The veteran return this season has been beaten to death (nothing toward you Christien) and I've reached the point where I'm just going to wait and see what happens. However one thing I really want to touch on which is something I feel has been hiding for a bit and feel is just as important if not more, is the return of Jeff Blashill & Co.
Please guys, honestly tell me if I'm not being fair or my opinions aren't properly founded (I can handle that as I'm not perfect), but I feel with my heart, mind body and soul that extending Blashill and company is not in the best interest of the winged Wheel and the players themselves. First, I just feel like it's not a good message to reward consecutive playoff no shows with an extension. Maybe Jeff is a good guy off the ice and office and I will give him credit for Larkin and Bertuzzi as far as their development goes. So I am fully willing to give him credit there.
However what worries me the MOST is that in my time of watching the Wings that past years under his reign I have witnessed a team that doesn't really play under any unity or cohesion. Apart from a few games every now and then, this team looks like one with too many different minds on the ice. I don't know how to put it into words exactly. Maybe Jeff is in a perfect storm to be set up for failiure with our roster and with a better overall roster he would look better. When i listen to his interviews every now and then, i feel like he knows what he wants to do and what the problems are, but maybe he's not a good teacher in conveying the solutions? But I believe we have seen the ceiling with our team and with that, if you bring in the same roster and same staff, HOW COULD YOU EXPECT DIFFERENT RESULTS? How could you expect a push from the playoffs? How could you expect compete and match up against the best? I'm a very patient guy and don't expect this rebuild to end next year. In my opinion we won't be doing anything significant until after the expansion draft/post lockout years. But with he and his staff coming back next year I feel like the team is accepting a low bar of success and are neutering themselves of any possibility at evolving as a team.
If he comes back, he comes back. I'll root for the team either way and heck, I WANT Jeff to prove me wrong because that means we're winning, but I just don't see it with him. Having said all that, I don't know who to replace him with. Maybe that's why they'll bring him back as there not being alot of better options available to them in management's eyes?
