Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson still has quite a bit of job security left.
It was just two weeks ago that general manager Kyle Davidson described a handful of fans’ calls for his firing as “ridiculous thoughts,” after all. Davidson’s goal for this season was for the veteran placeholder-laden Hawks to be more competitive, not a playoff contender, and they have been that, despite their unflattering 6-11-1 record.
But after two years of Richardson being essentially immune from criticism — because expectations were so low that there were rarely grounds upon which to criticize him — he has made some decisions recently that have opened the door for some valid skepticism.
His handling of veteran Taylor Hall when making him a healthy scratch Saturday against the Canucks is the most specific and egregious. In fact, Richardson himself admitted he could’ve navigated the situation better.
After practice Monday, Hall described his benching as “unexpected” because he hadn’t received much negative feedback beforehand.
“I didn’t know that I was even close to being in that spot, really,” Hall said. “If there were some conversations in the days leading up about my game, or if I was constantly being shown video, it would be one thing. I was a bit surprised.
“It wasn’t anything argumentative. He thought it was best for me to just reset, and so that’s what I’m going to do. I’m not immune to coaching, and I’m not immune to being held accountable.”
Minutes later, Richardson took responsibility for that lack of communication, insisting he wasn’t “trying to play mind games.”
“Sometimes you give veterans a little more of a grace period,” Richardson said. “I know he’s been frustrated. I don’t want the frustration to lead too long, so it was good time for maybe a little setback. But for me to communicate with him, I need to get to know the player more — to see how they like to handle that.
“We’ve talked lots during and after [Saturday], but maybe before it needs to be more before. That’s just something I [need to] learn about one player.”
The two of them have since smoothed over tensions, and Hall will play Tuesday against the Ducks. The biggest thing Richardson wants him to focus on is reducing turnovers around the offensive blue line.
“There [are] coaches that may give you a bit more leeway on those things, and I haven’t earned that here in Chicago yet,” Hall said. “So definitely that’s what I want to fix.”
But the forward lines surrounding Hall on Tuesday will be the weirdest yet — in a season full of odd line combinations — and that’s another area where Richardson has opened the door for criticism.
One aspect of Tuesday’s lines that makes sense is Connor Bedard moving to the wing; he’s in such a slump that a major switch like that feels justified. Putting him next to Jason Dickinson and Joey Anderson, the anchors of the Hawks’ usual checking line, is nonetheless strange.
The other lines feature Ryan Donato centering Hall and Ilya Mikheyev, Nick Foligno centering Teuvo Teravainen and Philipp Kurashev and Lukas Reichel centering Tyler Bertuzzi and Craig Smith. None of those four trios have spent more than two minutes together all season up to this point. It’s almost like they were crafted by a random number generator.
It’s not worth reading into them too deeply, however, because they will probably change again very soon. Richardson has shuffled the lines after all 11 regulation losses to date.
“We’re at a point where we’re desperate to find more offense, and we’re just going to try things until we get it,” he said bluntly.
There are actually hints of that desperation in all of Richardson’s recent moves. The stakes aren’t terribly high yet — these shouldn’t be interpreted as last-ditch efforts to save his job — but he does finally seem to be feeling some urgency and pressure.