Item #1: Don’t rule out Brad Larsen
The Blue Jackets are “pretty much” done with their first round of interviews in the search for a coach to replace John Tortorella, general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said over the weekend. The second round of interviews will likely begin this week.
Gerard Gallant, Brad Larsen, Todd Nelson, David Quinn and Rick Tocchet
are known to have interviewed, but there may be others, too. Bob Hartley and Jukka Jalonen declined to say if they’ve been contacted by the Blue Jackets.
There’s a good mix of age, experience and styles on that list, and it remains to be seen what Kekalainen believes this organization needs — other than adherence to the standard that was set by Tortorella — with the next coach
.
Kekalainen doesn’t want to be seen as putting his thumb on the scales for any one candidate, but he also had a lot to say this week when asked if there was a way the organization could hire Larsen without a Crew-style revolt by Blue Jackets fans.
“If we were to think he’s the best choice to be our coach, I’d be happy to take the bullets,” Kekalainen said. “We should hire the best coach, no matter what the perception might be.”
Kekalainen noted, fairly, that Tortorella’s perception — after an awful 2013-14 in Vancouver — wasn’t exactly at its pinnacle when the Blue Jackets hired him seven games into the 2015-16 season.
But Tortorella’s arrival was mostly celebrated by the Blue Jackets’ fan base. Hiring Larsen might require a delicate public relation’s roll-out by the Blue Jackets given the current angst-ridded state of the franchise.
First, a little background.
Larsen has been with the Blue Jackets’ organization since he began his coaching career as an AHL assistant in 2010. After two years in that role, he ascended to the top AHL coach for two seasons before he was brought to Columbus to join the staff as an assistant.
One of Larsen’s jobs in Columbus has been to coach the Blue Jackets’ power play, which is how he’s become a lightning rod for scorn and vitriol among the fan base.
The Jackets’ power play was incredible in the first half of the 2016-17 season. But since then, it’s been excruciatingly, unwatchably awful. It has been so elementary in its approach, so devoid of skill and creativity and unpredictability. Instead of scooting to the edge of their seats with the man advantage, Blue Jackets fans often take the opportunity for a beer run or a bathroom break.
And so the mere mention of Larsen’s name brings a deluge of anger from Blue Jackets’ fans on social media. When it became known that Larsen would be getting an interview for the job and assistant coach Brad Shaw would not, Twitter exploded.
Tortorella, who has pushed for Larsen to be his successor in Columbus for some time, has defended Larsen passionately, though he didn’t want to be quoted for this story. Larsen and Shaw ran most of the Blue Jackets’ practices, Tortorella said, and Larsen did extensive work and teaching on the club’s 5-on-5 play through the years.
But Kekalainen doesn’t need to be sold on Larsen.
“We will give him an equal look because he’s deserving, and we know exactly what we’d be getting,” Kekalainen said. “That’s where I get most excited is he would keep the standard we’ve set and he would maintain the accountability. He’s a confident guy. He’s his own man. He was not a ‘yes man’ to Torts. He wasn’t.”
Judging Larsen by the Blue Jackets’ power play, Kekalanen said, would be like judging a GM only by his trades.
“That’s only been a fraction of his responsibilities,” he said. “It doesn’t fall entirely on Brad Larsen’s plate that we haven’t had a good power play. I’ll take responsibility for the power play — getting the right personnel is my job — as much as the coaching staff should, but it shouldn’t be on one guy.”
One year after Kekalainen was hired as GM, he promoted Larsen from AHL coach to assistant on Todd Richards’ staff. Larsen was replaced at the AHL level by Jared Bednar, who spent two years in that role before he was hired by Colorado. Now Bednar and the Avs are favorites to win the Stanley Cup.
Kekalainen believes Larsen is worthy of the same opportunity.
“We brought him up from Springfield (in 2014) because we thought he was going to be a very good coach and we wanted him closer to our NHL guys,” Kekalainen said. “We know inside and out what kind of coach Brad Larsen would be and what kind of standard he would set for us. There’s no guessing there.
“That’s one big thing, and the perception that we get from our leaders within our team is the most important thing for us.”
