Blashill to face former team for the first time Tuesday

When the puck drops between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night, Jeff Blashill might have to remind himself to focus on the team wearing blue, not red.
Currently working his first season as an assistant coach for the Bolts, Blashill spent the previous 11 seasons in the Red Wings organization and was Detroit's head coach from 2015-2022.

"There's been times this year where I've went to look at the stats and been looking at the wrong team," said Blashill on Monday afternoon. "I was looking at Detroit's, where they kind of fit and stuff. That's the reality of it."
Blashill's 537 games as head coach of the Red Wings rank fifth all-time in the history of the historic, Original Six franchise, trailing only Scotty Bowman, Mike Babcock, Sid Abel, and Jack Adams.
His journey through pro hockey started as an assistant coach with Detroit during the 2011-12 season. For the following three seasons, Blashill was the head coach of the Grand Rapids Griffins, the AHL affiliate of the Red Wings. He led Grand Rapids to a Calder Cup championship in his first season behind the bench and won the Louis AR Pieri Memorial Award as the AHL Coach of the Year the following year.
After his third year as head coach of the Griffins, Blashill became the bench boss in Detroit and helped guide the team to a 25th-consecutive playoff appearance. He went on to win 204 regular season games with the Wings before becoming an assistant coach with Tampa Bay this offseason. Tuesday will mark the first time Blashill faces Detroit in his NHL coaching career.
"It'll be different," said Blashill. "I can't tell you how I'm going to feel until we're in the middle of it. A lot of guys, a lot of players in that room that I coached a long time. Obviously, the staff, I was with throughout, so it'll be different. It'll be interesting to see what those emotions are like.
"Obviously, we want to win a game. They want to win a game. These games are super important, but I'd be lying if I said there wouldn't be some different emotions going on, because I certainly think that's the case."
Blashill has been close friends with Lightning head coach Jon Cooper well before either of them coached a game in the NHL. Now on the same staff together, Cooper sees immense value in what Blashill has brought to the coaching staff in Tampa.
"As great of friends as I've been with Jeff, we really haven't worked a ton together," said Cooper. "To watch what he brings to the table, it's been fantastic for us.
"When you lose somebody like Derek, you're hoping you're going to be able to replace somebody equal to or better, and we've done that with Jeff. We've been just extremely fortunate these last few years. We've been able to plug holes with assistants when they've left, and Jeff was no different."
Along with his work in the NHL and AHL, Blashill brings experience from the international stage as well. He's worked on Team USA's coaching staff at the World Junior Championship, Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup (now Hlinka Gretzky Cup), and World Junior A Challenge. Additionally, he was the head coach for Team USA at three straight Men's World Championships from 2017-2019 before working as an assistant coach on the staff in 2022.
"Blash knows," said Lightning forward Pat Maroon, who has gotten to know a fair share of assistant coaches with 673 career NHL games under his belt. "He's obviously been a head coach before. He can bring a lot of different systems that he used in Detroit.
"Assistant coaches are a little bit different. They do a little more video. They communicate with all the players a little bit more. You probably see them more than the head coach and you're talking to them more than the head coach.
"Blash has brought some really good advice to our team. He's a very good speaker and you can tell he's been a head coach before with the way he approaches the game and his role. He's been awesome for us."
For Blashill, working as an assistant coach has been a nice change of pace and a new challenge that he's enjoyed. At the end of the day, it's not about the title for Blashill, it's about being a coach and having a positive impact on the group.
"I've enjoyed thoroughly being part of this staff," said Blashill. "I think there's a collaborative effort that goes on in the coaching room. Coop's talked about that publicly, but that's the reality of it. I think there's a lot of smart guys back there and really, really good people.
"I like to coach, and I'm not worried about titles. I've never really been worried about that. I like to coach and have an impact on teams.
"Hopefully, as the year goes along, I'll have a positive impact on this team. I was an assistant coach for a long time in college, I think 10-plus years. I was a head coach for a long time. They're different roles for sure, but they both can be extremely rewarding if you can have a positive impact."
Players like Maroon have already felt the impact of having Blashill on the coaching staff. There aren't many assistant coaches around the league that can bring the same level of experience to the table. From preparedness to work ethic to strategy, Blashill has fit in perfectly with the Bolts.
"I think just his knowledge of the game," said Maroon when asked what he's enjoyed about having Blashill on the staff. "His preparation and understanding of the game are awesome. It's been fun to pick his brain about the game. I've really been enjoying working with him, so it's been a lot of fun."
While Blashill will take the walk from the Lightning locker room to behind Tampa Bay's bench on Tuesday night, a different walk will occur right down the hall when Derek Lalonde strolls from the visitor's room to behind the visiting bench. It will be Lalonde's first time coaching at AMALIE Arena since essentially trading places with Blashill and becoming head coach of the Red Wings this summer.
"We've spoke through the last couple months at different times and there's some awkwardness there, that we kind of filled each other's roles," said Blashill. "It doesn't happen very often, but at the end of the day, he's a good friend, a good man.
"He has a great family. I hope he'd say the same thing about me.
"He'll say the family part for sure."
Whether it's Blashill or Lalonde, Cooper knows a hockey team simply isn't the same without the help of great assistant coaches, something Tampa Bay always seems to have. That's evidenced by the number of coaches that have stepped into head coaching roles following their time on the Lightning staff.
"We've had a fantastic coaching staff the last few years, whether it was with Todd Richards when he was here, then when Newsy came in, and now Jeff," said Cooper. "I think that is a big part of an organization. I think it's the part that goes unnoticed because the head coach sits there in front of the camera all the time, but he's only as good as the sum of his parts.
"You need, to me, to have assistants that get it, they contribute, they work hard."
As for Lalonde, who won back-to-back Stanley Cup championships as an assistant coach with the Bolts, Cooper hopes he has great success in Detroit, just not on Tuesday night.
"I cheer for him," Cooper said. "People that come from your organization, you want them to do well, just not tonight. Same as it was every time we coached against Jeff."