A day after confirming that Mark Recchi would not be retained as an assistant coach, the Blue Jackets promoted Cleveland Monsters assistant coach Mike Haviland to the big club. They also hired former Milwaukee Admirals assistant coach Scott Ford to join their staff.
The Jackets also announced that Josef Boumedienne would not be returning to the club. Ultimately, it’s a clean two-for-two trade. To me, this all points clearly to one result: This team is preparing to defend better.
Dean Evason’s attitude certainly suggests that. During his time in Minnesota, Evason’s teams were notoriously weak. We’ll remember this style of hockey when John Tortorella coached the Jackets. Likewise, I expect this team to be primarily defense-oriented and never over-commit to offense.
The hope is that the team has amassed the right talent to go on offense. And this is exactly where Tortorella’s teams ultimately failed.
With Haviland and Ford, the team gets two more coaches focused on defense. Haviland led the Monsters’ defense and shorthanded play last season, while Ford is a former professional defenseman himself.
One question that comes to mind here: What does this mean for Steve McCarthy? As we all know, McCarthy ran the defense and PK for the Blue Jackets during his time in Columbus. The club has decided to retain his services (don’t ask me why…).
But when you add two more coaches who obviously focus more on defense, I wonder what changes with McCarthy. It’s quite possible that he will have to lead the forwards and maybe run the power play, even though he used to be a defenseman himself.
Regardless, I’m excited to see what this team can do under new leadership. The Jackets certainly have the ability to be a competitive team, and success has to start with a better defensive structure.
The club will retain Nicklas Backstrom as goaltending coach, which makes perfect sense. He gets along well with the young goalies in the system – and he also fits perfectly with the whole vibe of the former Minnesota Wild that the Jackets suddenly have on their coaching staff.
Quietly, Don Waddell and the Blue Jackets have done a pretty good job this summer. They’ve solved the team’s defensive and special teams issues by bringing in quality players and coaches. All of that should also help with the goaltending issues, which will hopefully lead to more wins.
