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It’s easy to look at and listen to Jeff Blashill and see nothing more than merely a Mike Babcock clone.
But you’d be sadly mistaken to view Blashill as Babcock lite.
The man who was officially unveiled Tuesday as the new coach of the Detroit Red Wings in what GM Ken Holland referred to as “the worst-kept secret in recent Red Wings history,” is much more than simply a poor-man’s version of the coach he is being tasked with the job of replacing.
“I don’t like to talk about what’s been done in the past,” Blashill said. “I’ll have my own approach and with my own approach will come change.
“I’m sure there are lots of similarities. I coach similar in a lot of ways to Babs has coached here and in a lot of the same approaches as to who we play. But I’m my own person and how I deal with players and how I deal with things on a daily basis.
“I’ll be Jeff Blashill and I think in that there will be change.”
After a decade of hearing the same voice in the room, sometimes change for the sake of change can be a good thing. That’s not to suggest that Babcock was a bad coach, but even the best of the best can see their voices grow stale after years of preaching the same message to the masses.
While he may implement many of the same systems as Babcock, Blashill will bring a different approach, simply because he’s a different person who handles situations in a manner differently from his predecessor. And that may be of benefit simply in the freshness of the message.
It’s a message that displays a history of resonating with Blashill’s players.
“You’re sitting there and listening to his press conference and right away he’s a guy you want to go play for,” suggested former Wings center Kris Draper, now Holland’s special assistant and someone who has spent a lot of nights in Grand Rapids watching Blashill operate.
If you figure that Blashill is going to be the good cop following Babcock’s bad cop routine, you’d also be dead wrong.
“He’s a coach that is going to go out and be able to relate to his players but in the end, when he’s got to kind of put the pedal down, he’s going to do that,” Draper said.
Most of the young Wings players learned under Blashill’s tutelage the last three seasons with AHL Grand Rapids, so there’s a familiarity there. He also spent a season on Babcock’s staff, so the NHL isn’t new to Blashill.
“When you haven’t been in the NHL and you come to the NHL, there’s an awe factor to the NHL,” Blashill admitted. “Once you spend time in the NHL – it’s the best league in the world, the best players in the world - but it’s another hockey league.
“You realize over time and I certainly realized over that year that the principles of coaching remain the same at every level including the NHL.
“I thought that year I learned an exponential amount and it certainly prepared me. I thought the last three years I learned a ton as well.”
A year ago, Blashill learned exactly how much he meant to the Wings. With Babcock’s future uncertain after the 2014-15 season, Holland doubled Blashill’s salary to $400,000. In return, he declined the chance to interview with five NHL teams who sought to talk to him about their available coaching positions.
When Babcock left for Toronto, Blashill was the only person Holland spoke with about the job.
“There didn’t even need to be an interview process, I think,” suggested Blashill, 40. “He’s seen what I do. It’s either what he wants or it’s not, and in this case it was what he wanted and I’m thankful for that.”
The Wings are thankful that Blashill didn’t choose to fly the coop when the opportunity presented itself.
“After spending four years watching Blash, I don’t think there’s anyone better prepared to coach the Red Wings than Jeff Blashill,” Holland said. “He’s paid his dues.
“Wherever he’s gone he’s had a positive effect, players have gotten better. He’s won championships at the USHL and American League level. As players come up last few years, they have tremendous respect for Jeff.
“He has the ingredients I’m looking for in a coach and he’s had an incredible positive impact on where the Detroit Red Wings are today. I believe in his philosophies as a coach.
“Is he going to have a different approach than Mike Babcock? Absolutely. But if you think you’re going to come out here and have long shifts and do this and that, he’s not going to play you.
“There’s players in Grand Rapids he sits and they’re high draft picks. If they’re not doing the things and playing the way he thinks they need to he makes the hard decisions. Mike Babcock had no problem making the hard decisions and I believe that Blash is going to make the hard decisions. But at the same time I believe he’s going to have a little different relationship because he’s a different person than Mike Babcock.”
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