Blashill sits Mantha

[yave1964]

Jeff Blashill continues his long feud with Anthony Mantha last night by sitting him as a healthy scratch against the Panthers in the Wings 4-1 victory. Blashill after the game said essentially that Mantha hasnt been playing well enough to deserve a spot in the lineup.

 

  This is freaking absurd. ABSURD. Mantha after a slow start scoring had goals in three consecutive games and was hitting his stride, then Blash removed him from the top line replacing him on the right side with Bobby ryan and dropping Mantha down to the second line in spite of the team needing offense and Bertuzzi being out. Here is a guy who was nearly a point a game performer last season on an absolutely wretched Wings team, look I lived through and remember the Dead Things era, last years squad was arguably the worst Wings collection of all time and Mantha plugged away playing hard all year and I study the games when I watch them, he didnt seem to be taking shifts off this year to start the year and I admit to being perplexed by his being moved off the Larkin line but kind of sort of accepted the 'we need to balance our scoring' BS that was being put out. The simple fact is this, since Mantha came up with the big club he has been bounced around line to line, his minutes might be 19 one night and 12 the next.

  I am tired of hearing that Blashill is a good developer of talent, that is a lie, look at the kids who he yoyo's back and forth. Only a few, Larkin, Bertuzzi, Hronek, Mantha have developed under him but for every one of them there is a Frk, Svechnikov, Rasmussen, Cholowski and many more who are high draft picks who have not panned out some moving on others lost in the system while we play aging tired vets such as Gagner, Helm and Merrill night after night because Blashill simply cannot develop players, period end of sentence full stop. Blashill cannot develop players.

 

  If Mantha tells Yzerman that it is either he or the coach I hope that Yzerman finally says enough is enough and sends Blashill packing. To me, this is the final straw. The Wings lack direction from behind the bench and he has to go. He has been given ample time to show what he can and cannot do and what he cannot do is delevop young players and allow them to play their game and make it work within his system. GET rid of him now.

[yave1964]

And some might think that by saying to choose Mantha over Blashill is the wrong message in many if not most cases I would agree but this long running feud between the two of them has reached absurd heights, they are not capable of coexisting and given the choice of a mediocre coach and a 30 goal scoring power forward on a team that is desperate for scoring I choose the goal scorer every single time.

[Brewin Flames]

How do you think the future looks for Zadina under J B ?

[yave1964]

3 minutes ago, Brewin Flames said:

How do you think the future looks for Zadina under J B ?

I think Blash does not last the season, I would love to see Gallant take over the club as he knows personnel and how to get the most out of them.

 

 As for Zadina, the kid can flat out fly and has a nose for the net.looking forward to seeing him for the next decade wearing the winged wheel scoring 30 goals a year.

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

 

I posted a rather long diatribe about Blashill In another thread. I'll quote it here:

 

On 2/5/2021 at 10:40 AM, SpikeDDS said:

@yave1964 @TropicalFruitGirl26

 

I was recently having a discussion about Blashill with my brother, who is incensed that he still has a job. When it comes to the consistency, year after year, of PP ineptness, we agree. But his argument was that the problem with the Wings is his coaching, but I don't really think that's the biggest problem.

 

As a coach, you get to play with the players you have been given. When you are dealt 7-2 in poker (the worst possible hand to be dealt in Hold 'em, for those of you who might not know poker), you don't win very often. Your list above is just from last year. I went back numerous seasons to analyze those who left our team and how they did after they left, taking into consideration the talent level change possibly affecting that outcome. What I found was that there are really only 5 players who left who did "better" not taking talent into consideration--Drew Miller, Nick Jensen, Tomas Tatar, Petr Mrazek, and AA. And of these, the only one who has done better without having a bunch of talent around them to help them play better is AA, and then only this season so far with the LAK. He was a non-factor even with McDavid and Draisaitl and company in his short stint at Edmonton. And Tatar only raised his game once with Montreal, a team that is still clearly better than the Wings are and have been. Mrazek is playing solid, but now has one of the biggest and most solid blue line cores in the NHL.

 

In short, VERY few players have left Blashill's Wings and gone on to play at a higher level without significant talent increase around them on their new teams. And let's face it--most other NHL teams have more talent than the Wings have had. It's one of the best ways to measure it a coach is getting the most out of his players.

 

And if you go back to even Tomas Jurco times, start there and list all of the players that have left, most of them either stopped playing, couldn't break the lineup, or their play diminished. Brendan Smith. Riley Sheahan. The list is LONG and continuous. Most players were either washed up at the ends of their careers or young prospects in whom we had high hopes that just never developed into true NHL players.

 

And the truth is that Danny Kekeyser, whom @yave1964 will vouch that has been a favorite of mine for his value--especially early--we both recognize that on MOST NHL teams, he is a middle pair guy. He has been our BEST D-man for several seasons, when he's been healthy. That should tell you everything you need to know about what the problem is.

 

This is a talent deficit, plain and simple. Stevie Y knows that this is the biggest problem with the Wings right now. That's why he was willing to give up AA--who had the most potential talent that could make that decision seem like a bad one--because he knew we needed the picks, and AA wasn't really happy playing on a losing team, nor for Blashill, anyway.

 

My biggest concern right now is that we appear to still have a couple of prospects in Rasmussen and Cholowski that we have been hoping will develop into solid NHL players, but they still aren't even able to crack the lineup on the second-worst team in the NHL. Even after several attempts for both of them. Their downside at the NHL level is still greater than their upside, and playing in the AHL is still the right place for them.  The good news is that our hope is shifting to the young talent that is now either playing in Europe or at least were until they were injured (Seider). The bad news that we may have to admit to ourselves is that these two prospects--still somewhat young, especially Ras--do not appear to be heading toward elite hockey status any time soon. They appear to be, at best, supporting players, which is a letdown considering their draft positions.

 

I concluded the same as Yzerman has so far--that there isn't anyone who is going to be able to come in and do much better than Blash is doing right now, because they are still going to be playing with 10-2 talent. Better than last year (when healthy), but not much better. Better is coming, and it will likely begin arriving next season. Until then, watchability will be highly dependent on injury status and COVID. That's just the reality.

 

And we're not even talking about a team that can compete. We are nowhere close to that. The TBL game just showcased that for you if you weren't sure. 

 

But the PP is still the argument that continues to make Blash a target for replacement, IMO. If the influx of talent next season doesn't see an upswing in the PP, it will be time to move on.

 

THE most telling shortcoming of Blashill's coaching is the continuing failure of the PP. It is wretched! You can replace him for that issue alone at any time at this point. Even when Z (Zetterberg, not Zadina) was still around it was diminishing.

 

But as I noted, there haven't been very many Wings leaving that have played better unless they moved to teams where there was a significantly greater level of talent than when they were here. And let's be honest--there's not much talent here lately, so most players are going to do better elsewhere than here by default because of it. AA is the one that could possibly show that wrong. Maybe Mrazek, but look at the D in front of him now vs. when he was here. VASTLY different! In both of these cases, you could see the potential talent each had, and it made you wonder if they were on the right team with talent around them, could they become elite? They could. But that doesn't have much to do with Blash, TBH. AA could still become elite on the LAK though. Time will tell. But by that time, we needed picks more than his -50 plus/minus, so I get the trade.

 

But if we are honest, most players leaving have NOT done better. Look back and history shows this time and time again. And when you see that, you have to second guess whether it is Blash not developing players or whether is is bad prospect selection. It MAY be the latter.

 

I think it is OBVIOUS that the team is performing better this season than last. The defense is now playing with some structure, and games are watchable. That was NOT true last season--nor was it when COVID took out Fabbri and company, which depleted the ranks. Again, unwatchable for a bit. Not Blash's fault so much as lack of talent on the ice.

 

Having said all of that, I have ZERO problem replacing Blashill with Gallant any time the Wings are ready to make that move. Change alone can sometimes make a difference, but Gallant has a proven record with NHL teams and ties with loyalty to this organization. Personally, I think the difference will come with the addition of Seider, Raymond, Veleno and company in the next season. If Gallant replaces Blash, and then he gets that talent added, he may get more credit for the difference than he may deserve.

 

Nevertheless, when all is said and done, when your PP brings almost as much chance of a shorty against you as it does a PP goal, and the issue isn't just one season but rather a consistent problem over several, that is reason enough. You can stop right there. Say no more. I cringe every time I hear "RED WING POWER PLAAAY" over the loudspeaker during games. It's almost reflex now.

Edited February 17, 2021 by SpikeDDS