Luke Richardson was not happy after Tuesday's 3-0 loss to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday at the United Center, and it was as frustrated as I've seen him as the Chicago Blackhawks head coach.
"They're a hard team, but I'm kind of, at the point, tired," Richardson said. "One year's enough of 'We're a hard-working team.' We want to push for more this year."
Richardson is one of the most even-keeled coaches in the NHL. He's very calm behind the bench. But he's as competitive as they come, and you could see his blood boiling after the game.
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"I think we start off with a good intention but I find the other teams, not outwork us like work ethic-wise, but I want to say the hardness of the work, you know what I mean, like physical 1-on-1 battles," Richardson said. "We've got to work on that and sometimes that’s just a little work in practice of, 'This is how you've got to play every shift, every game.'"
Richardson was straight-forward when asked what the Blackhawks can do to get better at that.
"You do battle drills," Richardson said. "They don’t like that, but if you don’t do it in a game, you have to do it in practice. That’s just the way it is. That’s the work ethic in any sport, really."
The Blackhawks have had a brutal schedule out of the gates. Five of their first seven games have been against undefeated teams, who are some of the best of the best. The Blackhawks want to learn from them.
Chicago Blackhawks
"Boston has that work ethic instilled in them from the [Zdeno] Charas and the [Patrice] Bergerons and now [Brad] Marchand and all them," Richardson said. "They push that through. You see their fourth line out there, they work like dogs out there and they don’t give you any space and time.
"Their D's do a great job of not letting any shots get through them, or they get sticks on shots where we just hold onto it that half second too long. We have to learn from what we’re losing against and instill that in our game and play harder and find those ways."
If players aren't meeting his standards, don't be surprised to see Richardson take away and reward other players with ice time.
"There are always consequences if things repeat themselves," Richardson said. "I think you make them aware of it, you can’t not say it to them that it wasn’t acceptable enough or hard enough. And then if it repeats itself, the next step is someone else gets a shot, and hopefully they’re determined, waiting in the wings and they make the most of it, and then you learn a lesson that next time you’re back in, there’s more determination, for sure."