Her parents — new Canadiens assistant coach Luke Richardson and his wife, Stephanie — along with Daron’s close friends and classmates decided to keep her memory alive after her suicide by starting a grassroots movement called Do It For Daron (DIFD) which has grown to include a website focusing on mental health awareness, hoping to help other young people dealing with mental health issues. The goal is to also get people talking openly about uncomfortable subjects like suicide and mental health and to let them know there are resources available to help.
“Everybody was so blown away by this,” Richardson told NHL.com last December about Daron’s suicide. “People think mental health there’s stereotypes, very visible, whether it be addiction based or real serious mental health problems. Daron suffered in silence. We didn’t see any signs.”
The suffering in silence is why DIFD focuses so much on encouraging conversations.
DIFD’s symbol is a purple heart, inspired by Daron’s favourite colour, and her father always wears a purple DIFD bracelet.
“People don’t know what to say and they’re like I’m sorry and I say no no, that’s why I wear it,” Richardson told NHL.com about his bracelet. “I’m proud of my daughter and I want that message to continue and she’s a big part of that.”
The old saying goes you are what your record says you are, but that saying blocks any context. Richardson’s record is awful, but the context states his record is supposed to be bad.
This does not mean Richardson is above criticism. At the same time, he really has not done much to get heckled.
The only thing you can point to and say Richardson should have done better was in the early part of the season when the Hawks were healthy, the effort was inconsistent. Instead of addressing it, he let the players handle it with locker room meetings, but the problem still existed.
You can also make a case that Richardson should be pushing for Lukas Reichel or Arvid Soderblom to be sent to the AHL to get out of their funks. Since this is a lost season, the Hawks can be patient with those two.
Otherwise, Richardson has done what any coach tasked with a rebuild should do. He has kept the offense simple. Richardson has tried to hold inconsistent players accountable with his healthy scratches (see Reichel and Isaak Phillips). Most importantly, he is not trying to shoehorn players into his system like his predecessor, Jeremy Colliton.
If he was being as stubborn as Colliton, then by all means Richardson’s coaching should be coming into question. The guy is trying everything he can think of to fix the Hawks’ problems. Sometimes coaching just cannot overcome a lack of talent.
Chicago Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson politely declined, with a chuckle, when asked postgame about calling up Kyle Davidson for some more help with the roster. He’s pretty sure they see how injuries are affecting the team.
“Yeah, that’s not my area, but I think they obviously realize that, too,” Richardson said.
Chicago Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson politely declined, with a chuckle, when asked postgame about calling up Kyle Davidson for some more help with the roster. He’s pretty sure they see how injuries are affecting the team.
“Yeah, that’s not my area, but I think they obviously realize that, too,” Richardson said.
A combination of injuries and a lack of roster depth to supplant the losses have contributed to the Blackhawks latest losing streak. But for some frustrated fans targeting Richardson for the problems, it’s simply that–frustration.
Seen again despite a 3-0 loss to the Nashville Predators, was a shorthanded team that fought through a tough opening ten minutes and played the Predators tight for nearly 56 minutes. A five-on-three power play put the game out of reach, but it came late in the third after a shorter bench literally shuffled things again.
Perhaps Richardson should quote Chicago based band Local H:–what would you have me do?
Luke Richardson Furthest Thing From the Problem
I’ve compared this current Blackhawks team to the 2005-06 Pittsburgh Penguins–a rebuilding squad in Sidney Crosby’s rookie season. Lost in that comparison is that Blackhawks legend Eddie Olczyk was the bench boss–and was dismissed after 31 games. But this snippet from the 2005 ESPN article is telling:
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