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From Assistant in NHL, to head coach in AHL, to Stanley Cup Champion
by Patrick Hoffman on 09/08/09 at 08:13 PM ET
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From Chris Botta at AOL’s NHL FanHouse:
On a Sunday afternoon, February 15 of this year, the 38-year-old Byslma was preparing his Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League for a 5:00 pm home game. A short while before warmup, he received a text from Pittsburgh general manager Ray Shero: “Call me from ur office in 5 mins.”
Bylsma’s heart started pounding. He knew something big was up. Most of his dealings as a Baby Pens assistant for one season and then head coach for 51 games had been with assistant GM Chuck Fletcher. This time Shero needed him promptly. The AHL coach started thinking about what he was going to say. “I figured it had to be about the Penguins job,” said Bylsma, “because my body wouldn’t have reacted that way.” Before the five minutes were up, he had calmed down. “I didn’t need to call anyone for help,” he said. “I was confident that I was prepared for the opportunity. Everything came into focus.”
The next morning he was in the Garden City Hotel—ironically, about five minutes from where he once lived on Long Island—getting organized for his first meeting with the Penguins. At 2:00 p.m., his new team was playing the Islanders.
“I was ready. I had 51 games as a head coach in Wilkes Barre plus my season in the NHL with the Islanders to draw from,” he said. “I don’t want to be cavalier about it, but those two experiences were all I needed. On the Island, I learned from the adversity. There were problems. We had injuries, we had people coming and going. It was a difficult situation. As a staff, we did everything we could to keep it together. I worked with Steve Stirling and Brad Shaw and Jack Capuano and took a great deal from their knowledge. I learned a lot from Sudarshan Maharaj on how to handle goaltenders. In the AHL, I learned about the responsibility of making the final decision…”
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Patrick has a tremendous passion for hockey. Besides covering the Rangers and the NHL for Kukla’s Korner, you can also find Patrick’s work over at RLD Hockey, Rangers Tribune, and TheGoodPoint.com.
Prior to writing for the above mentioned outlets, you could find Patrick’s musings at hockey web sites/outlets such as TheHockeyNews.com, The Fourth Period, Spector’s Hockey, Hokeja Vestnesis, Blueshirt Bulletin, SNYRangersBlog.com and many more.
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