Red Wings Rumblings
Good morning and happy Friday to all. Hopefully everyone had a nice holiday.
What should we talk about? Hmmm… World Juniors? The return of Red Wings hockey tonight? A new coach? WAIT WHAT!?
Yeah, you probably know it by now, but Steve Yzerman shocked the world yesterday with some abrupt changes to his coaching staff. Derek Lalonde and Bob Boughner are out, Todd McLellan and Trent Yawney are in. The writing was on the wall for Lalonde for quite some time. Hell, most of us wanted him fired when Jim Montgomery was canned by the Bruins. The Wings have severely underperformed this season and that shows in the record — 13-17-4. Completely unacceptable for a roster like this, and for a team that was so close to a playoff berth last season. What’s really funny is that I’m not even a huge fan of McLellan as a coach, but I know that he will be an upgrade. He’s got the experience and a sense of accountability is definitely present now.
Speaking of accountability, when the firing was made official yesterday, the first thing I thought was how big of a message it was from the front office to the locker room. Folks, the Red Wings simply do not fire coaches midseason. It’s not in the franchise DNA. In fact, Jeff Marek pointed out a fun little fact on this very topic. The Ilitch family has only fired a coach midseason TWICE since they bought the team back in the early 80s. So, when you read between the lines, it’s pretty clear that Steve Yzerman is firing a little warning shot to the players. The message is simple — This mess is yours clean up. It’s on you now. Otherwise, we’ll start considering other drastic measures of improvement. Having said that, I still think it’s necessary to make some changes to this roster ASAP. Too many players performing poorly that have developed a clear sense of complacency. I would hope Yzerman is prepared to address that as well.
I’m glad this happened. It needed to. Lalonde was lost and this team isn’t good enough to hide that. These players need an experienced leader who has done this before. We’ll hear from both McLellan and Yzerman later today. Keep an eye out on the team’s official YouTube page and social media.
Alright, other news.. World Juniors! The tournament is underway and it went off with a bang thanks to Detroit’s most-coveted prospect Axel Sandin-Pellikka. ASP, doning the captaincy, erupted for a hat-trick and primary assist in the tournament’s opening game between Sweden and Slovakia. Bunch of teens playing hockey, sure, but it was a masterclass in playing offensive D:
Meanwhile, Team USA hammered Germany in the second WJC game yesterday. Trey Augustine (2023 2nd rounder), one of the top goaltending prospects in all of hockey, had a bit of an “off” day allowing four goals. Forward Max Plante (2024 2nd rounder) is also playing for USA, he picked up an assist in this game.
