Follow me on Twitter
There’s a general consensus amongst readership that Claude Julien isn’t the best fit. I, personally, would like him as a special teams coach. At this point, even doing a family feud style “our survey says....” may be an upgrade to the power play. The whole man advantage feels like a “free spin” on wheel of fortune that ends up on “Bankrupt”.
Still, for whatever reason, Detroit finds itself playing better in the second game of a 2 game series more often than not. I have no idea why, at this point they’ve face the Predators five times. Let’s hope the second game sees a “flip the script” with stronger forechecking and limited SOG for Nashville.
One small shift in play I noticed. Dylan Larkin started using Helm as a blue line “pick” to gain entry. It worked several times. Helm stops at the blue line, freezing his defender. Larkin shoots the puck between his feet and toward the boards. DL then recovers and sets up. I was fairly impressed with some of the looks it generated. That, to me, is the players taking ownership and being creative. Larkin is still trying to innovate and create regardless of what’s going on. And, not just for himself. He’s trying to improve his linemates. He’s asking for new ideas and pushing himself. When teams are at the bottom, players that will keep innovating are a rarity.
Blashill has decided to revisit past failures, though not his own. Svechnikov is being kept in Detroit, is practicing, but is still sitting. Anyone remember Tomas Jurco? He lost almost an entire season where he was waiver exempt sitting and watching in Detroit. Now, I’m not going to be so naive to think that Jurco was a “superstar” and Babcock’s benching ruined him. I do think that he could have been bottom 6 “serviceable”. Svechnikov needs ice time, period. If he’s not getting it in Detroit, send him to Grand Rapids. This is enough to be more than a head scratcher.
A final note on AHL players. I heard a LOT of chatter about Smith and Hirose. Hirose, in 36 NHL games, has 3 goals and 11 assists. In 35 AHL games has 5 goals and 22 assists. Smith, I love his physicality, but when he’s not on his game he tends to get lost. Both are better getting AHL minutes to develop. Yzerman is waiting out contracts. Plain and simple. Filppula is done this year, Nielsen is done next year. Helm is done this year. Glenny is done this year. The turnover on the roster from Yzerman’s first season as GM has been immense. Smith and Hirose are both depth forwards. As long as they are the best in the organization, they’ll fill those spots. I was shocked that Abdelkader was bought out (but grateful). I doubt they want too many more buyouts on the books right now.
At this point, Cholowski is second in scoring for GR. If an opportunity comes up, it will be good to see if he can make it work. It’s easy to overvalue the depth players. The best call ups in the last decade were Nyquist and Tatar. Both were flirting with leading the AHL in scoring. Frk was as well, but he just can’t find the same rhythm in the NHL. Athanasiou, ah, that one was tough to watch. His 31 goal season made myself and everyone think he had arrived. He didn’t. He’s doing well in L.A. after a really bad stint in Edmonton (and a really bad season in Detroit). I hear the cries that if he’d been given more and more minutes in Detroit he would have done better. A.A. Has elite speed, and can score. He just can’t find consistency. He also priced himself out of an extension with both Detroit and Edmonton, settling on league minimum (not far off of how Duclair managed).
Any time i hear, “it can’t get any worse, play the kids” i remind myself that it can get much, much worse. Detroit is committing to defense. It’s not fun to watch right now, almost at all. They’re also stuck with the reality that most teams they play have more high level talent. Bringing “the kids” into that is a good chance to see them get walked all over. I don’t want Yzerman wasting picks or cap space to jettison veterans. As long the kids are getting ice time with a chance to succeed, it’s a better fit for now. Svechnikov needs the opportunity as well. Having kids sit and watch is bad. They can’t improve, at the very least their trade value drops even lower. Either put him in the lineup or put him on the bus. The Mlive article was a reminder of how sitting a prospect can hurt them and the organization.
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»