Luke Richardson’s success as a Canadiens assistant the last four years directly helped him earn this job as Blackhawks head coach.
On the other hand, he was passed over last spring for the Canadiens’ own head coaching job, with Martin St. Louis instead assuming the duties after Dominique Ducharme was fired. He was passed over in 2021, too, when Ducharme replaced Claude Julien.
So naturally, Friday’s matchup carried some extra meaning for Richardson. But he tried his best all week to downplay its significance.
“I enjoyed my time [in Montreal],” he said Monday. “It’s a great passionate city, much like [Chicago], with great sports fans. There’s a lot of history there. I was fortunate enough to be there when we got to the Stanley Cup Final, and it was an honor to do that. But it’s now in the past. It’s a good memory, but they’re just another team we want to beat.”
As much as Richardson might’ve wanted it, that wish didn’t come true. Kirby Dach’s third-round shootout winner lifted the Canadiens to a 3-2 win and dealt the Hawks their sixth straight loss (and 12th in their last 14 games).
The Hawks outshot the Canadiens 32-23, the largest margin by which they’ve outshot any opponent this season, but conceded quite a few breakaways and odd-man rushes in between. Goalie Arvid Soderblom was stellar, particularly with his quick glove hand, while limiting the damage from those breakdowns.
Taylor Raddysh scored a power-play goal to tie the game with just under four minutes remaining, and the Hawks later killed off a Canadiens’ overtime power play, but their efforts were ultimately unrewarded.
“We had a little trouble with our energy level,” Richardson said. “I liked the ‘try,’ but it just didn’t look like we had the legs there. Maybe [it was] a little bit of the games catching up to us.”
Richardson and St. Louis have remained friends despite their career divergence and surely will beyond Friday, too.
St. Louis said they brainstormed together, during the summer, how to build their new teams’ training-camp schedules. Richardson praised St. Louis’ willingness to give his players freedom to be “active and creative.”
Lafferty sidelined
Sam Lafferty didn’t play Friday due to an upper-body injury he suffered Wednesday against the Stars. He could miss a “couple games,” Richardson said, but the Hawks don’t believe it’ll be a long-term issue.
The break could actually be helpful for Lafferty, who has been somewhat invisible in recent weeks. He was mired in a 10-game pointless streak during which he’d dropped into the fourth-line center role and tallied only nine total shots on goal.
Other than two excellent performances in the Hawks’ third and fourth games of the season (against the Sharks and Red Wings), Lafferty has been generally much quieter this year after thoroughly impressing the Hawks during the second half of last year. That spring surge, when he seemed to generate at least one semi-breakaway per game, earned him a two-year contract extension that kicked in this season.
