Jared Coreau is among my favorite people to have interacted with as a reporter. He’s a class act on and off the ice, expressive and forthright in his interviews.
It was hard as a hockey fan and a Coreau fan to watch Jared struggle so mightily with the Red Wings over the past two seasons; while Coreau was able to earn a measure of redemption with the Grand Rapids Griffins, Hockeybuzz’s Bob Duff notes that Coreau’s tenure with the Red Wings is probably over:
When Petr Mrazek was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers in February, the door was open for Jared Coreau to lay claim to the Detroit Red Wings backup goaltending role behind Jimmy Howard.
As May creeps toward June, which of course is followed by the July free agency season, it looks as though Coreau, 26, who is headed toward unrestricted free agency, will be in the market for a new employer. The door in Detroit is likely closed, Coreau’s window of opportunity to be a Red Wing forever shut.
You can blame it on his poor performance during his late-season recall to Detroit – Coreau was 0-4-1 in seven appearances with a 4.26 goals-against average and .867 save percentage – but he’ll tell you the problems began for him right at the start of the season.
“Slow start,” said Coreau, who began the season 7-8-1 with AHL Grand Rapids. “I think I was a little, I guess bitter with how (Red Wings) camp went. I thought I’d get more of a chance to show what I could do in exhibition games and it definitely affected me earlier on. I’m not afraid to admit it. Everyone could see it. It’s nothing I’ll deny.
“Then we started playing well and had two months there where I was playing really well and was happy to be goaltender of the month for the league and get some wins for the guys. But yeah, the hangover is real. It’s a real thing to overcome and I think you look at the Michael Jordan interview talking about you’re competing with yourself. It’s very true.”
Duff continues at length, quoting a superb interview that Coreau gave after the Griffins were eliminated from the playoffs…
And at this point, I’m assuming that the Wings will pursue experienced back-up goaltenders to fill in at both the NHL and AHL levels as Coreau and Tom McCollum will probably look for greener pastures elsewhere.
What is the poor guy missing?.. besides pucks.
Would he be here still if his head was in every game, happy or not?
His technique still needs work. He plays well in the AHL, but seemed to lose his net in the NHL.
Did Petr or Jared get Howard’s approval to be HIS backup?
Howard has never been ä “solid Cup Goalie”, the rebuild will be better off if Howard finds Greener pastures, although that is may be difficult as he is an over paid “Getting slow post to post” injury prone KH Fav (and HSJ Fav).
Toughest I have I ever been on a Red Wings player, it takes a lot. He needs to move on and let the young goalies get some NHL experience. Keeping Howard has KH thinking of a Playoff spot, he is dreaming again!
There I said what I have felt about Howard, Good but never Good enough (Go VGK and the Real Goalie, Fleury)
Good news. Have to unclog the toilet. We already lost Macho because Kenny plugged the toilet with McCollum. Time to evaluate guys who might have an NHL future. So not Coreau and McCollum.
If you include the names of a few NHL people does that qualify as hockey talk?
If so, I once crop dusted Stevie Y when I saw him as Max and Erma’s.