Blackhawks hire Jeff Blashill as next coach: Chicago hoping second time around is much different

Chicago Blackhawks have hired Jeff Blashill as their next coach, The team announced on Thursday. This is Blashill’s first coaching work since 2022, when he was fired on Detroit’s red wings.

Chicago hopes that the second time around it will be very different for Blashill, which replaced Mike Babcock in Detroit in 2015. Blashill made the playoffs once, in his first season, as the greatness of the Red Wings was over and the team lost to Tampa Bay Lightning in five games.

After that, Detroit began what has been a long and arduous reconstruction process, not much different from what Chicago has supported since its dynasty. With Blashill at the helm, this reconstruction turned its wheels for six years.

The red wings never ended more than fifth in their division, and the second best Blashill season behind the bench in Detroit was a mark of 33-36-13 in 2016-17. Perhaps the biggest spot on the Blashill resume was the 2019-20 season in which the wings were historically bad.

This team finished 17-49-5 in the pandemic season. By percentage of points, this is the 37th worst record of Nhl History and the lowest brand since the opening season of Atlanta Thrashers in 1999-00.

To make the affairs worse, the minus-122 goals of the 2019-20 Wings-122 (in only 71 games) breaks the 25th of the NHL history.

Blashill left his red wings with a global record of 204-261-71. This does not exactly inspire the confidence that the boy is to return the Blackhawks to containment in this new age.

In equity with Blashill, there are reasons to believe that the second time strength Be the charm. Before his time with the red wings, Blashill had an impeccable resume with the Grapfins Grands Grands on a AHL level. It was 134-71-23 with a Calder Cup victory in Grand Rapids, which is how Detroit’s work was achieved in the first place.

Beyond that, the list during the Blashill term was not very good. Stars such as Henrik Zetterberg Agellit, and the team lost too many great draft options like Dennis Cholowski, Michael Rasmussen, Joe Veneno and Filip Zadina.

The Blackhawks already have a young star in good faith in their place with Connor Bedard, and others such as Frank Nazar and Artryom Levshunov won their actual first taste of NHL action last season.

Blashill has also spent the last seasons working as an assistant under Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper, possibly the best of the game. Applying Cooper’s knowledge and perspective on the game can only be a good thing.

Chicago just has to wait for Blashill to have learned from his failures in Detroit because the franchise has been in the desert for almost a decade. If Blashill does not work, it will only put the team again even more.