The Red Wings could fire Derek Lalonde, but what would that even do?

Some thoughts on the discussion that the Red Wings must be having right now.

It’s effectively an off day for the Detroit Red Wings.

The team is flying back from California today, won’t practice, and returns to Little Caesars Arena later this week after a disastrous three-game swing through the Golden State where the Red Wings lost to the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, and San Jose Sharks.

Today, Nov. 19, the Red Wings are tied for second-to-last in the Eastern Conference with the Columbus Blue Jackets based on points percentage, and have just one win, against the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 24, against a team currently in a playoff position.

Those are all facts.

It’s also a fact that the Eastern Conference is rough this season. And despite all of those facts I laid out before, the Red Wings are only three points out of a playoff spot. The east is top heavy, with seven “haves” so far, and room, seemingly, for one “have not” to get an unceremonious waxing in the playoffs by a top seed.

And those are things that the Red Wings and general manager Steve Yzerman have to think about today, because after the showing in California, and Game No. 20 nearing, it’s justifiable to ask if a new coach should be in place before Detroit hosts the New York Islanders on Thursday.

Whether you like or dislike what Derek Lalonde has done as a head coach, all signs point to him being the fall guy for Detroit missing the playoffs this season. He’s a lame duck coach in Year 3 of deal where he was expected to make the postseason, and in today’s NHL coaches are effectively hired to get fired, especially when it’s a tool to protect the GM.

While it’s not a fact, it seems likely that Lalonde’s contract won’t be renewed, and it feels like more of a question of when rather than if that decision will be made by his boss.

It makes it hard not to think about that while watching the Red Wings play, and brings up the very fair question of what a new coach could actually do with this team.

Before talking anything tactical or logistical, we have to look at the Red Wings emotional makeup and acknowledge how this team operates.

It’s a very quiet team, effectively a team of introverts and business-like professionals. The largest personalities were effectively weeded out this summer when David Perron walked in free agency and Jake Walman was traded.

This isn’t just my observation, it’s been made abundantly clear talking to players on a semi-daily basis and Lalonde himself admitting publicly how it’s one of the quietest hockey teams he’s ever been around.

Sometimes you need the wildcard in the room, you need them to pull out other personalities and some of the energy during an 82-game season. When the Red Wings went from curiosity to playoff contender last season, eventually missing because of a tiebreaker and an empty-net goal by the Washington Capitals, it was largely because of how Perron drove the group.

Perron was the vocal one in the room asking for higher standards, pushing for more point totals during segments, other players and coaches praised him for this throughout the campaign.

Perron was also the ideal foil to Dylan Larkin in the leadership group. Quiet, unspoken “follow as I do not as I say,” captains work in the NHL, but they typically have a lieutenant wearing an “A” that is emotionally driven and outspoken. When Perron left, Larkin lost that and this season it’s been a struggle for anyone to step properly into that role.

Now, to be clear, Perron hasn’t been good for the Ottawa Senators. He has zero points this season, so it probably was time to move on from the veteran forward, but after his departure no one has stepped into a void that needs to be filled.

It puts more pressure on the coaching staff to drive the energy, to push the chutzpah, and that’s not how this staff is constructed. Lalonde isn’t a fiery group motivator, he’s better in one-on-one coaching from my understanding and discussions with players. Bob Boughner, the Red Wings associate coach, has a little bit more fire but is also more of a tactician and one-on-one motivator.

So the next Red Wings coach, whether it’s now or later, needs to be a better group motivator, someone who is able to drive energy themselves at first and then, ideally, allow that to transfer to a group of younger players like Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond, and Simon Edvinsson — who all have a bit of that hidden “F you” attitude, that could be channeled into future Perron-type motivation.

Edvinsson, for example, was steaming about the Red Wings missing the playoffs last season, he doesn’t have trouble hiding that, and with a bit more or a leadership role could potentially grow into Larkin’s ideal foil and lieutenant as a leader.

It all adds another wrinkle to the Red Wings situation for potential candidates, it’s a job that’s certainly desirable — there are only 32 NHL head coaching jobs in the world — but between the roster construction and having to alter a team ecosystem, this is one of the toughest jobs in the NHL.

So from the Red Wings perspective, the right person probably isn’t available right now in the middle of the season, which brings up another key question of whether it’s even worth making a change and slapping an “interim” tag on Boughner or rushing Dan Watson up from the Grand Rapids Griffins to try and save a sinking ship.

There aren’t many great answers right now for Detroit. The roster isn’t great, the team is a mess, and while the Red Wings have some intriguing prospects, there isn’t a Macklin Celebrini-type players walking through the door like he walked through Detroit in overtime last night.

So maybe the best answer is for Detroit to let this play out, let Lalonde coach out the string and hope for some lotto luck in a soft “tank.” Because a new coach, while it’s fun online discourse and a blame game, doesn’t seem like it would change much this season either way.