Boston – When he coached the St. Louis Blues in the late 1960s, Scotty Bowman used to put the fear of the hockey gods into his players by walking into their favorite bar and playing Fats Domino’s “Kansas City.” With its lyric “Kansas City, here I come” and the Blues’ minor-league affiliate there, Bowman could keep his players on edge with the push of a nickel through the jukebox slot.
There aren’t many hit songs about Albany, N.Y., or any with such double-entendre lyrics for a hockey player, so Brad Richardson wasn’t forewarned when Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville gave him the news he would be leaving the Avs for the minor- league city earlier this season.
On Jan. 3, Richardson left the chartered, catered airplanes of the NHL for the Greyhound buses of the American Hockey League. From visiting cities such as Los Angeles to hitting the road to places such as Lowell, Mass. From a salary of half a million dollars to minor-league money.
“It was an eye-opener,” Richardson said. “I realized I better start bearing down.”
At the time, the Avs told Richardson he would be going to Albany for only three games and planned to call him back after that. But was that for sure? Would a bad game or two for the River Rats make the Avs reconsider, and keep him there? Richardson wasn’t so sure. It was a most unpleasant time for someone who had been considered one of the Avs’ up-and-coming prospects.
“I wasn’t very happy, but I knew it was only for three games, so I tried to keep a positive attitude,” said Richardson, who is from Belleville, Ontario. “It ran through my head that they might change their mind. It helped me get motivated again, for sure.”
Richardson inferred the team thought he wasn’t working hard enough. He was becoming a little too fancy on the ice, perhaps thinking of himself as a pretty goal-scorer and not the kind of pesky two-way player Quenne- ville favors in his third- and fourth-liners.
“It’s part of it for these young guys sometimes. It’s part of their development. Their growth pattern is not always straight up,” Quenneville said. “I thought he handled it well, and the response that we’ve seen from him since has been good. I think over the last five, 10 games, he’s playing his best hockey of the season.”
Richardson, 22, hit the double-figure mark as an NHL goal-scorer for the first time Sunday, scoring the game-winner in overtime against the Detroit Red Wings. He hit the goal post with another shot off the rush, and generally was around the puck most of the game with better-than-average speed.
“He’s got a sneaky shot. Any kind of production from him, the way he plays, is a bonus,” Quenneville said. “He’s useful on the wing and at center, and killing penalties.”
On Wednesday, Richardson will be back in New York. But this time, it’s in Buffalo, as a visiting player for the Avs. Albany is a good distance away – almost 300 miles – but Richardson knows the minor leagues are close by anytime he loses his work ethic.
“That’s it, just keep workin’,” he said. “I think maybe it’ll turn out to be a good thing for me that I went there. It definitely sent the message.”
Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com.
