Daily Faceoff’s staff issues “Christmas presents” for each and every one of the NHL’s 32 teams, and I audibly said, “Bitch and moan!” when I read Hunter Crowther’s take on the Red Wings’ requirement in the “Lump of Coal” department:
Detroit Red Wings: The neuralyzer from Men in Black
Do you remember the neuralyzer? The device from the Men in Black film series that would erase the memory of anyone it was used on? If there was a way to use it to forget Steve Yzerman’s time as general manager of the Red Wings, it would do Hockeytown a lot of good. There’s another universe where Yzerman — who captained the Red Wings to three Stanley Cup championships and is one of the greatest players in hockey history — never leaves the Lightning and earns another two rings. Instead, he rejoined the Red Wings as general manager in 2019, and his ‘Yzerplan’ has yet to yield a coherent roster, much less a playoff appearance. Seventh in the Atlantic Division going into the Christmas break, the 13-16-4 Wings don’t look like they’ll break their cold snap this season. Perhaps it’s best if Yzerman, Detroit and the rest of the hockey universe just pretends this never happened. -Hunter
Boo hoo. Yzerman didn’t drive the team into the ground. Ken Holland and the horrific drafting of Tyler Wright did, and Yzerman has been slowly and methodically–arguably too slowly and too methodically–rebuilding the team after having to tear down the remnants of the late Holland regime.
It’s taken a lot longer than Wings fans have hoped to turn the team around, and Yzerman’s had more misses than hits in terms of free agents–which isn’t acceptable, of course, but is understandable–and the Red Wings’ “incoherence” has as much to do with the present players under-performing and the coaching staff not doing its job as it does with the GM’s player personnel decisions.
Blaming one person for the mess the Red Wings find themselves in is short-sighted, and bashing the so-called “Yzerplan” alone is taking the easy way out.
The Red Wings can’t simply undo what’s happened to the team and hope for the best. They’ve got to deal with the reality of their situation and adjust as necessary.
Any other suggestion is just clickbait at this point, and there is a shit ton of clickbait out there right now, in written, audio and visual forms.
Anyway, long story long, I really despise the concept of denial. When shit hits the fan, you curse, complain, and then you grab a mop and get to work. Reality is not always pleasant, but it’s usually the best thing to deal with.
Yzerman’s had more misses than hits in terms of free agents–which isn’t acceptable, of course, but is understandable
But he keeps making the same mistakes Holland used to make. Over paying for the likes of Copp and Compher who are the same type of player and the team is now stuck with them. The Holl three year deal is beyond absurd. At this point, I don’t trust Yzerman in free agency at all.
I still think we have too much nepotism in the organization and wish he had brought in more front office people from Tampa instead of former players like Draper and Cleary.