Wings make it official: Blashill returns for another season

DETROIT -- Just as young players need some time to develop, so do young coaches.
Detroit Red Wings vice president and general manager Ken Holland said as much when he announced that Jeff Blashill would return as the team's head coach next season.

"I think in Jeff's case, he's got three years of experience," Holland said. "Some of those ideas that he might have had when he became an NHL head coach, with the success that he had in the American Hockey League, the success he had in college, the success that he had in junior hockey, this is a totally different set of circumstances. The team played hard right to the end. We've been out of it for … unless we went on a massive, won seven or eight or nine in a row, we really just sort of stayed behind and then we lost nine in a row in March and the bottom fell out. But I thought even when we lost nine in a row, we lost a lot of games by a goal, we played hard.
"I thought that the young kids that have been brought up, they improved. He played them, they were important, they got minutes. I think the experience of three years in the National Hockey League, he's been a guy that had success along the way, there's a reason for him to continue to be the head coach of the Detroit Red Wings."
Blashill, 44, has one season remaining on his current contract.
"I'm certainly glad to still be the coach of the Detroit Red Wings," Blashill said. "It's a job I love. I'm excited about trying to keep moving this thing in the direction to put this franchise where you guys, us, the fan base, where everybody wants it. I'm excited about the opportunity to continue that job."
Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg, who had 10 years of Mike Babcock as his head coach before Blashill, says he has seen growth in the young coach.
"I think Blash has done a good job. It's not an easy spot, or easy job to take over," Zetterberg said. "I think coming up from Grand Rapids as a coach, it's a big step to come into this locker room and deal with everything that comes with it. I thought if you compared the first year to the second year, I think he was more mature, more calm."
Blashill said he certainly hopes he's gotten better in the three seasons he has led the Wings.
"The one thing I've tried to do my whole life is self-reflect," Blashill said. "Look in the mirror and say, 'you gotta be better and how do you get better?' When you're not, I think this is a league where I've always encouraged free communication in terms of what others think, so I know the areas that I look to improve upon. I also would say I think in any job, I think the more time you're in it, probably the more comfortable you are. Certainly I would say it's easier (now) to be good at it than it year one. It's easier just because of experience."
Blashill and his staff took pride in the fact that everyone continued to play hard even when the Wings were officially eliminated from playoff contention.
But Blashill also knows that two straight seasons of missing the playoffs are not the results needed to stay as head coach past next season.
"I don't know anybody going into a season, whether it's a coach or it's a player, that doesn't want to improve upon and be the very best they can be, and there isn't a coach or player that's gonna come into September and say they don't have a chance at the playoffs," Blashill said. "There will be 31 teams that think they do. And they're not wrong. Why aren't they wrong? There's example after example year after year of teams that went from being totally out of it to in it. Did they think that was going to be their timeline? I don't know. I don't believe in timelines per se. I just know this: I know if we found a way to win a number of the close games, we would have been in the mix way longer. If certain young players can show the type of growth where they go from being here to being here, we'll be a really good hockey team."
While Blashill did not announce any changes to his coaching staff on Tuesday, he didn't rule out the possibility. "I'll evaluate," Blashill said. "We're evaluating everything in terms of how can we be better? When we talked to the team today, we all gotta be a little bit better. I'll certainly evaluate our staff and see if there's anything that makes sense for us."
On Monday, USA Hockey announced Blashill would return for the second straight year to coach Team USA in the International Ice Hockey Federation Men's world championship, which will take place May 4-20 in Herning and Copenhagen, Denmark.
"It's a positive and a negative. The negative is we're not in the playoffs," Blashill said. "The fact you get to coach in the worlds, the reason is you're one of the coaches not in the playoffs. That part is what it is. The positive is it's an unreal tournament and you get to stay in a real competitive environment for another month. And I think it was an unbelievable experience, certainly not as good as being in the playoffs, but it's second to that.
"The other positive is it allows for another six weeks of transition period between the season being over and me being home full-time with my family. I think both my wife and kids can say they're glad I'm not home full-time until June."