Jeff Blashill (mod warning post #44)

[Shaman464]

No coach will get a ton more out of this team. What does 5 extra wins get out of a team at the bottom of the barrel? Slightly lower draft odds. That. Is. All. No coach, not even Scotty Bowman, could make this team a playoff team.

 

[Pavels Dog]

Never been a fan of Blash but at this point I don't think there's much point firing him mid-season.

Haven't been impressed with his work for Team USA either though so I'm not convinced it's 100% on the roster when this team fails to put 60 minutes efforts together, shows no desire to stop losing streaks, can't ice a functional powerplay, looks lost in the defensive zone and throws passes into thin air as if no one has any clue where players are supposed to be (bad system alert).

Can't wait for when this team starts to insert both more talent on the ice and behind the bench. Let him have this season though..

 

[Go Wings]

take a look at reality to see how totally ridiculous your argument that blash had a good roster to coach is ,
and this is just concerning the forward group weakness without dwelling on the terrible defense group :
2017-18 NHL Skater Statistics | Hockey-Reference.com

Again I didn't say good but it was definitely better than the roster we have today.

 

[Winger98]

No coach will get a ton more out of this team. What does 5 extra wins get out of a team at the bottom of the barrel? Slightly lower draft odds. That. Is. All. No coach, not even Scotty Bowman, could make this team a playoff team.

I don't think people expect the playoffs, but just something resembling competence. Regardless of talent level, there should at least appear more structure than this. I know Blash has his system, it's similar to Cooper's in Tampa, etc., but he doesn't have the personnel in Tampa that run it. This is what I personally find most troubling with Blashill, either an unwillingness or inability to tailor a system to the team he's got.

At the same time, a lot of very successful coaches ran with a system and their teams either played it or they floundered, so maybe I've just been coddled too much with all of those years watching Bowman and his tinkering.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Never been a fan of Blash but at this point I don't think there's much point firing him mid-season.

Haven't been impressed with his work for Team USA either though so I'm not convinced it's 100% on the roster when this team fails to put 60 minutes efforts together, shows no desire to stop losing streaks, can't ice a functional powerplay, looks lost in the defensive zone and throws passes into thin air as if no one has any clue where players are supposed to be (bad system alert).

Can't wait for when this team starts to insert both more talent on the ice and behind the bench. Let him have this season though..

Winning your group and a medal actually aren't that common. We have 12 in our history and four bronze medals since the turn of the century. Hopefully more commonplace moving forward but we haven't been world beaters at the IIHF championships for a long time. Excluding counting the Olympics medals as the World Championship the last time we made a finals was 1950 winning silver. I get that we are starting to bring better rosters. But bronze medal and winning a group stage has him near being one of our most successful coaches at that event. I am not sure he will go back or what kind of roster we will put together next year but having a decent goalie would matter a lot, Keith Kincaid or some veteran journeyman probably are not taking you on a deep run, almost all the successful USA rosters in the last two decades have had a younger goalie that was breaking out anchor them. In fact Blash might have won his with Keith Kincaid would need to look it up. Howard has had a couple of dreadful quarterfinal games to knock us out if I remember right too.

I hope USA hockey gets better at the event, but our expectations while I want them high probably point to a little bit of unrealistic expectations. I think we should see a win soon, our depth is a lot better, but we really could use a Gibson actually coming to this event. I know Finland went on a miracle run this year, but I think our goalie and d are going to need to be better to win this event, especially without the camps that our European brethren get running into the tournament.

 

[deca guard]

Again I didn't say good but it was definitely better than the roster we have today.

your incapable of dealing in blatant facts , that roster was extremely weak as the scoring stats show . your acting like a crippled z and kid larkin would have been equal to other nhl teams top players and the reason wings were bad was blashill , an absolutely ridiculous opinion . and even more importantly the defense was right near or at the bottomof nhl , the rosters been bottom 5 nhl for 3 years , as pro odds makers in vegas have said all along , without any top forwards or dmen and sporting a bottom ten goalie but youve decided its blashes fault . its a ridiculous opinion as everybody on earth new the wings roster had bottomed out and that nobody could coach it to be succesful

 

[lilidk]

I guarantee you that strategy won't work. No team in the NHL can rely on one good forward line to carry a team to any kind of consistent success (not just winning games). The team doesn't have the defense or goaltending to sustain that kind of strategy.

You didn't read the whole comment.

 

[Go Wings]

your incapable of dealing in blatant facts , that roster was extremely weak as the scoring stats show . your acting like a crippled z and kid larkin would have been equal to other nhl teams top players and the reason wings were bad was blashill , an absolutely ridiculous opinion . and even more importantly the defense was right near or at the bottomof nhl , the rosters been bottom 5 nhl for 3 years , as pro odds makers in vegas have said all along , without any top forwards or dmen and sporting a bottom ten goalie but youve decided its blashes fault . its a ridiculous opinion as everybody on earth new the wings roster had bottomed out and that nobody could coach it to be succesful

Lmaooo you use pro odds makers in Vegas as part of your argument. Those same odds makes that had the Blues 250-1 odds on winning the stanley cup last year?

I didnt say the roster was decent but there was talent on it and every established talent regressed since Blashill has got here. But no nothing this team does wrong is Blashills fault

 

[Bondurant]

So what exactly needs to happen before we fire this joke? Do we need to lose 15 regulation games in a row? Fans have already stopped attending our home games (arena's only about half full even on weekends). Seriously, this guy hasn't got a clue how to coach this squad.

This team was destined to lose. There's a reason Babcock wanted to leave. It wasn't the "going home" narrative. Holland was digging this organization into a hole. Blashill or no Blashill it's going to take Yzerman time to fix things.

Fans have not been coming because they've been priced out after being on the hook to fund LCA. The Ilitch's are content selling tickets to corporations and the upper crust even if they don't actually attend. Those empty seats you see are sold.

In short Blashill is not the problem. His firing would be purely cosmetic. There's a reason Yzerman kept him on.

 

[Snuggs]

It's not his fault about the roster and whatever but I really hate his lines. This is really going on for two years for me. I've got ideas of who I'd like, even roll the dice on someone like Rikard Gronborg, But I'm giving him till December to sink the ship if I'm going to fire him. If the team is anywhere near .500 around December I let him keep the job for the year.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Look at NHL history people.
Coaches generally don't get the luxury of 4 straight losing seasons.

Changes were made at GM. They're going to be made at coach, too.

I expect the Red Wings to lose a lot. I don't expect them to get outscored by 1.6 goals a game.

Agreed. I don't have strong feelings about Blashill either way. However in a 7 game losing streak the Wings gave up 29 goals and scored only 9. Their PK is operating at 71%. PP is 11%.

This roster is bad but those numbers are terribad. If the hemorrhaging continues at some point I could see them firing Blashill because you have to do something to shake things up and at least lose with some dignity.

 

[Retire91]

I sitll think there is no such thing as a losing culture you just have losing seasons or you don't

There is such a thing as bad management which keeps failing to build a winning team no matter what the league throws its way. See pre shanahan Toronto for an example.

If people want to say bad management is a losing culture I can agree with that but at the end of the day its still just bad management.

 

[LeftWingLocked]

Also just so everyone here knows nhlisawesome is a noted troll who was banned from the red wings subreddit. nhlisawesome (u/nhlisawesome) - Reddit
Just constant negativity and provocation from this guy, don't bother.

To be fair. Reddit has some of the worst discussion ever. It's a bunch of young kids who have a cult like worship of a team and if you say one negative thing, everyone will downvote you and everyone is trying to to say a funny one liner to get up votes or whatever you call them. It's basically a cesspool. I prefer HFboards. Much more mature and sophisticated discussion.

 

[Rzombo4 prez]

1. Blash will be gone at the end of this season no matter what if we do not make the playoffs (and we all know that we aren't making the playoffs).

2. I have no objections to firing Blashill now. It would not be a rash or crazy move at this point. It absolutely will not, however, change the play or fortunes of this team. Our goal scoring is not going to spike in a sustainable fashion simply because we change coaches. We have a god awful roster and will continue to have a god awful roster with zero scoring depth after Blash leaves.

3. Posters will bitch about the line combinations of our next coach as much as they bitch about Blash's line combinations. The next guy will continue to play bottom six forwards in the top six and overplay vets and defensively responsible players. NHL coaches in today's game are obsessed with minimizing downside risk. They aren't looking for players to win them games, they are looking for players who will not lose games for them.

4. Fans like to focus on coaching because it allows them to believe that there is a quick fix to our problems. In addition it allows them to ignore (at least momentarily) just how bad our roster is outside of about 6 or 7 players. This team could be this bad for three or four more years and fans will do anything to avoid thinking about it.

5. When if comes time to hire a new coach, you won't see a long line of great candidates for the job.

 

[NickH8]

To be fair. Reddit has some of the worst discussion ever. It's a bunch of young kids who have a cult like worship of a team and if you say one negative thing, everyone will downvote you and everyone is trying to to say a funny one liner to get up votes or whatever you call them. It's basically a cesspool. I prefer HFboards. Much more mature and sophisticated discussion.

Yeah, Reddit sucks. I agree. Doesn't help that everyone there has. Aweird sense of superiority about the website. The site is designed to be an echo chamber.

 

[TatarTangle]

I had a chef and I gave him bread, dog shit, and cat pee as ingredients and I immediately looked at him, utterly shocked that what he prepared tasted like dog shit and cat pee.

So I brought in another chef and guess what? It tasted like dog shit and cat pee again!!!

Can you fricken' believe that neither chef could make a pile of shit a winning dish?

 

[Zetterberg4Captain]

Blashill has to be on the hot seat

Just because the team lacks talent, coaches do not last losing season after losing season after losing season

At some point they will move on from jeff

 

[guinness]

Blashill has to be on the hot seat

Just because the team lacks talent, coaches do not last losing season after losing season after losing season

At some point they will move on from jeff

But like the post above yours, if you start with poor ingredients, you still end up with a poor product.

Take out the first two games, Mantha has 4 points. Tied for 2nd in goals on the team, is Helm with 4. The entire team has scored 23 goals, and yet with the likes of De La Rose, Hirose, Flippula, Ehn, Erne taking up spots, it shouldn't be that surprising, and the defense is really maybe half NHL caliber at this point?

Veleno and Zadina aren't lighting up GR either, granted it's early and small sample size, but Rasmussen will get his shot again before they will.

The team has a good 1st line, beyond that, that roster isn't going to scare anyone. Sure the Wings could fire Blashill, but honestly shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic is still going down with the ship.

 

[MBH]

We basically had the same team, post-trade deadline last year. And we went 9-9 after March 1 - despite missing Larkin for 8 days or whatever.

 

[LeftWingLocked]

I can't see Blash lasting until Thanksgiving at this point. Wow, does this team look bad.

 

[Zetterberg4Captain]

But like the post above yours, if you start with poor ingredients, you still end up with a poor product.

Take out the first two games, Mantha has 4 points. Tied for 2nd in goals on the team, is Helm with 4. The entire team has scored 23 goals, and yet with the likes of De La Rose, Hirose, Flippula, Ehn, Erne taking up spots, it shouldn't be that surprising, and the defense is really maybe half NHL caliber at this point?

Veleno and Zadina aren't lighting up GR either, granted it's early and small sample size, but Rasmussen will get his shot again before they will.

The team has a good 1st line, beyond that, that roster isn't going to scare anyone. Sure the Wings could fire Blashill, but honestly shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic is still going down with the ship.

I am positive other bad teams had bad rosters and yet.. their losing coaches werent held onto forever while the losing continued.

 

[TheClap]

Blashill likes to talk about "The Process." If they follow "the process" they will be competitive. Follow his "process."

Can someone help explain what "the process" is? Is he a coach or a cult leader?

Is having everyone standing still at the blueline on PP zone entry part of the process? They haven't changed that up at all in 4+ years, even though they've consistently had one of the worst PPs in the league throughout his tenure.

 

[GreatGordie9]

Blashill has to go. I still think they will see where the Wings are at after 20 games and if it like it is now bye bye Jeff.

 

[guinness]

I am positive other bad teams had bad rosters and yet.. their losing coaches werent held onto forever while the losing continued.

And so a carousel of losing coaches is your solution?

 

[TheClap]

Jeff Blashill is a dime store Babcock clone.
He tries to emulate his hero in every way possible. Analytics have been changing the sport over the past decade. Most coaches are adapting. Guys like Babcock and Blashill are stuck in their ways. Coaching like it's still 2009.

It's the reason Blashill will never be a successful NHL coach, unless he adapts. It's the reason Babcock can't get more out of a very talented Toronto roster. The game has evolved past their dump and chase, process trusting, work harder than the other guys, strategy. They're still trekking cross country in a conestoga wagon when everyone is flying. Work smarter, not harder.

Wings' Blashill: Hockey analytics of limited use so far