from Dana Wakiji of DetroitRedWings.com,

When the Toronto Maple Leafs fired coach Mike Babcock Wednesday, Blashill moved up to sixth longest-tenured coach with his current team.

"I think the world we live in -- not just this profession -- but the world we live in is an instant gratification world and there's so much media availability and so much media -- mainstream media, social media, all of that -- the pressure tends to mount quickly and whatnot," Blashill noted. "Obviously Mike was fired yesterday in Toronto. Mike's a great hockey coach. I don't think anybody that is around the game doesn't think Mike's a great hockey coach. He did tons for me. He gave me a chance in this league and then hired me. During my time in the American League we had unreal conversations and he helped me.

"Still to this day, I talked to him via text yesterday but I did talk to him three weeks ago. He called me to see how I thought things were going. The nature of the business and we all accept that, certainly it's hit a spot where sometimes when there's a lot of pressure -- this isn't referring to their situation -- but you asked me a general question -- when there's a lot of pressure, sometimes you make good decisions and sometimes you let outside influences affect your decisions. That's partly why at times I think it's hard to stick around."

more plus topics on Nyquist and injury updates...

added 2:55pm, Below, watch Jeff Blashill and Gustav Nyquist from this morning.