By Damon Knight, Tribune Correspondent
Saturday, the Detroit Red Wings fired Head Coach, Jeff Blashill after seven seasons with the team. Blashill, 48, led the Wings to a record of 204-261-72 during his tenure. It resulted in a 6-year skit of not making the playoffs. However, despite the team’s struggles, a few bright spots emerged under his coaching, rookies Moritz Seider and Lucas Reymond. Both of whom propelled the Wings to the 12th place spot in the Eastern Conference this year. A division that consists of 16 teams. Inevitably, it wasn’t enough for management and for Detroit GM, Steve Yzerman.
Yzerman said, “He ran a good program. Pardon the expression but this wasn’t a complete shit-show. We were organized, our guys practiced hard. I said it after year one, I said it after year two, you cannot judge Jeff Blashill on the Detroit Red Wings’ record. I think you judge it on how he ran this program and conducted himself and was extremely professional. It’s really unfair to put it on the coach.”
When asked about why he parted ways Yzerman said, “To make that decision: we had gotten to a point where fundamentally with and without the puck, we regressed.” He continued saying, “I don’t know if plateaued is the right word, but we’d gotten to a point where fundamentally with and without the puck we had regressed,” Yzerman said. “We’re at a point now where I felt like we got to see if bringing in a new coach, new coaching staff, can make a difference to get us back on track and going in the right direction. Ultimately that is the biggest reason to make the change.”
