Jeff Blashill's new job is a balancing act with the Chicago Blackhawks

Jeff Blashill being named the coach of the Chicago Blackhawks is, from a certain point of view, entirely logical.

Whether it will be received that way — or work out well for all involved — is another question entirely.

A team that hasn't made the non-bubble playoffs since 2017 hiring a coach who has one playoff appearance (his team lost in five games) in seven years behind the bench is as unsexy as it gets. There aren't many coaches who get to hang around in one job for as long as Detroit kept him behind the bench with all that losing. His teams averaged about 73 points per 82 games, which would have put them dead last in the East this season. The obvious caveat to all that is the Red Wings were very firmly in a rebuild, one from which they are yet to emerge, so Blashill could have been the