Detroit – Earn your time.
It is the instruction to every recent arrival to the Red Wings from Grand Rapids.
They repeat it for as long as a few seasons or until the player has either not worked out, or is comfortable enough to regard maintaining his time on ice the issue, rather than attaining it.
Mike Babcock used to tell them that. They hear it, a lot, from management along the way.
And as a disappointing season begins to recede, Jeff Blashill addressed the issue and the philosophy in consecutive post-game media conferences, this week.