Richards leads young Team USA to Bronze, other Jackets medal at World Championships
Before Blue Jackets head coach Todd Richards left for the Czech Republic to lead Team USA in the 2015 IIHF World Championships, he said fast tracking team chemistry for a group of young players that hadn't played much together would be "the interesting part."
Team USA certainly made it interesting. The young roster, which included five players from the NCAA and only eight players older than age 25, fought through the tournament to win Group B (5-1-0-1) and advance on to the final rounds.
The American beat Switzerland (3-1) in the quarterfinals before falling to Russia (0-4) in the semifinals - a rematch of an earlier tournament game that the US had won 4-2. Sunday, Richards' squad regrouped to beat the Czech Republic 3-0 and win the bronze medal.
"This win means a lot to this group and USA Hockey," Richards said according to USA hockey's website. "I think before we came to this tournament, not a lot of people gave us a chance to win anything so a huge amount of credit goes to the players."
It was Team USA's second trip to the semifinals and their second bronze in three years. According to the IIHF's website, the team finished third overall in penalty kill efficiency, third in goaltending and sixth in shooting percentage.
Going in to the tournament, Richards, who served as assistant coach for the 2014 US Olympic team, said he was aware of the challenges of bringing a team together so quickly when the players didn't have a lot of experience together. The first goal for the group was to advance out of Group B that played in Ostrava, Czech Republic and make it to Prague for the final rounds.
Once that goal was achieved, the next target was to keep winning.
"A lot of these guys had their first experience in international hockey," Richards said. "We've been together for three weeks, that's it, so what they accomplished here means a lot."
Richards led what is now only the 18thU.S. team to medal in the world championships. And he wasn't the only Blue Jacket around to enjoy the success. Off-ice, video coach Dan Singleton, trainer Mike Vogt, equipment manager Jamie Healy, and assistant general manager Bill Zito were all part of Team USA.
On the ice, Jackets' forward Jeremy Morin joined the U.S. roster for his world championship debut. The 24-year-old played in ten games and has a crystal medal that marks the team's third place finish to bring home with him.
But that won't be the only hardware in the Jackets locker room.
As the Americans progressed through the tournament, they lined up against Blue Jackets playing for their home countries and those players are also bringing home medals of their own.
Defenseman David Savard played for Team Canada, which will be taking home gold medals after beating Russia 6-1 in the finals. Savard was a plus-10 and had four assists in the tournament.
The silver medal winning team, Russia, boasted two Blue Jackets players: forward Artem Anisimov and goaltender, and last year's tournament MVP, Sergei Bobrovsky. Anisimov had one goal and three assists in ten games and was plus-2 for the tournament.
Bobrovsky played in ten games (6-3-1) and allowed 21 goals on 223 shots. The 2013 Vezina winner had a .901 save percentage.
The other rostered Jacket to participate in the 2015 tournament was forward Marko Dano who joined his countrymen on Team Slovakia. Dano played in five games before suffering a knee injury. Prior to being hurt, Dano had the game-winning goal against Denmark in a shootout. He netted 14 shots on goal.
