Blashill Needs To Go.

[Old School Hockey]

I've been so pissed I can't even post anymore.

 

This guy is the biggest reason the team is struggling.  Yes I know this is not a championship team.  But what I see nightly is HORRIBLE coaching in every phase of the game.

 

I really don't know what else to post?

 

BTW Holland needs to go as well.  When he failed to get Suter (I don't really care about Parise) to replace Lidstrom it showed his non era GM inability to land big players.

 

OK RANT OVER

[SpikeDDS]

@Old School Hockey

 

No disagreement on Blashill. Can't wait until HE finds out about the "process"...the coach replacement process, that is. Truthfully, he may not be as bad a coach as he seems, but he certainly isn't what we needed now.

 

Can't pin as much on Holland from that one deal with Suter, especially since IIRC he had family there (I KNOW Parise did, and I think he did too). But that IS when his GM shine started to tarnish for all to see, for sure, and excepting the Datsyuk cap dump, sub-par since.

 

We need fresh eyes, fresh minds, and fresh people running things. We need more discipline. I like a guy like Hartley for this situation. He did a very nice job in Calgary. I thought he got the short shrift there. Bowman said he was the best coach he ever coached against. That is a tough recommendation to top.

[yave1964]

@Old School Hockey

 

I have been down on Holland for years, he has no idea how to build a team in the post salary cap era, but like @SpikeDDS mentioned, Suter was not his fault, the cap makes it to where a player is going to get more or less the same wherever he goes and he gets to choose, unlike the good old days when we could scoop up a Robitaille, Hull and Hasek in one glorious summer. Those days are done.

  But I do not believe that Holland can fix this mess of his own creation, the subtleties of the job have passed him by. Holland first, Blash second.

[WingNut722]

18 hours ago, yave1964 said:

@Old School Hockey

 

  But I do not believe that Holland can fix this mess of his own creation, the subtleties of the job have passed him by. Holland first, Blash second.

 

We can dream and rant all we want, but then reality sets in.  Really, honestly, and truthfully, Ken Holland isn't going anywhere.  He and Illitch have a long history.  And just like everywhere else in the league, the coach is the first to go.  Same goes for any other business for that matter when there's trouble.  Sh-- rolls downhill.    

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

@WingNut722

 

So the Red Wings win a back and forth game, scoring 5 goals, although our GW goal was the very definition of puck luck. This was still NOT a good game. Mrazek is darn lucky his team bailed him out. He is lost and continues to be lost. But truthfully so are the Wings.

 

But I am afraid that the occasional win like this one gives KH just enough excuse that he needs to feed his desire to NOT break this team apart, despite all of the evidence. I am ALMOST disappointed that they won, because it will likely feed the false hope that we just might could actually compete for the second wildcard position.

 

The three point game has created this false hope. It makes teams that should be making vacation plans for late April actually think that they are "competitive." And the trouble s that I don't think KH has adjusted his analysis of his team to reflect that difference. If you are downright terrible, as the Sabres were a Edmonton was for so long, OK. When you are dreadful, or when you decide, as Toronto did, to take the dive in the hopes of getting the generational talent in the draft, you can see it clearly. But short of that, looking at the standings CANNOT be your ultimate judge of where your team is. You've got to look at the quality of the product you are putting on the ice. And the occasional win which has puck luck as the difference-maker cannot and should not be used in an way, shape or form as a yardstick for measuring the quality of your product...unless you are honest about it.

 

The truth is that, with rare exception, the quality of the Red Wing product on the ice for the vast majority of this season has been just plain unacceptable. The "process" has moved us from "unacceptable" to...."unacceptable." And unfortunately, this win is likely to give KH more reason to continue his paralysis.

[yave1964]

@SpikeDDS @WingNut722 @Old School Hockey

 

The Jackets/Penguins game started at 7, the Isles/Wings at 7:30 and so at intermission for one I was able to flip to the other.

  What a contrast.

  The Pens/Jackets were so amazingly skilled and balanced and fast on all four lines and all three defensive pairings with Murray and Bob in net whereas the Wings/Isles were ugly and choppy. Don't get me wrong, it was fun watching the boys last night because sometimes an ugly game can be a lot of fun but the skill level is just not there. We are so far behind the real teams that this is going to take a looooooooonnnnnng time to get back in the game again.

  It clearly starts with rebuilding the defense and getting the power play out of the mud and fixing the net. All three tie together a couple of top four defenseman to go along with Green and Dekeyser one who is a power play QB and the other a shut down defender would improve the entire team but in order to make it happen we need to clear salary and shift the focus. Nyquist played a very motivated game, the whispers are getting louder that he is plan B in Chicago if they whiff on Duchene, clearing the cap space might allow us to fill at least one of the holes.

  And my God why is Sheahan still on the team, he had 13 minutes of ice time and Vanek and Athanasiou both managed 7. That is simply an exasperated aside to the whole comment. How Vanek and Athanasiou are not getting top six minutes is beyond me.

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

 

I will say that we did have better offense. You mentioned Nyke. I'll also mention Tats. They both played better than usual. And truthfully, that's a good thing, if for nothing else, to bolster their value at the deadline. Mantha had a pretty decent game also. Puck movement was better. Tats' feed to Helm for the immediate one-timer and Nyke's no-look to Z come to mind. And Tats had good patience on his feed to Mantha too for a semi-easy one timer.

 

But that defense and the net...<sigh>. I actually watched both the NYI and DRW feeds on the goals, and BOTH Mickey and the Islanders' broadcasters were commenting about how Mrazek is too far out too often leaving the back door WIDE open; moving around WAY too much. Granted, one was a 3-on-2, but Mrazek made the good chance an open net shot. Same with Tavares' PP goal, even though the D left him all by himself. Still he had a yawning net to hit, and made no mistake. Combine that with that squeaky goal that he let through at the end of the 3rd, and you've got a pretty bad game.

[Norman Smith]

yes Mrazek is playing way to far out . How come our goal coach is not noticing this and working to make a change??

[SpikeDDS]

4 hours ago, Norman Smith said:

yes Mrazek is playing way to far out . How come our goal coach is not noticing this and working to make a change??

 

I am quite certain that he has mentioned it a time or 12. He will be able to add these two goals to his collection of film clips for what not to do. But that doesn't mean Petr will stop doing what he seems to have a predilection for doing.

 

Let's face it: When Petr Mrazek is playing his best hockey, he is scrambling to a degree, and he uses his glove well. When he's got his moxie going, you see him flash the leather. Problem is is that he's taking that too far, and teams have picked up on it. They try to play east-west with him to get him moving, leaving the back doors wide open. The secret's out.

 

I think to some degree that has been the difference in Jimmy Howard this year. He's playing a bit further back in the crease, allowing his positioning to make many of his saves for him rather than moving around so much. It has made him a better goalie.

 

Petr needs to learn this. However, he's got more of an ego than Howard ever had. It may take more time for him to realize he will never return to his top form unless he changes his game. Staying back further in the crease would be a good first step. But you can lead a horse to water...

[WingNut722]

@SpikeDDS

@yave1964

@Norman Smith

 

Well, as if that weren't enough, there goes Marchenko. Fished out on waivers and picked up by the Leafs. Thank goodness we still have Brendan Smith...oh wait.......

[SpikeDDS]

1 minute ago, WingNut722 said:

@SpikeDDS

@yave1964

@Norman Smith

 

Well, as if that weren't enough, there goes Marchenko. Fished out on waivers and picked up by the Leafs. Thank goodness we still have Brendan Smith...oh wait.......

 

SO glad KH is still waiting to see if we are actually good enough to maybe compete for a possibility of a chance for that second wild card spot and a quick first round exit. Paralysis continues to cost us assets. How many players have we got nothing for so far?

 

<sigh>

[Old School Hockey]

I'm getting extremely close to turn this team off until Blashill is gone.  In all of my years of watching this team I have NEVER seen a more unprepared team.

[SpikeDDS]

Well, now with the death of Mike Ilitch, I wonder if this might open the door more for a Kenny Holland promotion to VP of Somethingorother and give us a clean leadership slate, losing both GM and coach to bring in new minds. I don't think Mike would have been disloyal to Holland quickly. But now...this could change things.

[TheHockeytown]

On 2/10/2017 at 8:38 PM, SpikeDDS said:

Well, now with the death of Mike Ilitch, I wonder if this might open the door more for a Kenny Holland promotion to VP of Somethingorother and give us a clean leadership slate, losing both GM and coach to bring in new minds. I don't think Mike would have been disloyal to Holland quickly. But now...this could change things.

 

I was thinking the same thing... and hoping so too. At this point, the playoffs don't look anywhere close to promising or possible so we might as well start getting ready for the offseason and changes that HAVE to happen otherwise next season will be a repeat of this one or worse (can it really get that much worse?) If we can get a new face behind the bench, that's a start. But I've been saying for years: Ken Holland is a problem, and I started saying this on a daily basis when he resigned Dan Cleary in 2014 AND 2015.

 

Would like to see Holland and Blashill gone before June.

[SpikeDDS]

@TheHockeytown

 

Oh, make no mistake, it CAN get worse. Red Wing Entropy will continue to wreak its havoc if nothing significant is done or if the same formula is used to get things done.

 

Let's be honest: Dumping Pav's contract was Holland's best move in almost a decade. The signing of Green was solid. And the Vanek experiment has paid off for certain, and might continue to do so. (I'm personally hoping that we trade him for a very solid asset or a good pick at the deadline and then re-sign him. I think he likes it here.)

 

But let's be honest where our weaknesses are. I think with Larkin, AA, and Mantha, and add Vanek and Z for a couple more years, our top two lines are solid. It's the other two that are the problem. We've got a bunch of above-average-to-average-to-quite-frankly-below-average skaters to fill those spots. Add to that that instead of having years of developing talent waiting in the wings, we have brought most of it up and they are either playing now, we are wishing they weren't, or we have already given them away on waivers.

 

Finally, the goalie issue. Unless Mrazek changes his game, and significantly, none of our current crop of goalies can hack being a starting goalie in this league with success. I really think that Mrazek's issue has been more that the league have figured out that his aggressive style leaves back doors open, and they look for it, and find it too often. His performance at the Nashville game was different than I've seen him play in a while. He wasn't as jumpy. He made a lot more position saves and still made the flashy ones too that give him his moxie. He MUST change his game to look more like that...but every day. That may be difficult for him. I'm not convinced he can do it, nor am I convinced that if he can that we have the time to wait.

 

Bottom line is with this hunch and with a farm system that has mostly been cherry-pick already, we need more assets. Plain and simple, in today's market, I don't think we have the assets to be able to acquire a reliable future asset. They are just too darn valuable in today's game. I think blowing it up and starting over retaining a piece or two of our young core is probably the play, only it may leave us looking a lot like we look now for a lot longer than I had hoped. But the time to have prevented that has already come and gone. Red Wing Entropy continues to have its slow, ugly effects.

 

Significant change is necessary, and it will take several seasons of significant change in order to correct what has happened. I hate to say it, but I don't see us being any kind of threat in the playoffs for at least 3 years, even with significant changes. We might make the playoffs before that, but with similar expectations to that of this year's squad if they were to actually pull that stunt off (which they won't). If we are looking to actually be a legitimate threat for a 3rd round appearance, it's gonna take years to get there. More than a season. 

[TheHockeytown]

@SpikeDDS

 

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

Blowing it up and restarting is our BEST choice, and even though it's disappointing that it's going to put our team in the same, frustrating spot for a few years, I'd like to say I'm excited for a rebuild.

 

The idea of having a completely new team that is hopefully capable of making deep playoff runs in the future is exciting to me.

 

[SpikeDDS]

Well, there goes Julien to Montreal.

 

How many more coaching candidates will we allow to go to other teams without even making a pitch? Why are we hesitating?

 

I just do not understand why nothing at all is happening right now in the Red Wing front office. Maybe Mr. I's death has their attention. I guess I could understand that to a degree. But tick tock tick tock tick tock....