Richards Out, Tortorella in for Columbus

Former University of Minnesota defenseman Todd Richards was relieved of his coaching duties today by the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets. He was replaced by John Tortorella, who last coached in the league in 2013-14 with the Vancouver Canucks, and who was serving as a studio commentator with the NHL Network.

Richards, 49, compiled a 127-112-21 record in 260 games with the Bluejackets, according to the team’s website. His 127 wins rank first in club annals, and he also guided Columbus to a pair of 40-win campaigns and two Stanley Cup Playoff berths, including the first two playoff victories in team history, after taking over as head coach during the 2011-12 season. The Bluejackets began the 2015-16 season with seven consecutive losses after missing the postseason last year.

Richards, who spent the bulk of his professional playing career in the International Hockey League, played four seasons at Minnesota from 1985 to 1989, excluding a stint with the U.S. National Team in 1987-88, according to hockeydb.com. His best scoring season came as a sophomore when he tallied eight goals and 43 assists for 51 points in 49 outings with the Golden Gophers, and he finished his college career with 30-120—150 points and 194 penalty minutes in 173 appearances. He also recorded four assists in eight NHL regular-season games with the Hartford Whalers.

Beginning in 2002-03, Richards went on to serve as an assistant coach with Milwaukee (AHL), head coach with Wilkes-Barre Scranton (AHL), assistant coach with the San Jose Sharks, and then head coach with the Minnesota Wild for two years. He was an assistant with Columbus the year before he took the reins there as head coach.

A former three-year skater at the University of Maine, Tortorella, 57, coached the Tampa Bay Lightning for six years and the New York Rangers for five seasons prior to his time in Vancouver. He also led Tampa Bay to its first Stanley Cup title in 2004, and is slated to serve as head coach of the U.S. entry in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

Totorella: Hagelin "Stinks on the Power Play"

The New York Rangers trailed their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Boston Bruins by a game after dropping the opener, 3-2, in overtime on Thursday, and had gone just 2-for-31 on the power play to that point.

Asked why he didn't use second-year speedster and Michigan alumnus Carl Hagelin on the man-advantage unit, Rangers head coach John Tortorella, himself a Maine alumnus, gave a pretty pointed answer to the New York Times and other outlets.

“Because he stinks on the power play,” said Tortorella on Saturday. “I don’t know why. I wish I could play him on the power play. Every time I put him on, he stinks.”
To be fair, Tortorella suggested that Hagelin was sort of a "jitterbug" on the ice, one who perhaps moved too fast for purposes of the power play, which is more of a stationary situation. Kind of understandable when you have speed like Hagelin, who won the Fastest Skater competition at the 2012 All-Star Game festivities in Ottawa, does.

Calling out a second-year player who's just 24 years old, when millionaires like Rick Nash and Brad Richards have done nothing on the power play throughout the playoffs so far this year, though, is surprising.

Hagelin, who played at Michigan from 2007 to 2011, recorded 152 points in that span while leading the Wolverines to four NCAA Tournament appearances, including a national runner-up finish his senior season. He had 38 points in 64 NHL games as a rookie in 2011-12, and added 24 points in 48 games in the lockout-shortened 2013 regular season. To date he has two goals and five points in eight Stanley Cup Playoff outings so far this spring.

Wonder what Hagelin's college coach, retired NHL player Red Berenson, would think about Totorella's words. Not that the oft-brusque Tortorella would care.

Hagelin played 17:02 and had four shots in Sunday's 5-2 loss in Game 2 at Boston on Sunday, which put the Rangers in an 0-2 hole for the second straight series. New York also went 0-for-5 on the power play. Game 3 at Madison Square Garden is slated for Tuesday night in Manhattan.