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FRED SQUILLANTE | Dispatch

Interim coach Todd Richards must try to get the most out of the Jackets over the final 30 games of the season.

Todd Richards has an enormous challenge ahead of him as interim coach of the Blue Jackets. The team has 30 games to play, but the season has been over — with respect to the Stanley Cup playoffs — for a long time. Motivation can be a scarce resource in times like these.

His good friend Claude Noel was in this same spot two years ago in Columbus when he took over a lost season in place of Ken Hitchcock. Noel spent the final two months of the season trying to impart “joy” among Blue Jackets players and fans.

Richards has his own one-word objective for the rest of the season.

“For me, it’s pride,” Richards said. “It’s pride — it’s how we play the game. That’s what I’m hoping to establish with these guys and instill in some of them, and it’s a big word. It’s real important to the game of hockey.

“I want our guys to be able to say, when the night is over and they’re untying their skates in the dressing room, that they left everything out on the ice. No matter what the scoreboard says, that’s where I want us to be as a team, night in and night out.”

Richards faces a meaningful game tonight when the Blue Jackets play the Minnesota Wild in Nationwide Arena.

After two mostly mediocre seasons with the Wild, Richards was fired by the Wild last summer and hired two months later by the Blue Jackets to bring a veteran voice to coach Scott Arniel’s staff.

“This is a completely different situation than starting from camp and building,” Richards said. “You have to navigate things in a situation like this one. Motivation is a big deal. It can be a big challenge to keep guys motivated under these circumstances.

“I don’t think we’re mathematically eliminated, but we’re at a stage where everybody feels that way. We’re not a team that can use the standings or a playoff race for motivation, so it’s not an easy thing.”

Since Richards took over for Arniel on Jan. 9, the Blue Jackets are 3-7-1. Other than two ugly losses before the All-Star break (vs. Nashville and Tampa Bay) and a blowout loss coming out of the break (in San Jose), the Jackets have played with at least some modicum of pride, if not effectiveness.

Richards has coached, in some ways, similarly to Arniel. The system has not changed. Nor have most players’ roles, although center Derick Brassard — in Arniel’s doghouse — has begun to excel with regular minutes in the top six.

But Richards has added a personal touch that many players seem to appreciate, such as after Wednesday’s loss in Los Angeles when a clock error cost the Blue Jackets at least a point.

“He stood up and talked to us on the bus after the game,” winger Colton Gillies said. “It was a pretty disheartening way to lose a game, and he wanted the players to know that he appreciates what we put into it, that we probably deserved more.

“As a player, that’s something you like to hear. It lets you know he’s there for us. And when you see a coach be like that, it makes you want to play that much more.”

Richards said he didn’t accept the interim job immediately when general manager Scott Howson offered it to him late on Jan. 8.

He spent at least an hour in Arniel’s hotel room, and in that conversation Arniel insisted that Richards accept the job.

Richards notified Howson in the wee hours of the morning, then got to work.

“I was hesitant,” Richards said. “It was a difficult conversation to have, because, honestly, it was easier on me getting fired in Minnesota than it was when Scott got fired. I felt like I’d let him down.”

Richards has leaned on Noel enough to know that the next two months won’t be easy, nor will be the process that will follow.

Howson has said that Richards will be considered a candidate for the permanent job this summer, but he’s in a difficult spot. These next two months will go on his resume, fair or not.

A little pride could go a long way.

“That’s all I’m asking of these guys, is to give me the best of what they’ve got the rest of the way,” Richards said. “If you can put your head on the pillow and have peace of mind knowing you did the best work you could do … to me, that’s when you sleep well.”

aportzline@dispatch.com