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Habs hire Luke Richardson as Assistant Coach


Commandant

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Also last week we added Alex Burrows to the AHL coaching staff. 

 

I think we are finally headed in the right direction. I feel better about developing our young guys now then I have in the past 6 years. We are putting the right people in place.

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1 hour ago, Metallica said:

Also last week we added Alex Burrows to the AHL coaching staff. 

 

I think we are finally headed in the right direction. I feel better about developing our young guys now then I have in the past 6 years. We are putting the right people in place.

 

I liked the Burrows hiring a lot because it showed an aggressive willingness to vacuum up prospective French-speaking coaching talent. Many people have identified Burrows as coaching material and we didn't wait around, but rather pro-actively locked him up. Now this is a radically different hire, in that Richardson is a seasoned pro rather than a promising novice like Burrows. But both are good hires.

 

All that said, we probably felt quite a similar wave of optimism when MB brought in a bunch of new people in 2013:  Brisebois, Lapointe, Lefebvre, etc.. Our optimism this time around should be tempered by the knowledge that those princes turned into pumpkins in fairly short order...and also by the knowledge that Bergevin declined to instill any kind of accountability or demand for excellence until he was absolutely forced to by circumstances. Having seemingly bought renewed good will by partial house- cleaning, will he revert to his previous patterns - ?

 

So, yes, this seems like good news. But I'm at the point where I'm only interested in one thing - tangible indicators of excellence at all levels of the organization. I won't be sold "potential" any longer by the Bergevin Habs.

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40 minutes ago, Trizzak said:

He was the Islanders defence coach last year, so the Habs might have actually found a downgrade from JJ.

 

I don’t agree with this at all, he has been a pretty successful coach.

 

The Islanders head coach was running a run and gun offensive style, he didn’t have any control over that. Also it doesn’t help the D men he had were all absolutely terrible. Leddy was a -47 or something.

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21 minutes ago, BlueKross said:

What is Luc's chance of advancement look like?  Could he become head coach at some point? This reminds me of Randy Cunningworth situation.

 

He has interviewed for NHL head coaching jobs before but hasn't got a chance yet.  I believe that was part of the reason he left Ottawa a couple of years ago after he was passed over for Guy Boucher.  He could become an NHL bench boss but chances are that it won't be in Montreal.

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Richardson is a quality hire. He's an on the cusp of an NHL coaching gig but just hasn't impressed anyone yet. If he turns the Habs defence around or something like that, he'll get scooped for a head coaching gig. I could see him replacing Torts when he's inevitably fired in Columbus.

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3 hours ago, Habopotamus said:

He was a Bergevin type d-man in the nhl. 

 

Benn and Alzner will be getting some quality minutes. 

 

If you listen to his press interview today, you will hear a very knowledgeable man who understands the game has evolved into a quick puck moving type of game. He stressed needing the D to jump into the play and move up the ice as a 5 man unit, regardless if you are a high flying guy or a defensive guy. He stressed communication on a very open level between him and his players, communication on the ice being of paramount importance. He mentioned letting players play to their strengths and maximizing them while still playing within the system, a puck moving, quick system.

 

He isn't going to come in and try to turn the whole defense corp into a shot blocking, bank it off the glass, never cross the red line type of unit from 1996. He knows exactly how this league has evolved, he knows exactly how the defense corps that are successful in this league operate. 

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26 minutes ago, Link67 said:

 

If you listen to his press interview today, you will hear a very knowledgeable man who understands the game has evolved into a quick puck moving type of game. He stressed needing the D to jump into the play and move up the ice as a 5 man unit, regardless if you are a high flying guy or a defensive guy. He stressed communication on a very open level between him and his players, communication on the ice being of paramount importance. He mentioned letting players play to their strengths and maximizing them while still playing within the system, a puck moving, quick system.

 

He isn't going to come in and try to turn the whole defense corp into a shot blocking, bank it off the glass, never cross the red line type of unit from 1996. He knows exactly how this league has evolved, he knows exactly how the defense corps that are successful in this league operate. 

 

He was a run and gun D-coach in Long Island, where the defence sucked. 

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6 hours ago, dlbalr said:

 

He has interviewed for NHL head coaching jobs before but hasn't got a chance yet.  I believe that was part of the reason he left Ottawa a couple of years ago after he was passed over for Guy Boucher.  He could become an NHL bench boss but chances are that it won't be in Montreal.

Yeah. So we agree, that no matter what he does ex the godsend of defensive hockey or the defensive coach of the decade; that any reward would not happen in Montreal.  Seems odd to me that any team would set things up like that.

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29 minutes ago, Commandant said:

Hes from Ottawa.  Do we know he is not bilingual

 

I haven't watched it all but I believe his press scrum today was all in English so if he is bilingual to some degree, it's not at the point where he can speak it fluently.

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He said during the scrum he spoke some french years ago being from Ottawa, but hasn't had to use it in a long time, needs to freshen up on it this summer and plans to keep it up going forward.

 

Don't expect to see him use it until he feels somewhat capable of communicating with it.

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4 hours ago, Machine of Loving Grace said:

 

He was a run and gun D-coach in Long Island, where the defence sucked. 

 

Can't put that all on him though, at least he is coaching the position according to how it has currently evolved, and vastly differently than he himself played it. 

 

One step closer to the Dinosaur mentality being a abolished from this organization

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24 minutes ago, Link67 said:

 

Can't put that all on him though, at least he is coaching the position according to how it has currently evolved, and vastly differently than he himself played it. 

 

One step closer to the Dinosaur mentality being a abolished from this organization

 

For sure, I don't mean to sound like I was criticizing.

 

He was only in NYI for a single year and their defensive problems were already there, and most of the players were hurt. But the way he played the defence was pretty much the only way you could. Those guys weren't gonna shot block and they certainly weren't going to cut down lanes. Better to just let them loose and hope you outscore your competition.

 

He's a good hire, a definite upgrade to JJ, and if there's some real improvements seen, I think he gets courted for a head coaching gig somewhere.

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