One day after confirming that Mark Recchi would not be retained as an assistant coach, the Blue Jackets promoted Cleveland Monsters associate 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. In the end, it's a clean two for two swap. To me, this all points distinctly towards one outcome: this team is gearing itself up to play better defense.
Hiring Dean Evason certainly points towards that end. In his time in Minnesota, Evason's teams were notoriously low event. We'll remember this style of hockey from when John Tortorella coached the Jackets. Similarly, I expect this team to all-out defend first, never over-extending themselves too much for offense.
The hope here, is that the team has accumulated the right talent to produce offense the other way. Which is ultimately where Tortorella's teams came up short.
Adding Haviland and Ford to the staff will give this team two more defense-first coaches. Haviland ran the defense and penalty kill for the Monsters this past season; while Ford is himself a former professional defenseman.
One question that comes up for me here: what does this mean for Steve McCarthy? As we all know, McCarthy has ran the defense and PK for the Blue Jackets in his time in Columbus. The club has opted to retain his services (don't ask me why...).
But, adding two more coaches who obviously lean more towards defense; makes me wonder what changes with McCarthy. It's entirely possible that he's left to run the forwards and perhaps manage the power-play, even though he's a former defenseman himself.
Whatever the case, I'm interested to see what this team can do under some fresh tutelage. The Jackets certainly have the talent to be a competitive team, and success has to start with a better defensive structure.
The club will retain Nicklas Backstrom as their goaltending coach, which makes perfect sense. He's got the rapport with the young goaltenders in the system - and he also fits right in with the whole ex-Minnesota Wild vibe the Jackets suddenly have going on in their coaching staff.
Quietly, this summer has been pretty effective work by Don Waddell and the Blue Jackets. They've addressed this team's defensive and special teams struggles by adding quality players and coaches. All of this should help with their goaltending concerns as well, which will hopefully lead to more wins.