The coaching hot seat sleeps for no one.
We’re not even two weeks into the 2015-16 National Hockey League season, but winless starts in Anaheim and Columbus have many people fixated on the men behind the benches.
In this week’s edition of Headlines on Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman intimated that both the Ducks and Blue Jackets are in wait-and-see mode with their head coaches. So Bruce Boudreau and Todd Richards have a little more rope.
Friedman noted that the prevailing belief coming out of Anaheim is that general manager Bob Murray isn’t about to drop the axe on Boudreau, who coached the Ducks to a 109-point finish last season. Boudreau is expected to remain behind the bench for the Ducks’ five-game road swing that begins this coming Thursday in Nashville.
The Ducks are 0-3-1 through their first four games with just one goal scored. They’re not this bad.
As for Richards, whose Blue Jackets are off to a horrible 0-5 start with a minus-14 goal differential, it’s believed that GM Jarmo Kekäläinen is more likely to make a splash on the trade front before considering the removal of Richards.
Kekäläinen put his club on blast earlier this week, taking aim at the Blue Jackets’ defence corps for their poor play. The Blue Jackets have allowed a league-worst 26 goals.