Detroit Red Wings: Why does Jeff Blashill hate Michael Rasmussen?

Michael Rasmussen has struggled to find consistent minutes all season long with the Detroit Red Wings, and it doesn’t make much sense.

Hate might be a strong word.  I don’t think Detroit Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill “hates” Michael Rasmussen, but he certainly doesn’t trust the youngster yet.  The idea that players like Thomas Vanek, Justin Abdelkader, Christoffer Ehn, and Darren Helm see more ice on a game to game basis is outrageous in my mind.

Of course, Abdelkader is out for the remainder of the season, and not many fans are really too upset about that. I am not facetious, just taking into consideration where the team currently sits with just better than a handful of games remaining in the season.  We’d rather get a look at Taro Hirose who was just awarded “Big Ten” player of the year edging out Quinn Hughes.  Hirose recorded his first NHL point last night for the Wings.  He made a nifty bank pass in the neutral zone springing Frans Neilsen who moments later made it count.

Detroit Red Wings bench boss Jeff Blashill has regularly expressed that players need to earn their ice-time.  It’s hard for a young player to get into a groove averaging about 12:00 TOI a night buried on a line with de La Rose and Ehn.

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Rasmussen is playing sparingly with grinding type forwards and then comes out and produces half of his goals on the power-play, playing with skilled players.  He’s shown he’s valuable in front of the net and he looks like he will become an above average tipper.  I don’t mean after dinner, but I do hope he is generous in that form too, those servers work hard.

He is far from Tomas Holmstrom, but with his size and the hand-eye coordination that he’s shown along with having a nose for the net thus far I hope he grows into a beast in front of opposing goaltenders.  He’s already a better skater than Holmstrom and has a much higher offensive ceiling, yet he can’t buy ice-time on a rebuilding team.  I don’t get it.

The Detroit Red Wings decided to keep Rasmussen in Motown all season.  The organization felt he had no more room to improve playing in junior this season.  I liked the move, but I also expected the team to use him around 15-16 minutes a night.  In my opinion, it’s hard for a scoring type forward to find his way playing 10-12 minutes a night with linemates that don’t compliment your skill-set. Last night in New York he played 9:31 TOI.  (For the record, Ehn played 14:56 TOI.)

The kid is 6’6, but his large frame has yet to fill out into a power forward.  He’s actually got that Gumby type look to him. Once the team gets him on another offseason work out regiment, he will put on some muscle and be a force down low.  Then I’m sure he will be more willing to bang the body.  Meanwhile, the Wings have Darren Helm playing with Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha. Chew on that for a minute.  The team is way out of it and should be getting as many looks at their youth as possible, yet Helm is playing on the top line while Rasmussen is on the fourth unit.

The Detroit Red Wings had a decision to make regarding Rasmussen leading up to the trade deadline.  They could have returned him to his junior club for a playoff run for a Memorial Cup, and if they happened to be eliminated, he could then report to Grand Rapids for their playoff run.  In turn, it would have ended his NHL season, but he would be able to extend his season playing like a top three forward.

The Wings once again elected to keep him so once the Wings season is completed so will Rasmussen’s.  They had an opportunity to allow him to go down and play a significant role on a team for the remainder of the season yet they decided to stunt his growth playing a dozen minutes a night with borderline NHL players.

On the season Rasmussen has achieved 8 goals, 9 assists totaling 17 points.  He’s notched 4 power-play goals and is a minus -7 on the year.  His CF% is below average sitting at 47% but again look who he’s playing with.  We need to demand more Detroit, we deserve better, and it starts from the top down.