The Detroit Red Wings weren’t expected to do much this season so slogging to a 6-6-1 record shouldn’t catch anyone by surprise. But after starting out 4-1, the Red Wings dropped six in a row and suddenly Blashill found himself on toasty seat. The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch wrote last week that the lack of improvement have started whispers around the league that the third-year coach is on borrowed time. The Detroit News’ Gregg Krupa adds that Blashill shouldn’t see a fourth season should the Red Wings continue to plummet in play. Aside from a lackluster power play, an inability to score goals, and some regression from scoring hopefuls Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar, Blashill told Krupa back in July that he was 100% confident that Detroit would return to the playoffs after last year’s hiatus. That puts a lot of pressure on a coach who doesn’t have the strongest of rosters.
The Red Wings look far from a playoff contender. Worse, it looks like the Red Wings have a long journey back to respectability.
While Blashill certainly shoulders some of the blame for regression, others point out that Ken Holland, the architect of the team, should see the door first. From another standpoint, firing Blashill may just be putting a bandaid on a bigger wound. Red Wings blog Winging it in Motown had a writeup about exactly this and wondered if it would actually make sense to let Blashill go. From WIIM:
Things in Detroit won’t change for the better until the organization gets out of these bad contracts and changes the way it operates from a trades and free agency standpoint. The issues of this team start as a result of Holland and anything that leads to his return next season as general manager will just kick the can down the road. Unfortunately, another bad season is the only way to start the process of getting out of this mess.
The more the team struggles the louder the coaching change rumors will get. We have to hope for no knee jerk reactions that will set things back further as the season continues.
Regardless of what happens, Detroit is stuck with a lot of long-term deals drowning in dollars. It seems the Red Wings problems run deeper than just who is behind the bench.
The Red Wings aren’t that great of a team, but Blashill still is not a good coach. He challenges like every other goal, and only like 2/10 get overturned.
Row, you are absolutely right. Ken Holland has run this once great franchise deep into the ground. But, Jeff Blashill is not an NHL caliber coach. He was outstanding in the minor leagues but the players in the NHL are far different than in the AHL. The game at the NHL level is totally different & Blashill is clueless, in terms of how to coach the best players in the world. I have said this on here before, when a coach starts mixing his lines at the first sign of trouble, he is not that much of a coach. That is an amateur move & will not work in the NHL. Blashill is just part of the problem along with a team put together by Holland that could barely compete even in the AHL.
Before I forget. Outstanding story Nate because your information is spot on. Thanks
The blame starts with Ken Holland. He has signed average players to bad contracts & given too many players no-trade clauses. He has the Wings up against the team with a below average team. With that being said, Blashill does get some of the blame as well. He isn’t a very good in-game coach. He makes poor decisions in game and often panics with moves.
The talent just isn’t there like it is on other teams. That doesn’t fall on Blashill. If he had a roster with the talent of someone like the Rangers and they were underperforming it would be different.
I watch every Wings game & Blashill shows that he is incompetent in every one of them. He was an outstanding coach at the minor league level but coaching in the NHL is another story where literally, millions of dollars are at stake every game.