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Familiarty brings Salajko into Red Wings fold |
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Jeff Blashill knows Jeff Salajko. Salajko knows Petr Mrazek and to a lesser extent, Jimmy Howard.
It all added up to the hiring of Salajko as the new goaltending coach of the Detroit Red Wings being merely a matter of common sense.
“I think first-hand knowledge would be the No. 1,” Detroit coach Blashill listed as the key upon announcing the hiring of Salajko on Tuesday. “I’ve had a chance to work with Sal obviously for three years in Grand Rapids (when both were coaching in the AHL), or two years I should say in Grand Rapids, and then the last year I continued to stay in touch with him and maintain a relationship.
“And I saw first hand his ability to work with Petr Mrazek, his ability to help Jared Coreau and Tommy McCollum get better. He’s got a relationship with Jimmy Howard, so for me he hit everything that I was looking for and I thought it was a real good fit.”
Salajko has worked with Detroit’s goalies during NHL training camp, and that familiarity should help make the switch from Jim Bedard, who was Detroit’s goalie coach the previous 18 seasons, a little bit easier than if an outsider was coming into the fold.
“I believe so, and I believe it allows him to hit the ground running,” Blashill said. “It allows his knowledge of the goaltenders, and vice versa, their knowledge of his teaching and that would include Jimmy Howard on that.
“Obviously Sal’s been to our training camp, been on the ice working with all of our goalies. His knowledge of our goaltenders and their knowledge of him I think it allows it to be a quicker transition for sure.”
Blashill sought to make it abundantly clear that the change in goaltending coaches was entirely his call and had nothing to do with Mrazek being familiar with Salajko, or Mrazek seeking a change.
“No, this was a decision I made,” Blashill said. “First of all the decisions were separate. As I said earlier, Jimmy Bedard is a real good person who did a real good job here for a number of years but I made the decision to hire Sal based on my belief in Sal and my understanding, firsthand knowledge of his ability to teach and the way that he teaches is a way that I believe in.”
That latter point was one that Blashill, a former goaltender himself, sought to emphasize and clearly seemed to suggest that his way of thinking in teaching netminders was more in tune with Salajko’s approach than it was with the methods Bedard chose to employ.
“Jeff and I got an opportunity in Grand Rapids to work together and he has similar beliefs in what I do in terms of how to train goaltenders in their habits and using simple drills to create good habits, which allows a goaltender to play without thinking and rely on those habits,” Blashill explained. “It’s that approach that he takes which is similar to my beliefs in coaching and I think it’s the most successful way to help goaltenders get better.
As an ex-goalie, Blashill admitted that while that status gives him a better comprehension of the psyche of the netminder than most NHL coaches, it can also serve to make him more demanding of his goalies.
“I think it gives you an understanding for sure,” Blashill said. “I think everyone relies on their experience, whether it be lots of years of coaching or the years that they played and certainly having played the goaltending position, I have a real understanding of what they’re faced with, but I’d also say that gives me a real high expectation of each guy and how good they need to be.
“I think it can go both ways.”
Assistant Update
Blashill indicated that the Wings are no closer to filling the second assistant coaching role with the team, a bench position. The successful candidate will handle the forwards on game night and also be in charge of the team’s power play.
“We’re still going through the discovery process, meeting and reaching out to people,” Blashill said. “We’ll bring people in for interviews. We’ll go through that process here.
“As I said earlier I have no timeline for it other than I want to find the right person that best maximizes our coaching staff.”
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