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Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill: 'I’ll have my own approach'
Jeff Blashill is indeed not Mike Babcock. But man, does he sound like the former Red Wings coach. Whether that’s a harbinger to what Blashill will become with Detroit as its bench boss remains to be seen.
Tuesday morning, he was introduced by the Red Wings as the team’s next head coach – one of the NHL’s worst kept secrets. Babcock went to Toronto for some mega bucks.
“I’ll have my own approach and with my own approach will come change,” Blashill said. “I’m sure there’s lots of similarities. I coach similar in a lot of ways to how Babs had coached here and a lot of the same approaches in terms of how we play. I’m my own person.”
Blashill didn’t give any major specifics on what change could mean. It was mostly just generalities.
He had high praise for Detroit veterans Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Niklas Kronwall. Those are three players Babcock often singled out as the heartbeat of the team. He does have a history with pretty much all the Detroit players, from his time as a Babcock assistant coach in 2011-12 and with the Grand Rapids Griffins from 2012-13 through this past season -- guiding pretty much all of Detroit's younger players.
The Red Wings are a group that builds and rebuilds from within and Blashill obviously is a part of that, though from a coaching perspective.
Really, Blashill, 41, was the only true option for the Red Wings. They seem to have the type of persona as an organization that no one coach is greater than the logo, hence why Detroit sort of pursued Babcock, but didn’t throw the same amount of perks his way as the Toronto Maple Leafs.
With Grand Rapids, Blashill won a Calder Cup in 2012-13. He had made the playoffs every year with the Griffins. So it’ll be easy to continue the Red Wings’ postseason streak of 24 straight years in the playoffs. Right?
“The pressure for me … it’s a year-to-year thing,” he said. “The pressure you put on yourself as an organization, a coach, manager, players is bigger than any outside pressure you can face. Any external pressure isn’t as big as the internal pressure you put yourself under.”
Babcock had bemoaned to some degree that this group was getting to an age where it couldn't really compete anymore, with its aforementioned core at the ages of 34 or older.
"I can't wait to go to work with this group in the fall and try to win a Stanley Cup," Blashill said.
There ya go, seems the expectations for the Red Wings are sky high.
Welcome to the Blashill era, Detroit. I can say confidently that there is no other candidate I feel more confident in. Blashill is one of those coaches who simply wins at every level he has coached at, and he is undoubtedly ready for the NHL.
As for assistant coaches, that hasn't been announced yet, though TSN's Aaron Ward said one could include Hall of Famer Chris Chelios.
Again from Wingin' it Motown:
They now have the second youngest coach in the NHL, and have a promising farm of youth waiting in the ranks below who will soon become a part of this core. "Greatness is a daily choice," an aphorism that Jeff Blashill had implemented with his team down in Grand Rapids, will come with him to Detroit.
General manager Ken Holland said Blashill’s contract was a four years.
So there you go. Meet the new Babs. Different than the old Babs.
There was always a question as to whether Detroit's recent success of making the playoffs had to do with its personnel or Babcock himself. We're about to find out.
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
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