Mikhail Sergachev at the heart of a story against Jeff Blashill (but it doesn’t add up)

Dose
Crédit:

At DLC, we sometimes report what’s happening on social networks – when it makes sense.

But this morning, there’s a story making quite a bit of noise, and we wanted to tell you about it from the following angle and message: beware of the veracity of what’s being said in the Mikhail Sergachev story.

That’s our warning for the day.

Basically, since yesterday, Mikhail Sergachev’s comments have been circulating. In a podcast in Russia, he was quoted as saying that Jeff Blashill’s system for Lightning defensemen wasn’t working.

Blashill was an assistant to John Cooper from 2022 to 2025, when he became coach of the Chicago Hawks.

The defenseman is quoted as saying that Blashill wanted the Lightning to play like the Golden Knights, even though the system in place had taken them to the Stanley Cup Finals three times.

Here’s what’s floating around right now.

But there are problems in all of this that make us raise our red flag. Sergachev may have gotten his story mixed up, but the dates don’t coordinate.

Sergachev would talk about Blashill’s arrival as an event that derailed everyone’s differential. But his went up in 2022-2023…

(Credit: Hockey DB)

When Sergachev is reported to have mentioned that defensemen regressed under Blashill, does that take into account that he improved his differential one year and had his best offensive season under the former Red Wings?

Does it take into account the fact that Victor Hedman has improved his differential in recent years? That Nick Perdix and Erik Cernak were in the plus column?

Yes, Sergachev regressed in his final year in Tampa Bay. But in his first season with Blashill on Cooper’s staff , he was still able to progress en masse.

So the reported comments don’t completely hold water, and the timeline is bizarre. Pay attention.