i think i asked first. and for the record, i don't think it's awesome. i think blash is average coach. i think there are few great coaches who get more out of their roster than their talent indicates. wings aren't going to be able to hire any of those guys in the near future. then there are coaches who are average, they don't swing results much in either way, they don't make their team over/underachieve long-term. then there are the crappy coaches there are only few of those. i think wings would be clearly in bottom 10 if blashill was a crappy coach (would've happened had we hired granato). average coach has them right where they are. great coach in a playoff spot.
i'm not sue if you've noticed but league-wide scoring is as low as ever. better comparison would be red wings ranking compared to the rest of the league. at the moment they are worse than they were last year than year before and by fair margin. but exactly at the same position as they were back in 2013. 20th in goals for.
Scoring is down league wide to a massive degree. Last I checked and maybe lately they dipped back below that, but they have been better 5 on 5 which I would attribute to the coaching system.
I don't know where Blashill fits now in the greater scheme. He is a rookie at this level and he is experimenting with what in his system works and what doesn't. I like that the D is active, I think we need better D-man to really make it function.
But Blashill doesn't hurt you and I think he is getting better. Another thing with Blashill's teams is they have historically played much better down the stretch than earlier in the year, so I look forward to that.
They are in a playoff spot right now too, so I am confused. If it is just to be fighting with other teams well one of your great coaches listed had them in the same position for several years now.
I don't think they have his system fully on. They don't play with the pace or directness of his other teams to date. We will see when we start to see more of that, it might be after some of the personnel changes.
He needs to work on the special teams with his other coaches. It has been disappointing there. But 5 on 5 we are trending the right way in my opinion and the more speed and support they get playing with the better it is going to look.
Scoring is down league wide. It doesn't look to be coming back up anytime soon. In fact what the Wings scored last year would be more than Chicago this year for instance. That is how sharp the decline in offense is. The GAA have gone down for the Wings this year and I would never with a straight face call Blashill a better defensive coach than Babcock.
Again I like the trends of this team. I like that they are getting better, I think they are still adapting and I am very happy with the progression of Blash. I think we have a Top 10 coach in the league if not by the end of this season then early into next year.
Also by the way in six or seven years depending on what is going on with the team, I am going to start talking about they probably need a new voice. That is my opinion on coaching in general, there are very few people that can overcome that, this seems to be particularly true in Hockey with only a few exceptions.
). The D are developing their technique at just as high of a pace individually as the forwards. We may never again see a "generational talent" such as Ovi and Crosby- a player like McDavid may be close to meeting that description but no way he transforms the game like those two in their rookie years. Basically what you see is the scoring "superstars" of the past seasons- Giroux, Stamkos, Tavares, Kopitar,etc. are not head and shoulder above their peers (unless their name is Patrick Kane 
). 
