The gist of it near as I can tell is that Mo can't really create any offense because he's constantly having to battle to get it out of his own end of the ice, so instead of skating it or making an outlet pass he has to just chip it out, which obviously has all but destroyed his ability to produce offense.
What I'm wondering is, who is Newsy putting out there for the softer minutes that he's giving to guys like Kane? I assume it'd be someone like Gostisbehere, but if he's doing that with someone like, say, Holl, that's a real waste.
On one hand I feel like this is bad coaching, but on the other hand, Lalonde clearly doesn't trust the old guys Yzerman has assembled for the 2nd and 3rd pairing, and he has good reason not to trust the goaltending at all.
Up front, I know Larkin is a very good two-way guy, and I've watched enough of Jimothy Timothy to know he's reasonably good defensively, beyond that I don't know anything about the Detroit forwards other than the fact that Patrick Kane may very well be the worst defensive player in the league. Sometimes the amount of help forwards can give the defense goes a long way toward success.
Totally unrelated--if you ever listen to the 32 Thoughts pod, Elliotte Friedman has the most awkward pronunciation of "Detroit" possible. It always comes out "Detrow-it" and it clearly drives Jeff Marek nuts.
I am assuming that's just a Friedge thing and not a Canadian thing.