Uhh, yes. This roster is awful top to bottom. The blueline is one of the worst in the NHL. Hell, it's the worst. I'll say it. We have placeholder centers outside of Larkin. And even then, Larkin is great, but he's not in that elite center company the top teams are icing. The scoring options are limited to one line or if AA can weave through 3 guys without turning over the puck.
This roster is a total gut and remodel. You're going to keep a couple pieces but the 2022 Wings won't have a fraction of these guys remaining.
What the hell people expect from any coach here is remarkable. This isn't the Blues or Leafs with a bunch of elite pieces falling down the standings that need a shakeup. This is a gutter team scraping by and measuring success isn't going be in the win column every night.
I understand the roster deficiencies, but there really is no semblance of a system in any aspect of the team. Hell, the power play is the best of the lot, and even that is severely lacking in creativity.
On the flip side of your last comment, why did, arguably, the "best" coach today just get fired from a team that's underachieving BIG time? Is it the coach or the players? Sure you can blame a roster for a lack of winning, but at the same time, you can also blame a coaching staff for a lack of correct player utilization.
To your point, Blashill has done jack and shit with the players he's had for what, five years now? Some of that is obviously on management for roster building (or lack thereof), but at some point a coach has to be able to extract the best from what he's got. Can you honestly, and without a shadow of snark or cynicism, sit here and say that the players Detroit has are
that bad? We've seen that they're capable of beating some good teams and executing plays well and consistently. What's the disconnect now? Kronwall retiring? De la Rose being traded?
To those who say SFY stands behind Blashill, again... sigh... it's not like he's going to come out and say, "Yo, f*** this guy. He's a shit coach, and the first chance I get I'm going to shitcan his sorry ass." As has been the Red Wings way, any public statement is going to be very inoffensive and non-committal. We don't really know what SFY thinks, what Blashill thinks, what the players think...