How Yzerman handles coaching situation now his referendum

So far, the Yzerman Era has been a failure. How else can you describe it?

This was always going to be the risk.

When word leaked on April 19, 2019 (get it, with all the 19s?) that Stevie Yzerman was coming home to be the new president and GM of the Red Wings, Hockeytown was giddy.

FINALLY, after years of admiring, from afar, what Yzerman did in Tampa with the Lightning, he was returning to Detroit to build the Red Wings back into winners. Like when he played here.

But there was always going to be a risk.

It happened to Joe Dumars. Eventually.

Joe D, after 15 years as a Piston, retired 1999 and a year later, he was controlling the strings at the Palace as the team’s top executive. He started with a Meidas touch and within four years, the Pistons were NBA champs.

But Dumars lost his way a few years later and after a series of missteps, the Pistons fan base wanted him gone.

It happened to Alan Trammell. Eventually.

Tram delighted as a Hall of Fame player for the Tigers for 20 years (1977-96). He came back for a coaching stint in the late-1990s and in 2003 he was the Tigers manager.

In Tram’s first year as skipper, the Tigers went 43-119.

Two years after that, the Tigers players quit on Tram late in the 2005 season and there were reports of a fractured clubhouse. The fans wanted Trammell gone.

It happened to Joe Schmidt. Eventually.

Joe, the Lion King as a Hall of Fame linebacker, was named head coach of the Lions in 1967. His hiring was seen as welcome after two dysfunctional years under Harry Gilmer.

But after six seasons, Joe and the Lions fans wanted a mutual parting of the ways. Schmidt was losing a power struggle with GM Russ Thomas and he didn’t care for the way he was treated by the fans or the media. So Joe committed a self-ziggy.

It would have happened to Al Kaline, too. Or Isiah Thomas. Or David Bing, had they assumed positions of power for their respective teams after their playing days were done.

The legendary status that our Detroit sports heroes attain as players has finite coattails on which to ride once they take off their uniforms and put on Armani suits.

It’s happening to Stevie Y right now. And it was always going to be the risk.

It was a roll of the dice that ownership, the fans, the media and Yzerman himself were all willing to take, though.

Yzerman had never won a Stanley Cup as an executive. He figured that if he was going to do it, he wanted to do it in Detroit.

The fans were elated. The media didn’t mind. The Ilitch family warmly welcomed Stevie back into the fold.

But it was a dice roll.

No one wanted to think about it in 2019, but it was always out there.

What if Yzerman can’t deliver? What if the rebuild he assumed, never really ended?

Well we’re here now.

The Red Wings are 20 games into Year Six of Yzerman’s tenure and what do they have to show for it?

They’re old, slow and are allergic to the puck. They have so much trouble breaking out of their own zone. They struggle to get much more than 20 shots on goal per night. They can’t kill penalties. They look disinterested.

And while coach Derek Lalonde is feeling the brunt of the fans’ displeasure, Yzerman isn’t without his detractors, finally.

I look at the Yzerman era as being at a crossroads.

The Red Wings look so bad right now. They look overmatched, defeated and disorganized. They play with no fight. No honor.

The legacy of the iconic Red Wings logo across their chests is taking a big time hit.

But here’s what I mean about crossroads.

I think that Lalonde’s status as head coach is so tenuous, how it’s handled will be a referendum on Yzerman’s job.

If Stevie lets this uninspired play go on past Christmas, then it’s GM malpractice.

The Red Wings, as a rule, don’t fire coaches mid-season. They haven’t done it in 39 years.

It’s time to make an exception.

Giving Lalonde the ziggy isn’t about saving the season. It’s probably too late for that.

It’s more about saving the organization from further embarrassment.

But firing Lalonde only puts a band-aid on a gaping wound.

There’s still the matter of Yzerman and the roster he’s constructed and the future the Red Wings have, with limited salary cap space.

It’s OK to say it.

Regardless of what happens with coach Lalonde, the Steve Yzerman Era has been a failure. I don’t know how else you can describe it.

Enough with the excuses. Enough with the “well he hasn’t had any draft luck” narrative.

It’s Year Six and you can argue that the Red Wings are no closer to a Stanley Cup than they were when Yzerman was hired.

This was always going to be the risk.