Detroit Red Wings: Jeff Blashill and Development Problems
By Bob Heyrman
The Detroit Red Wings head coach, Jeff Blashill entering the final year of his contract needs to show a great deal of improvement before he’s granted an extension. He also may need to fend off Dan Bylsma for the gig.
Remember when Mike Babcock flew the coup and on his way out the door he mentioned he was leaving the Detroit Red Wings in good hands? He was referring to his buddy Jeff Blashill.
Sometimes I find myself trying to figure out what Babcock meant by this. If this is “good” hands, I can’t imagine what it would be like if Babs left us in “bad” hands.
Yes, Blashill runs a similar system to coach Babcock, or should I say the “old” Babcock system. When you have Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg as your number one and two centers your able to shut teams down and win games 2-1.
The NHL has evolved quickly in recent years, if you watch any Toronto Maple Leafs games you will notice Babcock doesn’t coach precisely as he once did with the Detroit Red Wings. Mike Babcock known to be as stubborn as a coach could be, he himself has evolved as a coach.
The Leafs are an offensive heavy club who’ve shown signs of regularly lacking defensive ability. Babcock lets his skilled, speedy forwards take chances, in turn, giving up a lot of shots and scoring chances themselves.
Jeff Blashill needs to rid himself of this attempt, to play a lock-down defensive style of hockey. The Wings don’t have lock-down defenders, nor are they contending at the moment. They need to make every effort to score when the opportunity arises.
The Detroit Red Wings are trying to rebuild its franchise. How can you play young prospects 8 to 10 minutes a night and expect them to develop? Luke Glendening playing similar minutes to Tyler Bertuzzi and Andreas Athanasiou because he’s so good defensively is asinine.
Moving forward, Jeff Blashill needs to commit to playing younger players in all situations, which will help them develop into successful players for years to come.
That old Babcock system is excellent if you’re contending for a championship. If that was the case, you could depend heavily on your 2-way veteran forwards and play the youth sparingly. The issue is Detroit is rebuilding; they should be playing their youth allowing them to work through adversity and develop as a player positively at the NHL level.
If Blashill shows the ability to develop the youth, he may stick around. If the young players show no improvement whatsoever, the Michigan native Dan Bylsma will be waiting for the head coaching job next season.
Every time something goes wrong, every time Detroit slips into a losing streak, Jeff Blashill will glare down the bench at his possible successor and the media will eat it up. I do expect this to be Jeff Blashill’s last season in Detroit. I hope this to be Dan Bylsma’s job at this time next year.
Next. Detroit Red Wings: Four Potential Bounce Back Candidates. dark
Jeff Blashill can’t control the roster moves or the bad contracts, but he can be blamed for the conservative style of play or lack of production. He can be accused of contributing to the lack of development in the players he has on his roster. Also, the lack of proper ice-time allocated to develop the younger players.