The Free Press’s Shawn Windsor attempts to separate the intense criticism the Red Wings are facing from the background noise surrounding the team’s front office uncertainty and its captain wanting out.
Windsor suggests that Shawn Horcoff is a fairly good hire, and that the Wings need to step up to catch up with the Detroit Tigers in terms of prospect development…
And Windsor understands that fans are frustrated with the state of the team, too:
None of this looks good. At all. The Wings’ ownership has bobbed in the wind like a balloon character bouncing cluelessly down Woodward Ave in the Thanksgiving parade. That may be fun in November, but not so much in April, when the season already has flamed out.
So call it a clown show if you must. Or an embarrassment, a laughingstock, the long, slow demise of an iconic franchise. Go ahead, let the air out after all those years of watching the team go nowhere, and then watching the search to replace the Hall of Fame player – who was supposed to bring back a June parade down Woodward – flail until the eve of training camp.
Dysfunctional? How else should anyone see it?
But then that doesn’t matter, at least it shouldn’t
It’s all just white noise. All that matters is that Ilitch – accidentally or not – finds the right person to get this franchise back to its storied place. Maybe it’s Horcoff, going from interim to full-time. Maybe it’s someone else.
Whoever it is, the noise fades a little when the team makes the playoffs. Do that and this search and this offseason and this entire unfortunate slide disappears in a hurry.
Winning is like that. It’s time for it to start once more.
Continued (paywall)
