Good Not Good Enough For Blashill, Which Makes Him Perfect For Red Wings
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - Back in 2011, when Jeff Blashill left his job as the head coach at Western Michigan to take a position as an assistant with the Detroit Red Wings, his father Jim did not understand the move.
"When he was at Western, I thought, 'This is a dream job,'" Jim said Tuesday after the press conference in which the Red Wings announced Blashill as their new head coach. "He's the head coach at a ... university that's going to take off, they gave him a lot of support, they loved him there, had a nice house on a golf course. I mean, come on!
"Yet he walked away from that to try to coach at a higher level," Jim continued. "That's always been his dream."
Blashill had spent one season with Western Michigan, and in that season the Broncos doubled their win total of the previous season, earned an NCAA tournament berth for the first time since 1996 and played in the CCHA championship game for the first time since 1986. As a result of the team's success, Blashill received numerous coach of the year honors.
Mike Babcock, then the head coach of the Red Wings, called Blashill about joining the NHL ranks. The call went to voicemail, and before calling back and eventually accepting the job, Blashill spoke with his dad.
Jim's advice was to stay in Kalamazoo. His son believed that to do so would be contrary to his nature.
"He once told me he was wired differently," Jim said.
"My advice was 'Don't do it, you've got this great job,'" Jim continued. "I mean, sure the NHL and all that, but ... That's when he told me, he says, 'I want to coach at the highest level possible, and this is a way to maybe get there.' He says, 'A lot of people would turn that down, but it'd be comfortable.' He says, 'I'm not comfortable.' He says, 'I want to be the best I can be.'"
Blashill's pursuit of excellence has not been limited to hockey. While a student at Ferris State, where he was a goalie for the Bulldogs, Blashill received all As. Blashill was not quite satisfied, however, because in two classes he received A-minuses.
"One was an error, he thinks, because he thought the professor said that if you get an A on a certain test you didn't have to take the final or something like that, and he didn't, so he said, 'Oh, okay,'" Jim recounted with a smile. "Well, it turns out with an A minus. Well, that ... really bothered him - he wrote a letter - because his goal was to get a 4.0."
Born in Detroit, Blashill grew up going to hockey games in Sault Ste. Marie. His family lived on the Lake Superior State University campus, where Jim taught criminal justice classes. The family would walk a block to the arena and watch the Lakers play, and Blashill was just a bit more intent on the action than some children might be.
"He'd get annoyed at the fans cheering because he wanted to concentrate on the game," Jim said with a chuckle. "He was just focused on what they were doing on the ice – 5 years old!"
Blashill's ambition has served him well. After he accepted the job as an assistant under Babcock and spent the 2011-2012 season in Detroit, general manager Ken Holland asked Blashill to take over the Grand Rapids Griffins, the AHL affiliate of the Red Wings. Blashill accepted and won the Calder Cup in his first season there.
Last year, Blashill turned down the opportunity to speak with other NHL teams in exchange for a substantial raise, and he and Holland discussed last year the possibility of Blashill taking over the Red Wings if Babcock did not return.
When Babcock elected to leave, after 10 seasons at the helm, to coach the Toronto Maple Leafs, Holland did not conduct a coaching search. He already had his man, and Blashill had the opportunity for which he had been waiting.
"He always reaches for the highest dream, so in [recent] years that was his dream, was to be an NHL coach," Jeff's mother Rosemary said Tuesday. "That's where he wanted to be, and so he's just taken the steps one by one, and like he said, being the greatest he can be every day. That's how he got there."
The Red Wings, a team with a storied history, have not had the playoff success they want in recent seasons. The team's impressive postseason streak has remained intact, but the organization wants more. With a phenomenal past and a so-so present, the Red Wings do not want to settle for good. They want great.
With that mindset in common, Blashill and the Red Wings should be a perfect match.