We need to start a tally of how many times people watch Grand Rapids and immediately notice how poorly coached they are as a team.
We have consistently bad goaltending no matter who you put in net. It is the defensive structure that is making this team look bad, especially on the penalty kill. Since Simon has taken over, our PK is at the bottom 5-10 in the AHL.
Season PK% Rank
18-19 78.5% 28/31
19-20 82.6% 12/31 (partial season)
20-21 74.8% 27/28 (partial season)
21-22 75.4% 29/31
22-23 76.0% 24/32
The offense this season started out fine, until the Red Wings suffered injuries to their forwards to where the Griffins top line all went up to Detroit and that is when the scoring down here dried up. You see the depth in the Red Wings roster, but down here, the drop off in talent there is a big gap and it shows up night after night lately. O'Regan and Chiasson signing has helped, but once again the Griffins are one over the veteran limit and they have to rotate someone sitting out a game to make this happen. Shuttling players between Grand Rapids and Toledo has not helped us out this season compared to last season. I believe that if the Wings do not get rid of Simon has head coach over here right now, at least get rid of MacDonald as their assistant since he is the one that deals with the defense/PK units. We have too many assistant coaches behind the bench and get rid of Knubble as he is there by name only for what I see.
Will see if Hellberg at some point will be put on waivers to see if he clears (which sounds like he would not clear) or do you take a chance on sending Ned on waivers. We keep hearing talk of Ned coming down to GR on a conditioning stint for a few games, but no official word yet on that. Will also see if Vrana clears waivers tomorrow as well. The first 2 games that he played on the road, looked to me like he was going through the motions out there. At least he had more energy out there at the last game on home ice, but he is no way ready to go back to Detroit, At least they are keeping here for this week.