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The Confluence

Therrien: Change was needed, but can’t hang it all on him

by Tony on 02/16/09 at 09:07 AM ET
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I’ll be the first to admit, I was not a Michel Therrien fan from early on in his tenure as head coach of the Penguins.

I was never a fan of several of his coaching methods, which I’ll get to in a minute, and I certainly believe now that he lost the team.

And now that he’s gone, I can’t honestly say I’m overjoyed, although I understand why the move needed to be done.  Quite frankly, I am more upset today that Mike Yeo is still on the coaching staff, rather than relieved that Therrien is gone.  However, I realize that in the short timespan that GMRS had to deal with in making this decision, he probably was only able to make the head coaching switch at this time.

But a change was needed to right this Penguins ship, as long as we also understand that Therrien wasn’t the only culprit that brought us to this point.

Yes, most definitely, many of Therrien’s coaching styles were absolutely infuriating.

He didn’t allow ANY of his lines, whether they be scoring or checking, to establish any continuity nor chemistry.  There was the occasional exception, such as the Malone/Malkin/Sykora line of last year.  But that was a rare exception.  More times than not, Therrien would be switching lines after not even one period had elapsed.

Therrien also made a bizarre practice of reassigning struggling defensemen, like Brooks Orpik, Ryan Whitney, Darryl Sydor and most recently Alex Goligoski to a fourth line winger, rather than the press box.  Especially considering his offense is the one that puts the least amount of shots on goal in the league.

But even with those legitimate criticisms, there were certainly other things that Therrien didn’t have direct control over.

- Therrien wasn’t the architect of rebuilding this team after a Stanley Cup run with mediocre players such as Miro Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko.
- Therrien wasn’t responsible for the numerous soff (one last time for HCMT) goals that Marc-Andre Fleury allowed, at least early in the season.
- Therrien wasn’t the one lackadaisically skating around, not hustling to loose pucks and not forechecking.
- Therrien wasn’t the one who couldn’t get the puck out of his own zone time after time.

The Penguins struggles this season are a culmination of factors.  It’s the defection of several key components from last year’s team, it’s the mediocre replacements that GMRS brought in, it’s the several major injuries the Penguins have had to endure, and finally, yes, it’s the poor performance of his players.

So, let’s all understand before the Dan Bylsma era commences this afternoon, for however long it’s going to last:  It was time for Michel Therrien to go, but his team’s struggles are far from all his fault.

Filed in: | The Confluence | Permalink
 Tags: NHL-Hockey, Pittsburgh+Penguins,

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