Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen weighs in on the “State of the Red Wings” in terms of who faces the most pressure to perform over the course of the 2024-2025 season, and the buck stops with the coach:
General manager Steve Yzerman has said everyone has to work harder to improve the team’s overall defensive coverage, and made it clear that included the coaching staff. Lalonde guided the Red Wings to an 11-point improvement. They fell one point short of the playoffs.
However, they were as sloppy defensively as they were in his first season with Detroit. The Red Wings gave up just two fewer goals. They ranked 25th in goals-against and 26th in surrendering shots on goals.
It doesn’t seem as if Lalonde will be judged solely on whether the Red Wings end their playoff drought. However, Yzerman made it clear he is looking for a higher level of proficiency in defensive work. Lalonde will be accountable for that objective.
This is exactly what Yzerman said: “It’s incumbent upon our coaching staff to instill or improve, continue to work on, whether it’s a different system or getting better in how we play and improving our players in the system.”
He wants to see the Red Wings play a stingier caliber of hockey. There was no “or else.” But when you are an NHL coach, “or else” is always implied. Eleven NHL coaches were fired this past season.
Continued; Allen suggests that Alex DeBrincat, Vladimir Tarasenko and the Red Wings’ quartet of goaltenders all must perform up to or beyond expectations this upcoming campaign.
As for Lalonde, there’s no doubt that a coach of a non-playoff team who’s working on an expiring contract = a replaceable entity. And he, Bob Boughner and Stephane Julien definitely need to both sort out the team’s defensive issues and get the special teams performing better. It’s going to be about results this upcoming season.
