04.13.09
Todd Richards Interview
Quick Facts sat down with Crystal native Todd Richards after a practice when the San Jose Sharks came to town to play the Wild in December. Richards is the assistant coach for the President's Trophy winning and Stanley Cup favorite Sharks. The former Golden Gopher defenseman has been mentioned by Quick Facts as a primary candidate for the next head coaching vacancy in the NHL since he took the AHL by storm three years ago.
COACH: • Assistant coach for the Milwaukee Admirals for four years, leading Admirals to the playoffs in all four years he spent in Milwaukee, including Calder Cup runners-up in 2005. He was also behind the bench when the Admirals captured the 2004 Calder Cup Title, sweeping Wilkes-Barre in the Finals. • Head coach for the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins he lead the Baby Penguins to a second-place finish in the East Division & playoff Division Final. In his second year he lead the team to the Calder Cup Championship finals. • Head coach of the PlanetUSA Team at the 2007 AHL All-Star Game leading his team to a 7-6 victory Team Canada • First year assistant coach of the San Jose Sharks, helped lead the team to the NHL's best record and President's Trophy. Todd Richards and his wife Maryann have two sons: Zachary and Justin. His brother Travis had a long minor league career and lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. |
The last question of the interview specifically addresses this question with Richards and gauged his reaction to the possbility of returning home to coach the Wild. With Jacques Lemaire now stepping down for Minnesota, the possibility of Richards returning to his home state becomes a distinct possibility.
How long has it been since you have been back in to Minnesota, in Parade?
As far as coming here for hockey its been a long time, I get back here in the summer to visit my family, it is my first time coming back and actually working in Minnesota and working in hockey. I was able to experience one game when I was working with Nashville, I came here and watched a game against the Wild and it was a great atmosphere so I'm looking forward to tomorrow's game. I was trying to remember the last time I was here and I think its been about thirty years, and not a lot has changed. Parade is Parade. It was neat driving down through the area, because the baseball stadium is right over there and i played there in high school and it brings back lots of memories when you walk into a building like this you kind of forgot what it looked like but the minute you walk in you can kind of see it and it brings back a lot of good memories.
How did you make the decision to leave Wilkes-Barre and join the Sharks?
From a professional standpoint I don't want to say it was a no-brainer, but where you really get torn is a personal level, and you know you have kids and your kids develop friendships and you grow roots in a certain area and we really enjoyed Wilkes-Barre where we were, but it was the opportunity to help and be part of the coaching staff in the NHL and as a young kid you dream of playing in the NHL and I was able to do that a little bit but now it was to really to get into the NHL in coaching. So it was a lifelong dream, I would have loved to have been a player in the NHL for fifteen years, but I wasn't able to do that, but now I have another career that has taken me to the NHL.
You have brought your teams to a championship level everywhere you have been as player and coach, do you think you can do that with San Jose?
This organization was well on its way before I got here, and they would have been just fine without me but one of the reasons I did choose to come to San Jose is for that specific reason, because they were set up to have success, and as a first year guy and the situation I was leaving I didn't really want to go to a city or an NHL team that might have to grow for a couple of years. I knew that I could come in and be a part of something that was well established before I got here.
What are your responsibilities behind the bench in San Jose?
I don't run anything, I help Todd in areas, more specific is power play. That's my job is as far as setting up scouting, pre-scouts for penalty kill, just to watch things on power play and just to help out with forwards, line match-ups. The great thing about Todd too is he seeks out your advice, as a head coach, this is one thing I found, going from an assistant to a head coach, and especially here in the NHL the game happens so fast, things happen so fast, as a head coach you are always trying to think one step ahead, and you have to be prepared for certain situations as they arise, a lot of times you are thinking down the road and you aren't in the moment, and part of my job and Trent Yawney and Jay Woodroft's job is to help keep him informed as to what is happening in the now.
When speaking to your former teammates none of them had you pegged as a coach when they played with you. How did you end up behind the bench?
Even my last few years of playing I swore up and down that I'd get out of hockey, and I know after I finished my last year in Switzerland I came home. but then it was like, what do I do? A situation came up where Peter Horacek, who is an assistant in Nashville now, got the head job in Milwaukee, and through conversations with him the opportunity came up for me to be the assistant coach. Again I was at the crossroads so I thought why not try it and see. One guy that did offer me some advise was Curt Fraser, I ran into him in Florida and Orlando, didn't seek out too many opinions on what it takes to be a coach or an assistant coach. But it was an eye opening experience. I was pretty naive as to what I thought coaching was until I got into it. It was a great situation and i was very very fortunate, with the people that I've worked with and the people that I've played with in the past. In this business you rely on so many other people. An when you have success it is in large part because of the people that you're with.
Do you find yourself using anything from your previous coaches like Doug Woog or anyone else?
I really like Doug as a coach but it was a long time ago, its tough for me to remember things he said or the way he ran meetings or practice, but there are certain coaches that once I got into my pro experience, and probably more so now with the coaches that I've worked with. One in particular I spent three years with in Milwaukee (Claude Noel), and he really spent a lot of time helping me grow as a coach and teaching me and giving me a lot of responsibility. He included me in all of his meetings, and I was able to see how he interacted with players and how he ran his meetings and I do have, I call them "Claudisms".
Do you consider yourself a "Player's Coach" or more of a hybrid?
I don't know, you'd probably have to ask the players. I do try to remember what it was like as a player and try to put myself in their shoes and try to make decisions based on past experiences. But as a coach you have a lot of responsibility being the head guy, making the decisions because it has to be what is best for the team and not just individuals.
What do you think you brought with you out of Minnesota into your experiences?
My father was a coach and he coached me for a couple of years. He coached bantams and when I was a squirt or a pee wee I would go out and practice with his team and it the things I probably take out of my experiences as a Minnesota player is probably just a passion for the game and a competitiveness. You can probably ask my wife what my worst quality is and she'll say I'm too competitive. Its with my kids every day, we play games and I won't let them win, they're getting to the ages now where they're starting to beat me and its starting to frustrate me and it shows my age and my athletic ability now.
The great experiences and the great friendships you build through hockey growing up in Minnesota. Alex Goligoski last year, and Tom Gilbert the year before, those are a couple guys from here, and John Curry, its always great, I don't want to say a place in your heart for them but we're Minnesotans, and you take pride in that, and you want to see them do well because there is that pride in Minnesota hockey.
As an alumnus do you try to keep up with Gopher hockey during the season?
Oh absolutely. I don't follow it religiously. Its always nice when you run into players that played in the WCHA. We have Joe Pavelski here with the Sharks. You always have that association with them and its always a good joke and you can always kid around about our school versus your school, and when I played we always beat Wisconsin, its always nice when you have something to relate to the players that are coming up now.
What do you do to unwind away from the rink? I heard that you were quite the video game player during your college days.
Who are you talking to? Back in my playing days and growing up the videos were in and my kids are playing them now and I'll try to play with them and the coordination isn't there, the games are too complex. You can go online and play now, I'm awful at it, my skills that I had before are gone, just like my hockey game.
Your former gopher teammate, Tom Pedersen, a former Shark, is in San Jose helping to run the Jr. Sharks program, have you had time to catch up?
My kids are 10 and 12 years old, in a hockey tournament. That was a neat one day, I hear this "Ritchie, Ritchie", and I was like I know this gentleman who was walking up to me. I was like 'I know this guy'. And of course the minute he got close to me I knew it was Petie. And it was nice seeing him. And whenever you move to areas you're always looking for things that will familiarize and help with the adjustment. It is a great facility, four sheets of ice, I can bring my kids down for hockey (anytime).
You took this job in order to gain experience in the NHL to hopefully get a head coaching job in the NHL. Have you thought about the possibility that maybe that job could mean coming home and taking over behind the bench with the Wild and the extra pressures that would bring?
Especially being a first year head coach, number one the expectations in the state of Minnesota, it's at the U, its at the high school programs, even the youth programs, there is always this expectation of winning. And when you get up to the NHL level, every NHL team expects to win, but to be in a state that expects you to win that's added pressure, its like being in Montreal or Toronto or all the Canadian teams but those two teams have great tradition, it would be tremendous pressure. But as a coach, I felt every year whether as a head coach or assistant coach I've grown and I've developed and its no different this year. I'm learning a lot, its been a great adjustment, going from the American League to the NHL just in the lifestyle when you're on the road how teams function on the road, and how you deal with star athletes and managing them and you're playing every other day, whereas in the American League you have a lot more down time you have a lot more practices. Where here its literally getting ready for games, getting your team ready for games and getting your players ready for games. So there is a big difference. Hopefully whenever the time arises, I continue to develop. And if the situation were to ever occur I would hope I would be ready for the opportunity.