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Therrien Fired
by Paul on 02/15/09 at 08:17 PM ET
Comments (14)
Dan Bylsma has been named interim head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, replacing Michel Therrien, it was announced tonight by Executive Vice President and General Manager Ray Shero.
Bylsma, 38, has been serving as head coach of the team’s American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He will coach his first game with the Penguins Monday at 2 p.m. against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum.
Therrien was relieved of his duties this evening, and assistant coach Andre Savard was reassigned within the organization.
Assistant coach Mike Yeo and goaltending coach Gilles Meloche will remain with the coaching staff. Tom Fitzgerald, the Penguins’ director of player development, will join the staff as an assistant coach.
“We believe we need a change in direction and, with 25 games remaining in the regular season, our goal remains to finish strong and qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs,” Shero said. “Dan Bylsma is one of the bright young coaches in the game and has done an exceptional job as the head coach in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this season.
“We also would like to thank Michel Therrien for his significant contributions to the Penguins organization.”
Bylsma (pronounced BYLE-smuh) played nine NHL seasons as a right winger with Los Angeles and Anaheim from 1995-2004. He played 429 NHL regular season games and also played in the 2003 Stanley Cup Final with Anaheim. He retired as a player following the 2003-04 season.
The native of Grand Haven, Mich. began his coaching career as an assistant with the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks of the AHL in 2004-05. He made his NHL coaching debut as an assistant with the New York Islanders in 2005-06.
Bylsma joined the Penguins organization as an assistant to Todd Richards in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in 2006-07. In two seasons, the Richards-Bylsma coaching tandem led WB/S to a 98-49-5-8 record. The Baby Penguins won the AHL East Division and Eastern Conference championships in 2007-08 and advanced to the Calder Cup Final.
When Richards accepted a job as an assistant coach with the NHL’s San Jose Sharks in the off-season, Bylsma was elevated to head coach at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
This season under Bylsma, the Baby Penguins are 35-16-1-2. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton defeated Worcester today, 5-2, for its eighth straight victory.
In Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, assistant coach Todd Reirden will continue to be a significant part of the coaching staff. The Penguins organization will announce further plans for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton staff on Tuesday.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Pittsburgh Penguins | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Dan+Bylsma, Michel+Therrien,
Comments
It’s about time they fired his sorry ass. Now hopefully they can keep on losing…
Posted by thag from DC on 02/15/09 at 08:48 PM ET
Haha wow after less than 24 hours before my blog was posted it happend.
Posted by Kevin182 from Motor City, MI on 02/15/09 at 08:56 PM ET
Not necessarily good news.....
Pittsburgh is no longer predictably bad due to incompetent coaching.
Posted by HockeyTownTodd from upset when blogs don’t live up to my expectations on 02/15/09 at 09:15 PM ET
i wonder if Tom Renney is going to get any rest tonight.
Did anyone look at the Gm Shero performance during this whole season like giving a third line centerman 4 million dollars?
Posted by FlyersFan on 02/15/09 at 09:51 PM ET
Its about time. Therrien is a terrible coach...I seriously don’t know how you have Sydney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on the same team, and you are 10th. Its mind boggling how bad Michel Therrien has been. Hopefully this Bylsma guy can do something with the Pens.
Posted by John from Pittsburgh, PA (Wings fan for life!) on 02/15/09 at 10:58 PM ET
HA! Bylsma is from Michigan and was coached by Mike Babcock when he played for Anaheim. I guess if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em...right?
Posted by John from Pittsburgh, PA (Wings fan for life!) on 02/15/09 at 11:02 PM ET
If you have a team full of offensive-minded skill players (who, um, may be a little soft) and you hire a guy who is a ball-buster that stresses defense and maximum effort… well, no duh it’s not going to work out over the long term.
The problem isn’t exactly Therrien… although don’t get me wrong, he’s a mediocre at best coach. The problem is that Shero has saddled himself with players who apparently only want to play one way, and now he’s given them the authority to determine who shouldn’t coach them.
Now the new guy comes in, whoever it is, and he knows that if he doesn’t institute a skate around and play offense game he’ll get run… and I don’t think a skate around and play offense game is going to be much of a consistent playoff threat.
So, even though firing Therrien may have been eventually necessary… by doing it now Shero’s not only fired the coach, he’s fired the system the coach employed, and he may have set the team back two or three years in the process.
Posted by HockeyinHD on 02/15/09 at 11:41 PM ET
watching the other night on hnic, i was floored to see that when his team was absolutely panicked, he did nothing. no timeout no goalie change. just stood there looking like an idiot. with that many good players, most of us could coach them at least to the playoffs.
Posted by thom from seattle on 02/16/09 at 03:07 AM ET
Maybe somebody will finally admit they aren’t that good. Crosby.....come on. Still waiting for a media type to come out and say he was way overrated....Malkin is good but in a Jagr kind a way. Fleury? Ah...no.....I don’t see much else to get excited about...I’m tired of hearing about all the Staahls as well...yeah they are all great...don’t think so..They had an easy run (Ottawa, NYR) to the Finals last year. They beat Philly but the Flyers were injured and their goalie sucked like always
Posted by kevin from boston on 02/16/09 at 08:22 AM ET
Before Christmas, when the Pens were slipping into mediocrity, I said I thought that Therrien would be gone after the All-Star game. Now that they’ve slipped way past mediocrity into the pits of inexcusable incompetence, I think it’s too late.
I saw it all coming.
Therrien is not solely to blame, though. Shero and the boys upstairs have made some pretty bad decisions. Whitney, who for some reason is a darling among the organization and the local press is not worth anywhere NEAR his salary and takes valuable ice time from better players. Conklin (pronounced “the-main-reason-we-made-the-playoffs-last-season) traded in the offseason to keep Sabourin, who was always streaky at best. Malkin, albeit the best natural talent in the NHL (yes, kiddies, even over Ovechkin), still makes rookie blue line drop pass turnovers at least twice a game. Fleury having a drink behind the net while the opposition scores, Fleury not really interested for more than about one out of ten periods, Fleury rebounding every puck that comes his way, Fleury forgetting that a shot can come from more than 10 feet away…
Lotsa problems and not all to be solved by firing a coach. My opinion, while ridiculous in reality, is send Fleury, Crosby, Whitney, Malkin, and Staal down to Wilkes Barre for the rest of the season. Let some hungry non-spoiled players at least get some ice time in the NHL. Heaven knows they can’t do any worse.
Posted by ChiroPuck from USA on 02/16/09 at 09:50 AM ET
Couple things.
First of all, yes, the Pens’ defense is bad.
Secondly, I hope everyone can now agree that MA Fleury was hurried and as a result his development is wrecked. This is why you don’t play kids in goals, end of story.
And finally, I’ve said it before, but… the Hossa trade was terrible for the Pens (and at a terrible time) and gutted part fo the young core of the team. I hope Pens fans really think that Finals run was worth it, because they’re going to pay now for the next 5 or 6 years for it, and they have to be praying nightly that Angelo Esposito doesn’t become a really good NHLer.
Staal is proving to be overrated (so far) and IMO if they were wise the Pens would move him and get something good in return. Satan and Fedotenko are abject failures. Sykora has been mostly-lousy. Crosby’s history of being coddled is starting to backfire on him. And Malkin doesn’t seem to have the desire there.
Overall, just a poorly-run franchise that gambled, lost, and now has no Plan B. Therrien is just the beginning of departures we’ll probably see.
Posted by Primis on 02/16/09 at 12:57 PM ET
Primis, great points. I never liked Hossa to begin with, then they go and get rid of Crosby’s right kidney (Colby Armstrong) for him. We get rid of Malone. We get rid of Ruutuu. We get a carpetbagger and two eastern european washouts for the guts of last year’s team.
Shero’s next, methinks.
Posted by ChiroPuck from USA on 02/16/09 at 03:35 PM ET
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Finally....
Don’t know why the hell Yeo stayed, he needed to go as well....
Posted by Tony F from Virginia Beach, VA on 02/15/09 at 08:22 PM ET