The Confluence
With Letang, Bylsma already showing he’s no Therrien
by Tony on 02/21/09 at 11:20 AM ET
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Give Dan Bylsma credit, he’s not bashful to quickly put his stamp on the Pittsburgh Penguins.
When Kris Letang was announced as a healthy scratch prior to Thursday’s game vs. the Canadiens, combined with an erroneous report out of Montreal, the hockey world erupted with speculation that Letang was on his way back to his hometown, perhaps for the return of former Penguins Alex Kovalev.
But as it turns out, Letang was in the press box for precisely the reason he’s supposed to be up there: He simply hasn’t been a very good defensemen lately, and Bylsma benched him for it.
In addition, what Bylsma may also be doing, indirectly, is wiping away Therrien’s perceived favoritism towards his French-Canadian players. But that’s not what this is about.
Look, I think Letang is a tremendous offensive talent among defenseman. Yes, he’s only 21, let’s not forget that. And as you’ll read next week in my Trade Deadline Roundtable, I think he’s pretty damn close to being untouchable at the deadline. It better take a huge return to pry Letang away from GMRS.
But the fact of the matter is that Letang, for as gifted he is in the offensive zone, has not been all that great at all in the defensive zone, and I applaud Bylsma for temporarily disregarding Letang’s offensive potential, and making him concentrate on what should be his primary focus as a defenseman, being strong in your end. Because of that potential, I believe that the fans and the press have given Letang a pass for the most part, and it’s nice to see that Bylsma hasn’t drank that Kool-Aid.
Letang was -2 in Bylsma’s debut in the Penguins’ shootout loss to the Islanders on Monday, and -3 in the Penguins’ 6-2 loss to Toronto last Saturday. Both games were ones the Penguins should have one, every game being so important as the regular season winds down.
Letang is hopefully going to be big asset for the Penguins for many years to come. But this is exactly the right time to force Letang to work on his defensive game, so he can help the Penguins with his offensive skills more often.
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