Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press answered a few questions today.

The first question is regarding Jeff Blashill and is he safe if the Wings get off to a slow start.

HSJ: In talking to people in the organization, there’s recognition that the Wings are paying now for all those years of making the playoffs, which rendered them without a high-end draft pick for decades (when they picked Filip Zadina at sixth overall in June, it was the highest they’d picked since Keith Primeau at third overall in 1990). Expectations are measured against that. The Wings lack an elite defenseman, lack an elite scorer. They don’t have the superstars-in-their-prime that populate Stanley Cup champion teams. As I’ve written before, I expect they’ll miss the playoffs again in 2019; the upside to that is, they’d be in the lottery and thus potentially have a shot at Jack Hughes, younger brother of Quinn Hughes and early front-runner to go first overall next June.

If Jeff Blashill has the Wings playing hard, if they are competing, that will be judged more so than wins and losses. That said, if they come out of October on a 12-game losing streak, I’d expect there to be rumblings. Which takes us to the next question.

a few more questions...