http://blogs.windsorstar.com/sports/bob-duff-grand-rapids-coach-jeff-blashill-has-trust-of-detroit-playersSounds like the up-and-comers, management, and even Babcock are glad Blashill is the likely coach next year.
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Bob Duff: Grand Rapids coach Jeff Blashill has trust of Detroit players
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Bob Duff
Jun 05, 2015 - 9:18 PM EDT
Last Updated: Jun 05, 2015 - 11:48 PM EDT
Soon – certainly before next week is done – Jeff Blashill will be named the next coach of the Detroit Red Wings.
Outside of the Detroit organization, few know a whole lot about Blashill, but the same could have been said a few years ago regarding Jon Cooper, currently in charge of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup final.
In 2013, Blashill’s Grand Rapids Griffins team defeated Cooper’s Syracuse Crunch for the AHL Calder Cup title.
Fifteen players who finished 2014-15 on Detroit’s roster played for Blashill in Grand Rapids. Another 15 skated with the Wings during 2011-12, the one season he served as an assistant on Mike Babcock’s staff. Defenceman Danny DeKeyser played for Blashill at Western Michigan.
Those who know him best and those who’ve played for him can’t say enough good things about what Blashill brings to the table.
“Blash has been huge,” Detroit forward Landon Ferraro said. “He’s taken me from a guy that had the tools to get here and get a chance to someone that’s actually got here.”
There are similarities to the way Blashill operates and the methods employed by Babcock during his decade in Detroit. When you talk to Blashill, you can even hear some of Babcock’s catchphrases in his analysis.
“They both are really good hockey minds and they care and they want to make sure they give their teams everything to succeed on the ice,” Ferraro said.
Blashill, 41, will be first coach hired by Detroit who’s never previously been an NHL player or head coach since Nick Polano, who was the first coach hired by the team when the Ilitch family originally purchased the Red Wings franchise in 1982.
That Blashill opted to go to the minor leagues and run his own show is one factor the Wings feel will work in his favour as he steps up to the top rung on the coaching ladder.
“I think the best CEOs of companies have a succession plan,” Babcock said. “I think that’s what Ken Holland’s done, is just keep building people, developing people, giving people opportunities.”
With so much of Detroit’s future having been groomed by Blashill, that familiarity with the team’s talent pool, and their familiarity with him, should make this an easier transition than most coaching changes.
“I love Blash,” Detroit forward Tomas Jurco said. “He just understands the game really well. He’s a really good guy and you can talk to him and he understands you as a person.”
Many of Detroit’s young players recognize that Blashill is a key reason why they are playing in the NHL.
“I owe a lot to him,” Ferraro said. “He’s a guy I would pretty much do anything for.
“I trust him and he’s got the respect of the all the guys in Grand Rapids.”
Blashill’s willingness to listen and his ability to find ways to make them better won over his students.
“Players feel like they can talk to him,” Detroit left-winger Tomas Tatar said. “He’s somebody who they can trust and feel good about.”
Jurco struggled in his first season in Grand Rapids, similar to what he endured in Detroit last season, and he remembers Blashill picking out methods to help him come out of his slump.
“Every time he showed me something, it was like, ‘You are right. I can do it differently,’” Jurco said. “He just understands it so well.
“He knows what the players can do a little differently.”
Babcock described Blashill as a “serial winner.”
“This guy’s ready to be an NHL coach,” Babcock said.
The Wings agree, and that’s why Blashill will be named their next coach.
This post was edited by dxlightning on Jun 6 2015 11:38am