I gave up on criticizing Blashill and searching for meaning within his line combos sometime last season. We've seen literally every combination of forwards and D pairings possible and guess what? It makes very little difference.
Sheahan, Abdelkader, Glendening, Helm, Tatar, Nyquist, Mantha, Jurco, AA...it doesn't change much who gets 2 or 3 extra minutes. Vanek or Nielsen aren't really setting the world on fire either. If Mantha is such a "dominant beast" that some praise him as he should be killing it on the 4th line.
It was the same thing with Babcock the last years; defensive hockey hoping to win 1-0 or at least get a point in OT/SO.
Blashill (now) has 12 games before the deadline to do everything in his power to get the Wings close enough to believe PO's are possible. He truly trusts Sheahan, Glendening, Helm, etc. (based on past experience) to be the guys to prevent goals or hold a lead. That's why Miller still plays the PK. This is true especially in a grinding, monotonous game vs. a team like Boston. For as much as most posters at HF love their statistics, can you really blame him? What 29 other coaches wouldn't ride their trusted workhorses who've performed well enough in the past? Holland said it and coaches obviously share the same belief: veteran players build up stock that even in a depressed season make them their most dependable option.
I agree with what was said in the last PG thread: coach Q, Babcock, or Bowman wouldn't move the needle much for this team. You think they'd mine some hidden gold with a magical combination of Nielsen, Abdelkader, and Mantha? Or Vanek, Z, and Larkin? Yeah that's the ticket...
If we are far enough out in 3 weeks and it feels hopeless I would guess then Mantha, AA, and Larkin will be given free rein. I doubt we'd see a full on tank job but it would be fun. Bring up Lorito, Nosek, Svechnikov, the whole gang. Reward the Griffins players and get them excited while we go diving for a top 5 pick.
