Should The Canadiens Give Luke Richardson A Call?

The Montreal Canadiens are not having a good season and they're having a lot of issues in their own zone, as evidenced by the eight losses in which they have surrendered at least six goals.

Related: Canadiens: Too Many Lopsided Losses

Last week, the Chicago Blackhawks fired their bench boss Luke Richardson and perhaps he could be lured back to Montreal. Richardson was an assistant coach with the Canadiens from the 2017-18 season to the end of the 2021-22. He was named the 40th head coach in the Hawks history in June 2022, one year after reaching the Stanley Cup Final with the Canadiens.

While he was an assistant with the Habs, he took the helm when coach Dominique Ducharme was sidelined with Covid in the Conference Final against the Vegas Golden Knights. Richardson was loved and respected by the Canadiens' players and they were sad to see him go (mind you there aren't a lot of players left from those days; Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Brendan Gallagher, Joel Armia, Jake Evans, Josh Anderson and Michael Pezzetta).

The blueliner played over 1,400 games in the NHL (including 27 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2006-07 as Martin St-Louis' teammate) and has been a coach in professional hockey since 2009-10 when he was first hired by the Ottawa Senators.

That being said, it has been made clear in the past that St-Louis did not feel the need for another assistant coach, deciding to hiring a consultant instead (Roger Grillo) this past off-season. Does he feel the same now? Have the Canadiens reached the point where Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes decide to impose something to their coach? Tricky questions...

Related: Montreal Canadiens Launch Their Season

And trickier still is the question to know if Luke Richardson would even be interested in coming back to Montreal. Perhaps he'd rather wait for another chance to run his own bench rather than be an assistant once again, who knows...

At this stage though, the Canadiens should be looking for solutions and for help. Not that they are expected to win every game, they are after all in a rebuild, but there's a way to lose that's a lot less worrying than by surrendering six goals or more repeatedly.

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