Confirmed with Link: Wings Fire Lalonde and Hire Todd McLellan

[19 for president]

I genuinely think MacLellan is a good coach and I’m very glad yzerman went with someone experienced.

That said, I feel weirdly pessimistic about this move.

While I don’t think Lalonde was the answer here, I think I would have preferred to ride that out.

Making a change like this suggest yzerman felt the team was underachieving and wants to push for playoffs. When I look at the roster, I’m not sure I buy that. I also think an “accidental” top pick would have done wonders for the rebuild.

It feels a little too panicky to excite me.

I guess we’ll see.

I'm curious to see if Yzerman also makes a trade for a dman as well, because 5 on 5 and offensively we won't see much change if he doesn't also address that. If he does that then I do think he believes this should be a playoff team. (But not changing the coach sooner and getting that dman is on him)

I do think we we are playing way below our limit right now, because there was no system under Lalonde. I mean if we were even league average on pk this season we'd probably have 8-10 goals less PP goals against. League average puts us right around where we were last season, and our personnel is largely the same. With an average PK we are probably at 16 wins which puts us just on the outside of the wild card spot.

 

[Peter Tosh]

Great news that adds hope for this season! Excited to see if Raz, Copp, Tarasenko Compher, Kane, Veleno, Berggren and Gustafsson starts performing better now with a new voice in the locker room. Too many players underperforming to solve it with a trade, Newsy had to go. So happy SY made this move and not give up on this season

 

[RED WINGS STOMP]

Very curious how McLellan and Yzerman will mesh.

Got to believe McLellan will want some of the worthless dead weight on this team gone. Whether he gets that or not remains to be seen.

 

[DavidpauseReinbacher]

I wouldn’t count Blashill as a knock on Yzerman but going back to back first time NHL head coach’s was a mistake with a young team in hindsight. A lot of its gotta be just leading a room. Imagine Lalonde getting in the centre of the room and demanding your attention. I don’t see it

This. Lol at people who wanna fire Yzerman.

 

[Euro Twins]

Let's not forget that the sharks went to b2b conference finals with the sharks in 2010&11 and that team wasn't even that good. McLellan is a good coach.

Very curious how McLellan and Yzerman will mesh.

Got to believe McLellan will want some of the worthless dead weight on this team gone. Whether he gets that or not remains to be seen.

Yzerman has never been shy about making those moves. Look at st Louis, or drouin

 

[GMR]

To be fair, he inherited Blashill who everyone wanted fired even before Yzerman took over.

True.

 

[Chris Langlois]

Very curious how McLellan and Yzerman will mesh.

Got to believe McLellan will want some of the worthless dead weight on this team gone. Whether he gets that or not remains to be seen.

Don't forget todd coached Stevie his last year in Detroit under babs and Stevie was working under Kenny until 2008 so steve has a relationship history with todd so I am sure they know what things they both like and expect out of a team.

 

[Frk It]

Very curious how McLellan and Yzerman will mesh.

Got to believe McLellan will want some of the worthless dead weight on this team gone. Whether he gets that or not remains to be seen.

I’m most curious to see how the distribution of minutes changes as he takes over.

 

[sepster]

Aggressive offensive zone forecheck
1-3-1 neutral zone forecheck
Defensive, pretty structured but aggressive coverage

He’s a also great at setting up special teams

Also offensive strategy, fast and creative

Todd better be ready to tell Copp, Rassmussen, Fischer, Veleno, and Motte to put their purses down and paste someone Dmen into the endboards.

 

[JediOrderPizza]

I legit forgot we had Blashill that long.

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

Aggressive offensive zone forecheck
1-3-1 neutral zone forecheck
Defensive, pretty structured but aggressive coverage

He’s a also great at setting up special teams

Also offensive strategy, fast and creative

He also tends to strongly utilize his centers and defensemen to dictate puck movement up ice. And he's not afraid to play his top forward 21-22 minutes a night, and his top D 25+.

If he can make the 3rd and 4th lines play a system that at least keeps their heads above water instead of getting caved in their matchups, and we see heavy utilization of our top players on this very thin roster, then that's a good thing.

What I can't say much about is his utilization of young players. How would you rate Mclellan's development of kids?

 

[stillwater]

I think he can get away with one more coach change if its perennial playoff team to true cup contender, but he won't survive another can this guy to try and make the playoffs.

Unless some crazy Babcock level drama happens and gets Todd fired, he has to get this team to the playoffs no later then next season or Stevie is going to end up on the hot seat.

Larkin, Ray, Ed, Seider, Kasper are too many good young players on this team to not see them take the next step. If we can't its because Stevie has not done a good job bringing in the depth to support those players. (IE we still have not addressed the fact that we only have 2 top 4 dmen)

The guy hasn't even coached a game in Detroit. Already with the future crystal ball.

 

[lilidk]

So now , maybe we could make playoffs next season.

 

[stillwater]

I liked Lalonde being hired initially, and love the idea of busting up the old boys club of NHL coaches. However, there was an interview early in his tenure that rubbed me the wrong way.

In that interview he mentioned that back in 2018-19 not being a fan of Kucherov at all and stated he didn't think the team could win with him. That told me this was a guy that didn't know how to handle star players or players that didn't fit his mold.


I became less and less a fan of Lalonde after hearing this interview.



Let's see what Mclellan does. Chiarot/Petry was Lalonde's doing.

Yeah, I remember that too.

I watch Kucherov a lot, and I don't think there's a more creative player in the World right now.

 

[stillwater]

Very curious how McLellan and Yzerman will mesh.

Got to believe McLellan will want some of the worthless dead weight on this team gone. Whether he gets that or not remains to be seen.

I'm fairly certain that McLellan was rumored to be at the top of Stevie's wish list, either before Blashill or before Lalonde. I could be wrong.

Very curious how McLellan and Yzerman will mesh.

Got to believe McLellan will want some of the worthless dead weight on this team gone. Whether he gets that or not remains to be seen.

I'm fairly certain that McLellan was rumored to be at the top of Stevie's wish list, either before Blashill or before Lalonde. I could be wrong.

Todd better be ready to tell Copp, Rassmussen, Fischer, Veleno, and Motte to put their purses down and paste someone Dmen into the endboards.

Yeah, that would help.

I wish I got the chance to slap Ras with a white glove to see if he'd f***ing react a little.

What a waste of size.

 

[Euro Twins]

I'm fairly certain that McLellan was rumored to be at the top of Stevie's wish list, either before Blashill or before Lalonde. I could be wrong.


I'm fairly certain that McLellan was rumored to be at the top of Stevie's wish list, either before Blashill or before Lalonde. I could be wrong.

Yeah, that would help.

I wish I got the chance to slap Ras with a white glove to see if he'd f***ing react a little.

What a waste of size.

Couldn't be before blash

 

[cjm502]

If Toddzilla can get this team play with even the slightest bit of intensity then I'm sold. It cant get worse right?

 

[WingedWheel1987]

If the Wings don't massively improve, then Yzerman is toast.

 

[dragonballgtz]

Way too late and I'll be honest... not sure I like the replacement pick.

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

Yeah, I remember that too.

I watch Kucherov a lot, and I don't think there's a more creative player in the World right now.

To me, Kucherov is to the league what Jagr was to the NHL in the 1990s. (Yeah, Jagr was bigger and had to play more of a power game but that's because the game was much more physical back then.) A coach that can't recognize that type of talent shouldn't be head of a bench in the league.

 

[Euro Twins]

Now that Bob and newsey are gone I can feel free to share how I knew about walman before he was traded. It was Bob and newsey that didn't like the way he handled injuries and his cocky attitude in the locker. They were the main ones pushing for walman to be traded. There was a significant rift in the locker room. But now after seeing that interview about Kuch it's clear that newsey just didn't handle the situation correctly.

Either way with newsey and Bob gone the team can't get worse.

 

[Run the Jewels]

Not sure I want a huge improvement in the standings at this point, but if he can get the team to play with some intensity and balls, that'd be nice.

The Blackhawks are a mortal lock to get yet another 1OA pick. Time to stop sucking and develop the guys they've drafted to date.

Wasn't he catching flak for 1-3-1 in LA?

Eh, he's a proven head coach. I don't really give a sh*t what system he plays, I just want to see some progress.

 

[OneMoreTry]

 

[Run the Jewels]

Very curious how McLellan and Yzerman will mesh.

Got to believe McLellan will want some of the worthless dead weight on this team gone. Whether he gets that or not remains to be seen.

Yzerman has moved plenty of dead weight, I don't think this is going to be an issue.

I was ok with ride it out but man when you see Larkin after the last game. You can understand trying to at least turn the mood around so it doesn't infect into next season.

Don't see this as a panic move, it's almost Jan 1st. Panic would've been way earlier, also don't think Yzerman is dumb enough to think this puts playoffs on the map at all.

In talking with family about the Wings, my over/under for firing Lalonde was November 1. Obviously Yzerman let this play out much longer than was necessary, but that's my only criticism of Yzerman to this point.

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

The guy hasn't even coached a game in Detroit. Already with the future crystal ball.

I don't think it takes a crystal ball to see that Yzerman needs to be more aggressive, or that our kids need to take the next step. He was hired in 2019 and the team had one almost playoff appearance. This year they should be squarely in the playoff picture instead of competing for 1st overall at the draft.

This wings organization is littered with winners of yesteryear and it's looking more like the Habs in the 1990s or Edmonton in the early 00s. If the idea is to build a winning culture I don't think that there's a lot of evidence that shows trying to keep around all the old guys from the cup winners does that. If anything, I can imagine it works as an impediment.