How Jeff Blashill’s Coaching Philosophy Shaped College Hockey in Michigan
Jeff Blashill's collaborative approach to coaching empowered the assistant coaches who worked with him. Now, three of his proteges are leading Michigan's premier college hockey programs.
Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports - How Jeff Blashill’s Coaching Philosophy Shaped College Hockey in MichiganFor Jeff Blashill, college hockey has a special place in his heart. He played for Ferris State from 1994-98, and he started his coaching career as a college assistant for 10 years. Before he became a Red Wings assistant in 2011, he coached one season at Western and led the Broncos to 19 wins and a double overtime loss in the NCAA Tournament.
Now, his impact on the Michigan college hockey scene is only growing.
Three of his former staffers are leading the premier college hockey programs in Michigan to the heights of the sport. Former Red Wings assistant coach Pat Ferschweiler is leading Western Michigan to the NCAA Tournament this season for the third year in a row. Former video coach and assistant coach Adam Nightingale coached Michigan State to the tournament for the first time since 2012. And former skill development consultant Brandon Naurato brought Michigan to the tournament for back-to-back years under his leadership.
If there wasn't enough connection for those three Detroit disciples, all three will play in the same NCAA Regional site this Friday on the outskirts of St. Louis. Talk about a reunion.
“I don't know if everyone understands how hard it is to make it,” Blashill told The Hockey News. “… To be able to get in the tournament is a big deal, and certainly everybody wants to have success in their league. No different than basketball, the tournament’s the biggest moment of the year, and so it’s very hard to get into and it’s very hard to have success.”
Success is fickle, especially for a college program. Some programs see a winning season as just making the tournament, whereas some programs see the tournament as prerequisite. Yet for all three of Blashill’s coaches, success has come from the moment they started their tenures.
Ferschweiler's three straight seasons of postseason berths marks the first time the program can claim such a feat. Nightingale brought the Spartans to their first tournament berth in over a decade as a No. 1 seed to boot, in addition to the first Big Ten Championship his team won earlier this month. And over in Ann Arbor, Naurato coached Michigan to a Big Ten Championship and Frozen Four as an interim last season. This time around as the full-time coach, the Wolverines’ offense is scoring at the best rate in decades and ranks third in the country in scoring.
As much as Blashill’s mentorship might have helped mold the three coaches, their journeys started long before the Red Wings bench.
“The biggest thing I would say is all three of those guys were accomplished hockey coaches and talented people before I met them,” Blashill said. “They’ve done a ton on their own.”
Ferschweiler built a powerful Russell Stover AAA program in Kansas before working with Blashill at Western Michigan and in Grand Rapids. Nightingale was an accomplished video coach for USA Hockey and the Buffalo Sabres with roots in college hockey. In a different path, Naurato caught Blashill’s eye with analytical writing about how Blashill’s own teams could generate more scoring. An intriguing interview earned Naurato a spot on the Red Wings staff as a consultant.
But the three coaches also learned a lot from Blashill, even if he’s humble about taking any credit. It wasn’t too long ago that they were helping him lead a rebuilding Detroit team, and with that came a multitude of decisions to make when trying to maximize the lineup’s potential. As much as Blashill led the team as its head coach, that didn’t mean he took absolute discretion with team decisions. In fact, a lot of the Red Wings’ decisions came from a committee approach that embraced collaboration between all the coaches.
“The one thing we tried to create in our coaching environments was real open discussion,” Blashill said. “And I wanted to make sure I created an environment where guys felt like they could say what they believed, and it might be in total disagreement with me and that’s great. That’s fine. And then we would argue about it and we would debate things to try to come up with the best answer, to try to come up with the best solution.”
Blashill continued, “I think when you are in that type of environment where you know you’re grilling each other where you’re trying to find those best practices and best solutions, you all grow as a group and I certainly feel like we hopefully all did.”
These methods had a lasting impact. In an interview with The Michigan Daily last year, Naurato mentioned how important those “war room” meetings were in developing him as a coach.
“Just being in that war room every day without feeling the pressure of the wins and losses,” Naurato told The Michigan Daily. “Seeing what works, what doesn’t, what adjustments are made … it just goes back into your core beliefs.”
It’s one thing to discuss coaching decisions as an assistant, but it’s entirely different for those opinions to hold weight. This methodology grew the coaches working under Blashill because their work could actually influence the team. Not every coach leads through a sort of debate and democracy approach, but Blashill’s style empowered them to learn through a more tactile approach.
It also helped Blashill grow, too.
“We need to learn from each other, and we need to grow and we need to become the best coaching staff we can be to help maximize our team,” Blashill said.”And I’ve (learned) as much from the people I’ve worked with as the people I worked for, without a shadow of a doubt.”
Since being replaced by current Detroit coach Derek Lalonde, Blashill is now an assistant coach with Tampa Bay. Even if he's on the other side of his methods, his philosophy hasn’t changed. “I never want to at the end of the year say ‘man I wish I would have said this,’” as he put it.
Years later, Blashill's empowering coaching philosophy is still making its mark. He might not have worked in college hockey in years, and he might not even work in Michigan anymore, but Blashill’s proteges have turned into three figureheads of college hockey in the state. Now, they’ll battle it out for a spot in the Frozen Four this weekend.
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