The Columbus Blue Jackets have started the 2015-16 NHL season on a 0-7-0 skid, which many reports indicated had GM Jarmo Kekalainen considering potentially significant changes. After a 4-0 loss at the hands of the New York Islanders on Tuesday night, Kekalainen had apparently seen enough. It was reported early Wednesday that Kekalainen had fired head coach Todd Richards and replaced him with firey bench boss John Tortorella. TSN's Darren Dreger was the first to break the news. Per Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, the Vancouver Canucks, who still held Tortorella's rights despite firing him in May 2014, will receive a second-round pick from the Blue Jackets for hiring Tortorella in-season.
Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Post-Dispatch reports that Richards was fired "just hours" after the Jackets' lackluster loss to the Islanders. Their current 0-7-0 record to start the season matches the worst season start in recent NHL history. As Portzline notes, this isn't the first time that Richards' team got off to a slow start - the team began 2013 with a 5-12-4 record, 2013-14 at 6-10-3 and 2014-15 saw them win just six times in the season's first 25 games.
Per Portzline, Tortorella's first night behind the bench will be Thursday, when Columbus squares off with the Minnesota Wild. Tortorella brings a wealth of NHL experience and a brash, oftentimes volatile personality to the Blue Jackets bench. Considering the lack of confidence Columbus has been playing with this season, Tortorella may be the perfect hire at the perfect time for the talented, but struggling franchise. Torts has a 444-371-78 career coaching record and one Stanley Cup championship.
For Richards, his ousting seemed something of an inevitability after the preseason hype pumped up the Blue Jackets so much and created pressure that the team simply seemed unable to handle. Despite leading the Columbus organization to their first two Stanley Cup playoff victories, Richards' teams just never seemed able to take that vital next step in their development. Starting the season so slow always put Columbus behind the eight-ball and despite their usual strong finishes, Richards' Blue Jackets just didn't seem like the serious Cup contenders everyone was expecting this summer.
