CBJ Fire Todd Richards, Hire John Tortorella
- Updated: October 21, 2015
After another abysmal outing last night against the New York Islanders, in which they lost 4-0, and pushing their record to 0-7-0, the Columbus Blue Jackets have fired Head Coach Todd Richards.
I heard rumors that CBJ management were at the arena late last night, well after everyone had left. And as of 130am this morning, it sounds like that is when the CBJ made the decision to hire John Tortorella.
Tortorella last coached for the Canucks in 2013-14 before being let go. Torts has also won a Stanley Cup as the coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004.
The American born Tortorella has amassed an NHL record of 444-371-37-78. The outspoken Tortorella will surely be something that Blue Jacket Fans are not used to seeing. Richards was calm, collected and sometimes viewed as having an extremely indifferent attitude. Torts brings the complete opposite. He’s fiery, outspoken and will speak his mind. Time will tell how the players will react to him.
Thus ends the CBJ coaching career of Todd Richards. I personally loved the guy. While in Columbus, his record of 127-112-21 wasn’t terrible, but it was the dismal months of October and November that kept his teams out of the playoffs every year. Even in the injury riddled season of 2014-15, had his team had a better start, they may have made the playoffs.
Starting a season 0-7-0 is bad, Good Luck Coach!
Can’t wait for him to Fire The Cannon!