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from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

Coach Jeff Blashill and his staff

The Wings were a one-line, one-goaltender team that suffered so many injuries, 14 players were used on the back end alone. Yzerman charged Jeff Blashill and his coaching staff with focusing on developing the young players key to the rebuild.

Larkin, Mantha, Bertuzzi and Hronek endured rough patches but showed growth. Blashill scratched underperforming veterans when he could, but injuries limited his ability to do so. He had no choice but to keep playing Howard (when Bernier needed a break) because neither Calvin Pickard nor Eric Comrie was a viable option.

Throughout the losing streaks, players bought into Blashill’s program. Yzerman noted on multiple occasions he didn't think it fair to blame the record on Blashill. Grade: C

the players get their grades...

from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

We’re not suggesting that an MLB-type public squabble is going to break out during the NHL’s negotiations with the NHLPA as the parties attempt to craft a safe, sane and equitable way to put hockey’s 24-team tournament on the ice this summer, but no one should expect the players to simply roll over and accept Sixth Avenue’s wishes as dictates.

This is going to apply to the big stuff, as in: A) How to design protocols that protect the players’ health and safety as much as possible through training camp then through the tournament; B) How to craft regulations that allow players to have some reasonable sort of independence while bivouacked in a hub city for up to 10 weeks for those who make it to the finals; and, C) How to manage what will be a 2019-20 escrow burden of an additional 14 percent if the tournament is indeed played to completion.

But it is going to apply to some of the small print stuff, as well, and may I say right at the top that disagreement between the two sides does not automatically equate to the NHLPA being obstructionist, greedy or selfish in the midst of a pandemic that has shattered the continent’s ecosystem.

Always remember. It takes two sides to fight over money. It takes two sides to fight over regulations that are included in the CBA. Being “collaborative” is welcome if the effort is mutual. Being “collaborative” is the means to an end, not an endgame unto itself.

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from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- I don’t care where the NHL games will be played. I don’t care which cities are hub cities. This gets way too much conversation. I want to see games. I’m fine with playoff hockey on August nights and maybe afternoons, no matter what the format is, no matter what city they play in.

- The highest paid forward on the Blue Jackets, Cam Atkinson, makes less money than William Nylander.

- It will be at least eight months, maybe more, before we see Drew Doughty play hockey again. If we can’t see him, maybe it would make sense for a national network to hire him for this apparent hockey comeback so we can at least hear him

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from Ted Wyman of the Winnipeg Sun,

It just seems like a lot, and while the tournament should be a fun made-for-TV experience, with no fans in the stands, and should be a nice boost for pandemic-weary hockey fans, you have to wonder if it will all be worth it.

If I were a player, I would certainly wonder if it doesn’t make more sense to focus on the long-term goal of getting all players back to work and a league back to some semblance of normal.

A 24-team NHL tournament in the summer, featuring 75% of the players in the league, as about as far from normal as you can get.

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via Sportsnet's YouTube channel,

David Amber checks in with Elliotte Friedman and Chris Johnston for the latest details on the NHL's Return to Play timeline. Plus, are Canadian cities still in the running to host NHL games?

via the NHL PR department,

The NHL announced Tuesday that the 2019-20 regular season was deemed complete through games of March 11, the day before the League paused play due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights of the 2019-20 campaign – which saw 85% of scheduled games played (1,082 of 1,271) – included Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin’s pursuit and eventual entry into the NHL’s 700-goal club; scoring races that saw five players reach 90 points and five hit 40 goals; colossal comebacks; and a final rookie scoring rank last seen 86 years ago.

For the second straight season and fifth time in League history, each of the top-four point producers were born in different countries. The other instances occurred in 2018-19, 2005-06 (top 5), 1998-99 and 1997-98.

from Chris Johnston of Sportsnet,

“There’s no magic to starting in October,” Gary Bettman said this week, but there may be some found in finishing then.

For it looks increasingly like that’s when the commissioner will be handing over the Stanley Cup if health conditions allow the NHL to go ahead with a 24-team tournament to crown a champion at the end of its coronavirus-interrupted season.

Bettman was reluctant to attach specific dates to his league’s return-to-play plan after Tuesday’s unveiling and said anybody who did would be “guessing.”

So let’s stick with the known facts, as best we can, in sketching out how the NHL might transition from paused to completing the playoffs.

The earliest players will be required to report to their teams for training camp is July 10. That was communicated to them in a Thursday afternoon memo. While there’s no certainty the league will be ready to transition to Phase 3 at that point — camps could conceivably open later in the month instead — let’s use the best-case scenario as a baseline.

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via TSN's YouTube page,

On the latest TSN In Depth, Rick Westhead chats with former NHL referee Dean Warren and the author of 'Scorecasting' Tobias Moskowitz about how playing in empty arenas will affect the way in which referees officiate games and how home-field advantage can influence close calls.

HENDERSON (May 28, 2020) – Vegas Golden Knights Chairman and CEO Bill Foley announced today, May 28, that the AHL Henderson franchise will be known as the Henderson Silver Knights. The Silver Knights’ NHL parent club, the Vegas Golden Knights, shared the team name, logo and brand story during a one-hour live show on KSNV NBC Las Vegas that was also streamed across their social platforms on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Twitch. The announcement comes after Black Knight Sports and Entertainment, LLC, who also own and operate the Golden Knights, purchased an AHL membership in February 2020.

from John Niyo of the Detroit News,

He wore the losses about as well anyone could expect in a season that threatened to make history for all the wrong reasons.

So now it’s time to see how Dylan Larkin wears the captain’s ‘C’ in Detroit, where living up to history is part of the job description.

I realize that’s probably way down the offseason list of priorities for general manager Steve Yzerman and head coach Jeff Blashill, who’ll return for a sixth season behind the Red Wings’ bench. But in the absence of any real hockey here for several months to come, it’s one that was top of mind this week as the team and its leadership talked about what went wrong this past season — it was a long conversation, obviously — and where they’ll go from here.

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