Part 2 Detroit Red Wings Derek Lalonde has the hottest seat in the NHL

Inflexibility 

When Lalonde first came on the scene, it was a refreshing change of pace from the previous head coach, Jeff Blashill. I remember the Blashill Blender coming out more often than not, and sighing. 

“Why does he have to keep changing things up? How can anyone build chemistry with anyone?”

In Blashill’s defense, his options were a smaller pool and plenty of injuries reduced the pool even further.

After the first third, or so, of the season, Lalonde began aggregating me with his lack of changing up the goaltenders. 

Of course, hindsight is 20/20 but even as I actively watched his choice to continue with he tandem of Ville Husso and James Reimer, I kept questioning: why can’t Alex Lyon have a start?

This opportunity to play Lyon sooner is just one example of Lalonde’s stick with it attitude, which is to the detriment of the team at times.

Maybe Lyon would have faded earlier in the season, but who knows? He could have helped alleviate some pressure from Husso and Reimer. We won’t ever know and I hate saying things like that, especially with how often I said them with Lalonde last season.

I’m not sure of the reasoning to wait to put Lyon in net, but I can say it didn’t help Lalonde’s case in my book of good head coaches.

Double Standards

I, “Hate. Hate. Hate…Loathe entirely,” double standards.

Jake Walman is the poster child when I think of double standards for the players last season.

While there were times Walman didn’t have the best game, I can’t say his play was ever as bad as fellow defensemen Jeff Petry or Ben Chiarot. When they made worse plays, consistently, they didn’t miss a shift let alone a game. 

On the hand, Walman would have a less than desirable game than we’d all like him to have (presumably Walman included), his punishment ranged from banishment to a lower defensive pairing, to being sat completely.

Alex DeBrincat is another example. 

For a player that started the season on fire, DeBrincat cooled over the course of the season. 

I’m not sure that his play trailed off accordingly, though. DeBrincat’s effort level and attempts to play on the right side of the puck seemed appropriate to me based on his role on the team. 

As his confidence diminished through the season, his role in the lineup did as well. 

Instead of putting him with consistent players to boost his confidence, he was put on various lines–some of these lines seemed promising, yet were swapped as quickly as a spark attempted to roar to life.

It’s a bit of a contrast to the inflexibility of Lalonde. Possibly stemming for not understanding individual players to the team as a whole, Lalonde seems inadequate in assessing his players and team. 

Possibly a communication thing is where his confusion comes from. They say that the biggest problem with communication is thinking it happened. 

Maybe he thinks he knows what is best for each individual player and needs to change something. Whether it’s his approach, his mindset, or something I haven’t thought of yet, it’s vital to his success as a coach and the Detroit Red Wings that he improves this part of his coaching dynamic. 

For DeBrincat, I think he’s a super star on the power play, above-average on 5 on 5, but needs to feel comfortable and confident in himself. 

When pucks aren’t finding the back of the net, dropping him to a lower line or second power play unit isn’t likely to do the trick.

Much like Slava Fetisov and Sergei Fedorov, then Vladdy Konstantinov and Fedorov, I think it’s dire the Detroit Red Wings find a support system for DeBrincat. Part of the onus on the players to help each other without being asked by the coaching staff, but coaches can help to create environments that make these opportunities easier on their players.

Meanwhile, veteran players who struggle to score get to remain on the top line regardless of how dangerous they are at giving up chances against, and how ineffective they might be at generating chances on the power play.

These double standards are not something I was raised to accept, especially by my dad. Hopefully he appreciates this Father’s Day gift (even if it’s a day late and a dollar short–per usual).