The "Lars bar" didn't last long.
Two years after stating Brad Larsen, nicknamed "Lars," had set the bar too high for other candidates in their search for coach John Tortorella's replacement, the Blue Jackets fired Larsen Saturday, with one year remaining on his contract. The team also announced that goaltending coach Manny Legace 's contract won't be renewed.
Larsen was informed Saturday morning, hours after the Blue Jackets' season ended with a 5-2 loss Friday to the Buffalo Sabres . The remaining staff, including associate head coach Pascal Vincent, assistant Steve McCarthy and skills coaches Kenny McCudden and Jared Boll, are staying. This season, the Blue Jackets went 25-48-9, finished 31st of 32 teams and set injury-related franchise records in man-games lost (563), goaltenders used (six) and players used (47).
"It's obvious what we went through with the injuries, and it's an unfortunate situation for all of us," Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said. "We do our evaluation every day here. We watch every practice. We try to watch closely what's going on in the locker room. We're communicating with the coaches every day. That's how we do our evaluations on what goes on with our team, and especially the direction we want to take with our team.
"We came to the conclusion that this was absolutely a necessary change that we needed to make."
Larsen, 45, finished his first head coaching stint with a 62-86-16 record in 164 games. Both seasons were marred by injuries that limited key players for long stretches, including Patrik Laine and Boone Jenner . After playing parts of eight NHL seasons for the Colorado Avalanche and Atlanta Thrashers, he began his coaching career with the Blue Jackets in 2010-11 as an AHL assistant with the Springfield Falcons.
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After two years in that role, he took over the Springfield head coaching job for two seasons before moving up to Columbus as a Blue Jackets assistant in 2014-15 under former coach Todd Richards. Tortorella took the reins after the Jackets' 0-7-0 start in 2015-16 led to Richards' dismissal.
Larsen remained on Tortorella's staff for all six seasons of that coaching era in Columbus before replacing his mentor June 11, 2021. He was with the Blue Jackets' organization 13 years.
"It's a difficult day," captain Boone Jenner said. "For me personally, going back a lot of years, 11-12 years with him ... it started in Springfield. He was an assistant coach there and then head coach there. That was my first time playing for him. And then coming up here, he was assistant coach for years and then head coach. I've been through the ups and downs with him and learned a lot from him."
Jenner was also named captain by Larsen prior to last season and has thrived in that leadership role.
"He's a great man and I truly wish nothing but the best for him and his family, his two kids and his wife," Jenner said. 'It's a tough day, for sure."
Larsen's tenure as head coach was filled with adversity and challenges, both personally and professionally.
Less than a month into his new role, Larsen and the rest of the organization were shaken by the tragic fireworks-related death of rookie goalie Matiss Kivlenieks on July 4, 2021 at Legace's offseason home in Novi, Michigan. Larsen drove there the next morning to grieve with the Legace family and Blue Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins .
It was an emotional gut punch for the entire team, including Larsen, and two months later his stint as the Jackets' top coach officially began.
Larsen's tenure started out with a 12-6-0 record through the first 18 games, but Laine strained an oblique muscle in the 10th game and missed 19 games dealing with that plus the death of his father in Finland. The Jackets' positive start had vanished by the time he returned, and it took a couple weeks for their leading goal-scorer to get back up to speed.
Laine eventually got hot , but the Blue Jackets' playoff hopes were on life support and faded quickly. This season, Laine was hurt three separate times, including a sprained elbow in the second period of the season-opener at the Carolina Hurricanes . It turned out to be the first of many key injuries. Laine and Larsen butted heads upon the forward's arrival in 2021 in a trade with the Winnipeg Jets , which led to Tortorella issuing an in-game benching punishment for an entire period.
Laine developed a solid working relationship with Larsen, but he's also a realist who had a feeling that changes were coming after such a disappointing season.
"I was kind of surprised by it," Laine said of Larsen's firing. "At the same time, I mean, we've struggled the last couple years and I'm sure that sometimes you just need a change. They did it and we'll see what happens next, but I think it's a good time to kind of reset a little bit."
Kekalainen declined to get into specifics about reasons for Larsen's firing, but a terrible 3-9-0 start didn't help and neither did the Jackets' first spate of injuries that took out multiple key players for the rest of the season. It started with forward Justin Danforth (shoulder surgery) after just six games and expanded to include veteran playmaker Jakub Voracek (concussion) leaving after 11 games, top defenseman Zach Werenski (shoulder surgery) going out in the 13th game and defenseman Jake Bean (shoulder surgery) sidelined after 15 games.
The 3-9-0 start stretched through the injuries to Laine (sprained elbow) and Danforth. The Blue Jackets were also were blown out in three straight games, first at the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 30 and the next two against the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche in Tampere, Finland.
It essentially ended the Blue Jackets' hopes for joining the playoff race in the Eastern Conference after signing Johnny Gaudreau and a slew of injuries that followed sealed their fate. Larsen's fate was clear after his final postgame press conference Friday at Nationwide Arena.
The Dispatch was unable reach Larsen for comment Saturday, but he expressed his feelings for being an NHL head coach after the loss to Buffalo.
"This is a privilege to do this job, it is," Larsen said. "And I love it. Even in a challenging year like it was, it's, uh … there's just lots of things to think and sort through a year like this."
Legace, a former NHL goaltender for 11 seasons with four teams, spent 11 years as part of the Blue Jackets' organization. Like Larsen, he started with Springfield in the AHL and worked his way up to the NHL after six seasons in the minors.
Legace took over as the Blue Jackets' top goaltending coach in 2018-19, after the team parted ways with former goaltending coach Ian Clark, and spent five years in that role. He developed close relationships with Elvis Merzlikins and Kivlenieks, who were at his home the weekend of Legace's daughter's wedding there July 4, 2021 — a day that changed a lot of lives.
Kivlenieks lost his life when struck by a fireworks mortar fired out of a nearby tube that tipped in his direction, while Merzlikins and Legace lost a dear friend whose tragic will forever bond them . Merzlikins has said numerous times that he considers Legace to be a father figure he lacked after his own father's death while he was young, but the Latvian netminder also knows how professional hockey works.
He isn't against hearing a new voice on the ice.
"Obviously, this is business," Merzlikins said. "Me and Manny, always, we're going to stay friends forever. He did so much (for) me and he helped me out. Where I got today, it's thanks to him. He is the one who changed my style when I came here from Switzerland. He changed everything with me, so I don't have any hard feelings about that. I understand that it's a business ― Lars, obviously, as well. Those are two great people who left, but there's going to be new ones, right? This is business. I understand. I'm not a kid. It's normal."
Kekalainen and John Davidson, the team's president of hockey operations , are now looking for Larsen's replacement.
Among the biggest names as coaching free agents are veterans Bruce Boudreau, who was fired by the Vancouver Canucks mid-season, and Peter Laviolette, who mutually parted ways with the Washington Capitals on Friday after three seasons.
Laviolette, 58, ranks eighth all-time and third among active NHL coaches with 752 wins in a 21-year career with five teams. Boudreau is 20th all-time and sixth among active coaches with 617 wins for four teams over 15 years.
"We have not (started a search), but we will start evaluating that situation immediately, with a deep look at all the best candidates that may be available," Kekalainen said. "(We'll) give consideration to the staff that we have here. The rest of the coaches are in place. They've done a good job. We evaluate this whole situation as we move forward here. That starts today."
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets fire Brad Larsen, opt to not retain Legace
