Therrien Out As Pittsburgh Penguins Coach

Michel Therrien Given His Walking Papers

 

On Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours after being badly outplayed in an ugly 6-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Pittsburgh Penguins management decided to pull the trigger on a coaching change.

Even though Michel Therrien led the Penguins to the Stanley Cup finals last season management knew they had to make a major shakeup with their team badly underachieving in sitting five points out of a playoff spot.

“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,” said the Penguins Executive Vice President and General Manager Ray Shero.

Despite the rumors circulating that Therrien wasn’t well liked by his players it’s hard to ignore his success since taking over from Ed Olczyk prior to Christmas in 2005.

The following season under Therrien the Penguins enjoyed a 47- point improvement.

Last season despite missing star forward Sidney Crosby and goalie Marc –Andre Fleury to significant injuries, Therrien still managed to execute a successful game plan which resulted in Pittsburgh achieving not only its second straight 100 point season, but also their first division title since 1997/98.

On Saturday night, Therrien’s Penguins built an early 2-0 lead against the Leafs before without any warning stopped attacking and seemed to lose interest.

Stepping behind the Penguins bench will be Dan Bylsma who was coaching this season with the Penguins farm team the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. This 38 year-old talked about wanting to make the Penguins play more of an up temp style of hockey.

“With the strengths we have, we should be able to go into buildings and make teams deal with the quality of players we have at every position,” said Bylsma. “I look at a group that can win games right now, and we need to do that. We can do this, but the players have to believe we can do this.

Therrien wasn’t the only one affected by this shakeup though he was the only one to lose his job. His old assistant coach Andre Savard was reassigned to another position within the organization. Filing in for Savard will be Tom Fitzgerald who served as the team’s director of player development.  

The Penguins who are a very mediocre 27-25-5 will now be led by a young man who enjoyed success with the baby Penguins where this year he coached them to a 35-16-1-2 record upon being promoted to the big team.

“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,” Shero said.

The first test will come on Monday when the Penguins face-off in an afternoon contest against the New York Islanders.

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