The Blackhawks Have Their New Head Coach, Jeff Blashill

It is now officially official. The Blackhawks have their new head coach. It's been the worst kept secret for the last couple weeks. Hard to keep a secret when you're just grabbing drinks at Tavern.

A couple of buds just sharing some vino. Start of a beautiful friendship. 

So let's get this out of the way. I like the hire. I feel like the internet largely does not. 

I was never really warm on the David Carle idea. I am sure that David Carle is a great coach and will be a really good NHL coach someday. Not sure having a guy learning to be an NHL head coach was a great fit for a team with a bunch of kids learning how to play at the NHL level simultaneously. It gave me pause. I wanted a guy with NHL Head coaching experience and Blashill definitely has that. 

People will look at his record with the Wings and assume he can't coach. I think that is silly. He came in at the very tail end of of the Datsyuk-Zetterberg era and when Blashill had them as a rookie head coach in the NHL he got them to the playoffs. Then Blashill was locked in both a deeeeeeeeppp rebuild (which is on-going) and locked in salary cap hell that Kenny Holland sentenced him to. A virtually impossible task to get anything out of the group he had. The Red Wings also never had any sort of lottery luck. It is kind of a testament to Blashill that he lasted in Detroit as long as he did given how long the typical shelf life is for coaches who aren't winning. 

After leaving the Red Wings at the end of his contract he joined the Lightning and arguably the best coach in the league in Jon Cooper. Stepping away from being the head guy in charge for a few years could serve him well too. He coached some GREAT players and great teams down in Tampa. I love a guy who has coached super stars like Kucherov. 

My favorite thing that I've learned about Blashill is what he preaches. It's all fundamentals and habits. That is music to my ears. The Blackhawks have been pathetic that last few years. Horrible habits. Turnovers. The little details that make the difference between winning and losing. I largely believe in the Blackhawks core, especially on defense, but they HAVE to start playing the right way. I believe Blashill is the guy who can get them to do that. 

This hire is about experience, fundamentals, and accountability. That sounds pretty good to me. I don't think we are going to see the dump and chase Wings we saw with Blashill in Detroit. He will play to his talent and hope to get more out of it. I think it's fair to be open minded and optimistic about this hire. We'll see how it plays out. Needs to get Bedard and the rest of the kids to play the right way and then hopefully Kyle gets him more talent to work with. I think Blashill will be behind the bench when the Blackhawks eventually return to the playoffs. 

PS: I don't understand keeping Anders Sorenson. Nothing against Sorenson as a coach, but the argument about continuity was the same argument that they gave for keeping Derek King on staff. I wan the head coach to have complete autonomy over his staff and his lineup every night. Unless Anders and Blashill have some pre-existing relationship that I am unaware of then you're keeping a guy on staff that you deemed not good enough to be the head coach after a pretty extensive try-out. If he's such a great development guy then send him back to Rockford. The rebuild certainly isn't done. Lardis, Vanacker, Boisvert, Kantserov, whoever they draft this year, etc will also need hand holding in Rockford. That seems like a better set up to me.