Chicago Blackhawks introduce former Original Six Red Wings rival as next head coach

The Chicago Blackhawks officially announced Jeff Blashill as the team's new head coach today at the United Center.

While Anders Sorensen will stay on staff as an assistant, you've got to ponder who exactly is Jeff Blashill? What has he done before arriving in Chicago?

Blashill originally coached another original-six franchise before, in the Detroit Red Wings. He had a brief stint, serving 3 years under Jon Cooper in Tampa Bay as an assistant, and obviously sold Kyle Davidson on his vision.

What did we learn about him from his press conference?

It's a debatable notion, but Jeff Blashill took over the head coaching position in Detroit when times were turbulent. He tried to establish himself in a seven-year period in the system, but was unable to build a winning culture.

It seems he feels that accountability is something that was missing in Detroit, and mentioned the word during today's conference.

He wants to establish a winning culture in Chicago, and we can assume accountability is the first building block.

Blashill mentioned working with stars, whether it be Nikita Kucherov or Henrik Zetterberg. While namedropping a laundry list of players like Brayden Point and Pavel Datsyuk, his main point is that he knows how to handle star power.

Blashill believes he can get more out of Bedard with the Blackhawks and seems to be looking forward to working with Frank Nazar and Alex Vlasic, whom he watched at the World Championships.

Blashill mentioned the budding youth movement in Chicago, and it was seen as a selling point. Under Kyle Davidson, he's built quite the roster through the draft, and players like Sam Rinzel, Frank Nazar, and Oliver Moore hold a lot of promise for this younger team.

It appears that Blashill has remained humble during his three-year stint in Tampa Bay. He utilized the experience to learn from his mistakes, and under the tutelage of Jon Cooper.

His main point of emphasis seemed to be putting players in a position to win, which he included Connor Bedard, whom he mentioned building off of his strengths during the presser.

Establishing a winning culture and being accountable were some of the philosophies he picked up on in Tampa Bay, and he seems to believe he can extrapolate them here with success.

We'll see how successful he is in September.