Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson repeatedly has mentioned how hard he tries to stay calm and focused behind the bench, believing that steadiness will rub off on his players.
During his 22-year playing career, however, he was far from calm — as indicated by his 2,055 penalty minutes, the 51st-most in NHL history.
“When I was too even-keeled as a player, coaches told me that wasn’t my game,” Richardson joked before the Hawks’ win over the Panthers on Tuesday. “[They said to] play mean and chase Troy Murray around as much as possible. I was probably more like a [Jarred] Tinordi-type player. I tried to be heavy, physical and simple.”
Perhaps that explains why Richardson has locked Tinordi, 30, into a sizable role in the Hawks’ defense through their first six games.
Tinordi, who initially seemed like nothing more than a short-term stopgap when the Hawks claimed him on waivers two days before the season opener, now appears destined to be a season-long regular. He’s averaging 16:32 of ice time per game, skating primarily on the second defensive pair alongside Connor Murphy.
Part of that role stems from general manager Kyle Davidson’s insistence on holding all promising prospects in the AHL, keeping them as far away as possible from the Hawks’ expected dumpster fire. Employing Tinordi allows Davidson to stash both Alec Regula and Alex Vlasic in Rockford, rather than only one of them. The Hawks’ lack of fires — or even losses in general — so far hasn’t changed his mind.
Another part of Tinordi’s role can be attributed to Richardson, however. His predictable, if hardly eye-catching, playing style clearly has impressed his coach.
“He’s great,” Richardson said. “He knows how to make a change in the game with the way he plays [while also] keeping within his parameters. That’s by being physical and heavy.”
On Sunday against the Kraken, shortly after the Hawks fell behind 2-0 in the first period, Tinordi delivered back-to-back crunching hits on Jordan Eberle and Vince Dunn that Richardson credited for helping to wake up the team.
“It makes a difference at the end of the game,” Richardson said. “If you start doing that early, it gets contagious; other people start doing it.”
Indeed, Tinordi has dished out a team-leading 24 hits, and the Hawks rank fourth in the NHL in hits per game at 31.8.
Hits and puck possession, however, often are negatively correlated — a player can’t legally hit an opponent if the opponent doesn’t have the puck, after all — and that has been the case with Tinordi. His 29.2% even-strength scoring-chance ratio ranks second-to-last on the team.
“As defensemen in the back, we can do a better job of killing some plays down in the corners,” Tinordi said. “Teams want to cycle and get that movement on us. We have good defenders in here — big, strong guys. We can kill some of those plays and stop the momentum.”
Tinordi, personally, is relishing his long-awaited stable role. After eight years of bouncing around the hockey world, spending last season and training camp this season in the Rangers’ organization, he’s on track to crush his previous single-season career high of 28 NHL appearances.
The Hawks’ roster also features quite a few former teammates from previous stops, including Murphy, Max Domi, Sam Lafferty and Colin Blackwell. And while playing (with Blackwell) for Milwaukee of the AHL from 2018 to 2020, Tinordi and his wife and daughter spent their Christmas breaks in Chicago, falling in love with the city. Now it’s their new home.
“We were pretty happy that we got that call,” he said. “Heading into the year, what I knew about the Blackhawks [was that they were] rebuilding. Everyone keeps throwing that word around. But we still want to win games here. As a team, we believe in each other.”
