Detroit Red Wings: Roundtable Discussion of Jeff Blashill
By Bob Heyrman
Dale Rosenberger;
Jeff Blashill is the ultimate wait-and-see coach in terms of measuring his worth and future to the Detroit Red Wing franchise.
So far as the beginning of this season goes, it has been the NHL career in miniature for coach Jeff Blashill. After boldly running over lesser competition in the preseason, the Red Wings came out of the gate overmatched into this 2018-19 season, with a string of losses to open such as we hadn’t seen in decades. With Zetterberg gone, with veteran defensemen injured, where is the leadership we need? We wondered. Jeff Blashill looked weak with his sails waffling in this wind and then that.
The last three games, however, the Red Wings have looked cohesive, systematic, coordinated, motivated, and well-coached. We begin to wonder–because we want to believe it–maybe now we are finally on to something real regarding charting a path forward for the franchise. But how will the next ten games go? My guess is we will cycle back and forth as these questions persist.
How long will this volatility continue? Have we finally found the right mix of veterans and youth? Have the players finally bought into the speed-forecheck game their coach preaches? Can our goalie tandem give the team a chance? Can hard work compensate for lack of talent or perhaps merely underdeveloped talent? Is confidence really building in young players or is this an illusion?
Jeff Blashill learned to coach by looking over the shoulder of a master, Mike Babcock. That is how one learns such a complex craft as coaching, apprenticing under another who has proven success.
But it is not that simple. Blashill must learn from Babcock without aping him. Blashill lacks Mike Babcock’s ability or penchant for kicking butt. Babcock was even abrasive toward the sainted Red Wing players like Henrik Zetterberg. Blashill is direct, yes. He communicates, yes. He has specific ideas for players in terms of their team roles and unique gifts. Blashill must now find his own way.
For Blashill cannot carry off Mike Babcock’s take no prisoners SOB constant pressure. Nor should we desire that posture from our head coach, for it quickly wears thin. If Babcock doesn’t win with the Maple Leafs in the next couple of years, he might lose that team’s respect as he has lost other teams.
Blashill tends to over-depend upon veterans, as Babcock did. But this is a different era in Red Wings hockey. New occasions teach new duties. The passing of time makes old orthodoxies seem silly or quaint.
We learned with our rash of defensive injuries to open this season why the right mix of veterans and youth is essential. At the same time, Blashill has been too slow to introduce rookies needing exposure at the top level to grasp how to refine and improve themselves for the NHL’s big show.
We can only hope for more stories like the development of Dylan Larkin in the recent past, Dennis Cholowski in the present, and prospectively Dennis Rasmussen in the future, with his recent spate of goals in last couple games. If players lag in development similar to the way Athanasiou and Mantha have lagged, that will spell trouble for Jeff Blashill.
How long does Blashill have with suspended judgment before a clear upward arc in the fate of the franchise becomes evident? The end of this season is a hard stop on that deadline. He deserves the patience he has enjoyed so far from the Ilitches. But the NHL is finally about winning, and no coach is exempt from that mandate.