Detroit Red Wings: How long can Steve Yzerman stay with Jeff Blashill?

It’s no secret, the Detroit Red Wings are a lousy hockey team, but did we think they’d be this bad? I didn’t expect them to be a playoff team, but I didn’t know they’d be this bad. I feel like they allow five goals every night, and for a team who struggles to score, three goals-against feels like a touchdown.

Speaking of touchdowns, that’s exactly what the Detroit Red Wings allowed in Carolina last night. They were blown away, but the Hurricane winds in North Carolina (see what I did there) to the tune of 7-3. Jimmy Howard met captain hook, but it was much too late even to spark the team.

Although the lack of defensive zone coverage wasn’t Howard’s fault, he still yielded five goals. Head coach Jeff Blashill decided it would be in the teams’ best interest to scratch young defenseman Dennis Cholowski in favor of Joe Hicketts, who is supposed to be much more reliable in his own end. Not so fast. Not including the empty-net goal at the end of the game, the pairing of Mike Green and Joe Hicketts were on the ice for four goals against.

Talk about kicking a person when they are down, Hicketts was working on the power play and tried to feather a pass as he was cruising into the neutral zone through the middle of the ice where there were plenty of players waiting. The pass attempt was picked off by Carolina as they skated in on a short-handed two on one with Hicketts being the one eventually recording a short-handed goal.

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I don’t mean to pile on Hicketts, but it proves Dennis Cholowski wasn’t precisely the problem. I never thought I’d write this, but it appears Danny DeKeyser, who was missing last night, is more valuable than we like to think. I’d like to see Cholowski continue to develop; he can’t grow in the press box.

If you don’t want to play him, send him down to Grand Rapids once again and let him play 20 minutes a night. The problem is, we all know Jeff Blashill will beg his boss Steve Yzerman to call up Jonathan Ericsson in his place. Don’t act like you don’t think he would. Of course, he would. This is Jeff Blashill we are talking about.

Jeff Blashill was granted a contract extension before Steve Yzerman taking over as the Red Wings general manager. I don’t think for one second that Chris Ilitch would approve of Holland’s extension of the head coach, knowing Yzerman was on his way to Detroit without Steve’s consent.

That being said, coaches throughout sports are hired to be fired in most cases. There are a few coaches that can make a career out of coaching in the same place for a decade or more, but they are few and far between.

In Jeff Blashill’s first year with the Detroit Red Wings, he recorded 41 wins, reaching the playoffs. His playoff experience was short-lived as it only lasted five games. Remember that first year; the Wings still had Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg.

Since then, it’s been a downhill ride for the Detroit Red Wings under Blashill’s direction. Including this years’ 4-9-1 record, Jeff Blashill is 99-124-37 in the four years, excluding his first season behind the bench.

Jeff Blashill is under contract for this season and next. I wouldn’t be surprised if Steve Yzerman hands the reins over to Red Wings assistant coach Dan Bylsma as the calendar turns from 2019 to 2020 at the lastest.

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If the Wings poor play continues, Jeff Blashill may not make it to December.

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