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The last time the Detroit Red Wings did what they did this season - miss the Stanley Cup playoffs - there were sweeping changes.
Jacques Demers was out as coach. General manager Jimmy Devellano was kicked upstairs to the title of senior vice-president, the role that he continues to fill today.
Bryan Murray came in as coach and GM.
This spring, as the Wings lick their wounds and reassess after their first playoff absence since the 1989-90 NHL season, nothing has changed.
Ken Holland remains as GM, given a vote of confidence by Chris Ilitch, definitely the man calling the shots after the death last month of his father, longtime Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch.
Holland, in turn, displayed similar confidence in the work of coach Jeff Blashill.
“My feeling is as a general manager, as a person, is you need to believe in something and I believe in people,” Holland said, explaining his coach to stay the course behind the bench. “I believe in Jeff Blashill. I believe in him because of his resume before he got here.
“I’ve worked with him everyday. I know he works at it. He’s talking to people. He’s gathering information. He’s trying to get better.”
You might want to also believe this - both Holland and Blashill will be on a short leash. The best guess is they’ve got one more year to get this thing turned around and back on track, or expect a blood-letting to follow.
Blashill is also halfway through the four-year deal he signed with the Wings in 2015, and with the costs of opening a new arena, perhaps the Wings weren’t anxious to eat the rest of the pact.
Holland, on the other hand, is entering the last year of his deal with the team, so time could be of the essence for him to show he’s still got what it takes to fix this mess.
Truth be told, the District Detroit development and the new Little Caesars Arena likely saved the hide of both men. The Wings know they can buy at least one season of time, and even if (when?) the team stinks again next season, people will still pack the place to check out all the bells and whistles that the new place has to offer. And with all the work still to be done on that front, perhaps launching a search for a new coach and/or a new GM wasn’t something ownership wanted to add to their plate.
Or it could be as simple as that after a quarter century of playoff appearances, management was given a Mulligan.
So who pays for the failure of 2016-17? Well, if you’re a Red Wings assistant coach, you might want to talk to Mike Kitchen. The perennial right-hand man to Chicago coach Joel Quenneville was given his walking papers after the Blackhawks were shockingly swept out of the playoffs by Nashville.
Holland indicated that the status of Blashill’s staff would be discussed once he returned from the world under-18 championship, a tournament that concluded on the weekend, so we should expect some news on that front very soon. But it’s clear that he wasn’t pleased with some of their work.
“Why do you go from the 19th of October to the 12th of January without a road power play goal?” Holland wondered. “From the 18th of February up until I week ago I know we had the ninth best power play in the National Hockey League. Why is that?
“That three months affected our place in the standings.”
With the dismissal of coach Dan Bylsma in Buffalo, the status of assistant Bob Woods, who oversaw the NHL’s No. 1 power play unit, is uncertain.
If he’s on the market, NHL teams will be lining up to talk to him, and the Wings need to be in that line.
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Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
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