saying the same things. Mostly "we have to play a 60 minute game" and for the 764th consecutive time, they haven't translated that to the ice in the next game. This team hasn't had that bounce back ability they've had last season. It seems the players are just as confused what to about this as the coaching staff is. In the end, if they don't find a remedy for this, as everyone has said, HCTR will be the one to ultimately pay the price.

 

[major major]

If the team is still floundering after Dubinsky returns, then I bet Richards is canned. Otherwise he sticks around.

 

[niflheim]

Again yes.
#firerichards
ME.WANT.COACHING.CHANGE.

It's all good. We're still waiting for Minnesota Wild vol. 2.0

 

[ndd17]

Only two users right now against Richards and both from Russia.

 

[niflheim]

(@Aportzline) 10 november 14: #CBJ Richards running tough practice, ... frequently using a sailor's favorite word.

Imho, this stream of Todd's consciousness connected to à la Viktor Tikhonov punishment training was the point of no return. Bleeding team didnt deserve it. Coach must be fired as soon as possible ( maybe before Thanksgiving Day), otherwise resigning Sergei "Bob" and Nick " FolignGOAL" will be problematic.

We' ll carry the Flag! Верим в команду!

 

[jackets4life]

Something tells me that Dan Hinote is really missed by this club.

 

[stevo61]

Something tells me that Dan Hinote is really missed by this club.

A younger coach who has much more energy behind the bench and sometimes watching him you'd think he was playing too? Yeah there is a real possibility that he's missed a bit.

 

[EDM]

I was originally a solid "No". But after watching the way the team is playing for him, I move to the undecided column.

 

[jacketsinDC]

if he's bringing the hammer down in practice then give him a couple weeks and see if the team responds. Otherwise I hope richards is sent packing.

 

[pete goegan]

if he's bringing the hammer down in practice then give him a couple weeks and see if the team responds. Otherwise I hope richards is sent packing.

Seems he took action, last night, by essentially benching his top two lines for failure to compete to his satisfaction. From Puckrakers:

PHILADELPHIA – Down two goals with less than five minutes to play last night, Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards sent Jared Boll, Adam Cracknell and Alexander Wennberg over the boards in Wells Fargo Center. That’s two fourth-line grinders and a rookie who hasn’t scored a goal in 19 games, much less had a scoring chance in weeks. This was how Richards chose to send a message after the Blue Jackets faded badly in the final two periods and lost 4-2 to the Philadelphia Flyers.

“We didn’t have enough guys who were engaged into the game,” Richards said. “Wennberg and (Matt) Calvert and (Jack) Skille might have been our best line. Boller and Cracks, they were fine. “Our guys who are supposed to be our top players weren’t our top players.”

Richards isn’t quite ready to start naming names – he has a very high boil point in a public setting – but he didn’t need to last night. Nobody was benched, per se, but Richards didn’t roll top-six forwards Artem Anisimov, Cam Atkinson, Scott Hatnell or Ryan Johansen as one would expect in the late stage of a game the Blue Jackets’ trailed.

 

[nhldiedinthe90s*]

Stroke of awful luck gave us an injury bug unrivaled in the NHL. The product that we had left for the first twenty games was not a playoff caliber team. That's not his fault.

But we have the worst record in the NHL (tied w/ Buff). Our odds of getting into the playoffs are extremely small. It seems to me therefore that the question is: was our injury-ravaged team the weakest team in the NHL for the first twenty games?

I think the answer is absolutely not.

Therefore it's fair to question Richards. Nobody is saying we should be mid table all things considered, but we should not be sitting on 14 points.

 

[The Jones Zone]

If they fire him and the team keeps losing......then who do Jarmo and JD have to blame?

Themselves!

One of many reasons there is no chance he gets fired.

This is the same coach who had a team playing highly competitive in the playoffs last year. You can only overcome so many injuries and play so many AHL players at this level and compete.