LUKE RICHARDSON LINKS
RELEASE: Luke Richardson Named 40th Head Coach in Blackhawks History
BLOG: Asst. GM Eaton Calls Richardson 'One of the Best Teammates' of His Career
Though Richardson largely handled the defensive side of the team and worked with the penalty kill unit, the former Blackhawks forward said his impact on the group in Montreal as a whole was undeniable.
"From what I saw, our PK got better and I thought our defenseman, they played that strong, hard-nosed, hard-to-play-against style of hockey," Shaw said. "He taught the young kids coming in how to how to defend and I thought that was huge for some of the younger defenseman coming in to be able to have a coach who's played 1,400 plus games in the NHL, coached a bunch as well... Honestly, he was great to have. He was not quiet, but he just had that presence of, you know, people respected him. But he had fun with the guys too. He would joke around, which made the room a little lighter."
As a former player, Shaw said Richardson knew the moments to throw a friendly verbal jab to the often outspoken winger.
"He's very into fitness. He's in the gym before any of the guys are even at the rink usually," Shaw explained. "But he always gave me a hard time because I had my shirt off in the locker room walking around and he said, 'If you're gonna have your shirt off that much, you better get into the gym a little bit more.'"
Richardson is naturally a structured, defensive-minded coach, but one who also knows how to let the skill guys up front have the rein to play their game as well.
"He's gonna teach a structured game, but have that flexibility to be creative," Shaw offered. "He was on the back end. He got to see his forwards be creative, and you need that but with that you need structure defensively especially and I think he's going to grow the young prospects coming into Chicago because he's done it time and time again. He knows what it takes to win. He knows what it takes to compete day to day. I think he's going to be great, not just for the young guys, but I think even some of the older veteran defenseman (too)."
His 1,417 regular-season games as a player -- the 10th most in NHL history for a defenseman, spanning 21 seasons and six franchises -- have crafted a unique view of the game for Richardson and brings a level of automatic appreciation from everyone in the room, whether you're an up-and-coming rookie or a long-tenured veteran.
"That's a coach you can't shrug off and think you know more than," he said. "He's got the respect. He played 1,400 games -- and he played a hard 1,400 games, like he wasn't a soft player. He played hard, he was physical, so he knows how painful it can be. He knows how sore you are mentally, physically drained. So I think as a player, playing for someone like that, the amount of respect you have for them, you just have to listen to him you have to buy into what he's saying because he's been there on both ends of it as a player and the coach."
Before our conversation ended, Shaw couldn't help but reiterate one last time that Chicago got the right guy to lead the team into a new era.
"I'm jacked up," he said. "I'm pretty excited for Blackhawks players and Blackhawks fans that he's gonna be there next year."
