Bylsma enjoying Detroit homecoming as Red Wings assistant

DETROIT -- After the first day of development camp on Tuesday, Dan Bylsma drove from the Detroit Red Wings' new home, Little Caesars Arena, to his hotel downtown. He passed their old home, Joe Louis Arena.

"I almost took a right and went around the back," he said, "just to feel it."
Bylsma joined the Red Wings as an assistant on Friday, and he feels a little weird, to be honest. He developed an aversion to them playing and coaching against them in the NHL.
But Detroit was the scene of his greatest triumph. It was at the Joe where he raised the Stanley Cup as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins after a 2-1 win against the Red Wings in Game 7 of the 2009 Cup Final. He once called the four hours in the visitors' locker room afterward his most memorable as a coach.
And Detroit was always a special place in his hockey life. He grew up in Grand Haven on the coast of Lake Michigan, three hours west on I-96. He saw his first NHL game at the Joe in the 1980s, the Red Wings versus the powerhouse Edmonton Oilers. He attended many more college and NHL games there as a fan, played there for the Los Angeles Kings and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, and coached there with the Penguins and Buffalo Sabres. It was where his family got to see him on the ice or behind the bench.
"As a player, I always thought or hoped at one point I would, whether it was Detroit or Grand Rapids [of the American Hockey League], finish my career playing in the red and white," he said.
That didn't happen. But here he is now, and the reason isn't nostalgia or that he now lives in Ludington, an hour north of Grand Haven. It isn't restlessness, either. He didn't have the itch while sitting out in 2017-18 after the Sabres fired him on April 20, 2017, the way he did while sitting out in 2014-15 after the Penguins fired him on June 6, 2014.
He's here because of the opportunity. Bylsma served as an assistant to Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill for the United States during the IIHF World Championship in Denmark. To that point they had been no more than acquaintances. But they had a lot in common -- Blashill grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and played in college at Ferris State -- and clicked. At the end of the five weeks, they won a bronze medal together.

"It's important to me to have good people, the right people, to work with, and Jeff is one of those guys," Bylsma said. "I know that from being over in the worlds with him, and I think vice versa for him. We've talked. We've coached against each other. But being in the trenches, being together on a staff, I think he's confident I can work with him as well."
An obvious question: Considering Bylsma won the Cup in 2009 and the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year in 2011, will it be difficult for him to be an assistant again? He hasn't been one since he was with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL in 2006-08. He hasn't been one in the NHL since he was with the New York Islanders in 2005-06.
"It's a good question," Bylsma said. "I don't view it that way. I think I've always felt the head coach is the guy that gets to go talk to the media and is out front and makes the final decision, but it's a group effort, a group collaboration. You know that there's certainly different responsibilities, but it's one I'm real comfortable with, knowing who Jeff is, knowing what kind of coach Jeff is, and one frankly I'm excited about being a part of."
Bylsma will be responsible for the power play and the forwards, and help Blashill on the bench during games. He hasn't run a power play in the NHL since he was with the Islanders, but he ran the power play for the United States at the worlds in 2015 and '18. Detroit scored 2.59 goals per game in 2017-18, 28th in the NHL, and converted at 17.5 percent on the power play, 24th in the League.
"That will be a different thing for me," Bylsma said. "As a head coach for [eight seasons], that responsibility has been another coach's responsibility. And it'll be a challenge getting a chance to be the power play coach, run the power play. We need to get better in that area, and a big part of the Red Wings' success will be being able to do that. I'm excited."
He laughed.
"I have lots of thoughts and ideas about how we're going to do that," he said.
Another obvious question: Is his long-term goal to be an NHL coach again?
"I'm not going into this opportunity with that in mind," Bylsma said. "I want to be with good people. I want to be with a good organization. I want to be with people I think I can get in the trenches with and put up a fight with, and that's what this opportunity is."