Penguins Season Grades: Management
Mike Adams | Report Cards
Jun 25, 03:06 PM | Hype this story!
Today we bring you the final installment of our postseason evaluation of the Penguins as we look at the management side of things.
Michel Therrien: F
It is more obvious now than ever that The Genius did not have his finger on the pulse of his team this year. But before we look solely at this year, let’s take a look back.
As many have said, we cannot forget the contribution he made to this organ-eye-zation since he was brought aboard as a minor league coach back in 2003. First, he taught some of today’s Penguins how to play the game while coaching in Wilkes Barre. Then, when he ascended to the head job in Pittsburgh, he turned around the culture of the team. Gone were the country club ways, and in came a sense of responsibility. He drove the players hard. He ripped them publicly. He preached defensive responsibility, something long missing from the Penguins. He took them to the brink of the Cup last year, and deserves full credit for that.
But, as many had expected, his act wore thin. Communication was never his strong suit, and that contributed mightily to his downfall. He was never able to motivate his young players this year. Players tired of the constant beratings. As with most coaches of his ilk, the firing was only a matter of time. When he was let go, the team was in disarray. They were getting blown out by far inferior teams. The playoffs seemed like a long shot. His defense-first philosophy was making the game a grind for his offensively talented young players. The team was performing far below expectations, and he had seemingly run out of answers. He could find no other line combinations that he hadn’t tried. Thus, the F for this year.
Dan Bylsma: A
His amazing journey has been well-chronicled. From minor league assistant to coach of the Cup champions in less than a year. It can’t get any more Hollywood than that.
He came in and immediately changed the feel of the locker room. He wanted the players to have fun. He wanted them to be more aggressive offensively. But these were only “minor tweaks,” as he called them. Yeah, right. Suddenly, the offensive fury was unleashed. Smiles crossed the players’ faces. He treated the players with respect. It was certainly no return to the country club days, but at least he communicated with his players. And he got the players believing in themselves again. He got the team playing on its toes rather than its heels. He urged pressure in the offensive zone, a style that much better suited the roster. In short, he was a godsend.
Ray Shero: A
It’s results that count for a GM. And there certainly can be no better result than what his team achieved. But they sure took a long and winding road to get there, and some of that blame lies at Shero’s feet.
He had a bad summer last year, mainly because of the Hossa mess. In retrospect, he would have been wise to send Hossa packing when he didn’t sign by July 1. That would have been extremely hard to do because of what he’d given up to get Hossa and what Hossa had done in the playoff run. But by waiting for Hossa’s decision, he lost out on any chance of bringing in a quality winger and instead settled for Miroslav Satan, who was a total bust. He was able to resign Brooks Orpik, a major plus, after Hossa left. And the addition of Matt Cooke was astute, too.
But the team lacked grit and energy up front. Even Shero admitted as much. The top two lines were soft. Shero was man enough to realize his mistakes, and acted to remedy them. He brought in Bill Guerin and Chris Kunitz near the deadline, and suddenly the team had a formidable top line. He got Craig Adams for nothing. But most importantly, he had the cojones to fire a coach who had taken them to a Cup Final only eight months earlier, a coach whom he had just signed to a three-year contract extension over the summer. Talk about gutsy.
But the team took off and never looked back. They won and won, and won some more to not only make the playoffs, but gain home-ice advantage in two of the three conference rounds. Had Shero not reversed his summer decisions, it is not farfetched to imagine that the Pens might not have even made the playoffs. But he did, and the rest is history.
Comments
Ray aka WildcatRay
Jun 25, 04:04 PM
Realizing that this thread is about current and very recent management, I still think it wise to look back at the previous GM, Craig Patrick. Yes, he had to dismantle a contending team that could not afford to stay contending under the old bargaining agreement. In the process, he may not have acquired near equal talent in return, but he did make a number of key draft moves/picks that started the building process that led to this year’s Stanley Cup Champions. So, here’s a tip of the hat to Craig Patrick for his work that helped the Penguins to their 3rd Cup Championship.
Ben Schmidt
Jun 25, 04:45 PM
I’m willing to give a tip of the hat to Craig Patrick, but I’ve been seeing a lot of people try to claim that Patrick built most of this team, and I’d like to point out that isn’t entirely accurate. (Note: this isn’t aimed at you, Ray, you just happened to trip this particular wire in my head).
Yes, many of the players on the current team were drafted or brought in by Craig Patrick. But there were also a lot of players retained or brought in by Patrick that Shero had to get rid of: Leclair, Roy, Endicott, Ouellet, Cairns, Melichar, Hilbert, Murley, Rita, Pirjeta, Nordgren, Caron, Thibault (who wasn’t bad, but was overpriced)... and those are just names from the 05/06 season!
Patrick seemed to have a bad sense of when to give up on a player and when not to. So far, Shero seems to have a better finger on that, even in just 3 years on the job (how many people wanted to give up on Scuderi two years ago? How many people complained about giving up on Hilbert or Ouellet?)
I’ll give a tip of the hat to Craig Patrick for players like Scuderi, Talbot, Kennedy, Goligoski and Letang. But this was definitely Shero’s team that won.
Matt Bodenschatz
Jun 25, 05:03 PM
Good points, Ben, and I’ll add that Malkin and Crosby were no-brainer picks for CP. Sure, he drafted them, but it wasn’t as if there was any necessary skill involved in the decisions. This team has been, is and will be Shero’s, despite a few lingering CP era players.
Doc Nagel
Jun 25, 08:13 PM
I can’t bring myself to blame Shero for how he handled the effort to re-sign Hossa. In that context, it made very good sense to try to retain Hossa – a proven scoring winger for Crosby to center, with good early chemistry with Crosby, and who had a strong playoffs, as well as being a reliable player defensively. Making signing Hossa the top priority made sense. Plus, there was no way the team would sign Malone, Roberts, or Ruutu, in my opinion. Hossa made his own choice.
In the wake of that, signing Orpik, Fedotenko, and Cooke were all very strong moves. The late-season trades were clearly helpful, along with the cap-space shenanigans with Satan (though obviously there were reasons beyond cap space for his demotion).
The only knocks I’d give Shero were for signing Satan, and for waiting so long to fire Therrien.
This year is in a way an even bigger test. Personally, of the free agents, I most hope the Pens manage to re-sign Scuderi, and either Adams or Zigomanis.
NYPensFan
Jun 25, 08:16 PM
Another minus for MT and plus for DB is the game strategy. MT seemed to only have one approach – play harder. DB gets the team ready for every opponent with minor changes in the game and matches his lines well (especially for an inexperienced coach). Poor on ice coaching may have cost us the cup last year (although the team is better for having lost and having to work harder this year to get the reward).
Albert
Jun 25, 10:40 PM
MT’s biggest problem in last year’s Cup was not taking the fact that his team was the clear underdog into full account.
He had them playing not to lose—the opposite of coach B’s aggressive philosophy and directly opposite to Mario’s text message to play (in the final) “without fear.”
I liked a LOT of what Therrien brought, but that was a fatal error, IMO.
Albert
Jun 25, 10:54 PM
Shero’s done a great job, no doubt.
But he’s not infallible. Satan was a major bust. He didnt’ have many options, but that was partially his doing. He put too much faith in Hossa’s word (w/c, as it turns out, is worthless) and just got flat out duped.
And…b/c he mis-read the Hossa situation, he team lost Malone.
Had Shero known that Hossa was a goner, he would have moved on to Malone and he would have gotten a deal done. The wackos who “run” Tampa Bay would never have put out that outrageous offer, etc.
The one thing the Penguins need MOST is a young, power forward. Someone who has net front presence and play the PP, score 30 goals, drop the gloves, etc. Malone does all of that and he’s a Pittsburgh product who had EXCELLENT chemistry w/ the rest of the team and was a beast on the PK.
For approximately the same money, the Pens could have either Kunitz (cap hit of $3.725M) or Malone.
Who would you rather have?
Also, if Shero retains Malone, he prob doens’t sign Satan to that ridiculous contract AND he can trade Whitney for some other package, if he chose.
Major FU.
Great recovery, though, too! Guerin for a 3rd rd pick + Adams off the waiver wire were two key pieces. Bravo, Ray Shero!
Ray aka WildcatRay
Jun 26, 03:07 PM
@Ben,
None taken. ;-)
In three years, it better be Shero’s team! :lol:
@Matt,
Patrick did make the trade to move up to #1 to take Fleury. Also, he did pull the trigger on Malkin and Crosby when he could have said “No, they’re going to cost the Pens too much to sign.” or other excuse. Also, he and Mario may have been under pressure from the league to bypass or trade the #1 pick that became Sid to give or allow a bigger market team to have Crosby—recall that that pick occurred post-lockout.
To everyone, be careful to not shortchange CP too much. He did make moves both good and bad, but every GM has done that. And, he did pick three key, now core players on the Stanley Cup Champions.
DS
Jun 26, 06:39 PM
I love how the eternal anti-MT bias makes it sound like he WAS Jacques Lemaire (instead of his student) and under his tenure this team would maybe score three goals a game once a month, perhaps. If they were lucky. That he fettered the team offensively.
Am I the only one who remembers games that were won last spring by scoring 5, 6, 7, 8?? Or how this team was in the LEAD through 90% of the first three rounds last year — and how they were never scored on in the first or third periods?
Did anyone look unhappy then?
Players, fans, anyone?
Don’t think so.
Mike Yeo must have been coaching the team then, right?
I mean, he kept his job.
So …we somehow got off to one of the best starts in team history and then in December they decide to stop listening to Michel Therrien because they don’t like him any more. Fine.
The fact that we had THREE AND A HALF NHL OFFENSIVE LINES, maybe? And no backup goaltending? And that that was Shero’s fault? No, that clearly doesn’t deserve less than a “A” because Shero FINALLY realized THAT clearly needed major, immediate attention, right?
Oh, and in the meantime Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby were still two of the top three leading scorers in the league.
But clearly they were being stifled. And held back.
I think Bylsma’s wonderful. I love seeing the D pinch in. And I wonder what will happen when the horseshoe finally falls out, or he wakes up.
He had the benefit of guys named Kunitz, Adams and Guerin on the roster. And that Gonchar guy. And players who finally decided that ‘blowing two-goal leads in the third’ was getting tiresome. (It still took quite a while.)
And before I get the “all the teams we played in the playoffs this year were better than the ones we played last year” argument, Detroit was not.
Does anyone think that if they’d been able to manage the same “Marty Brodeur would have been bored with this workload” defensive system from last year, or that if we hadn’t known exactly what we were facing (unlike last year), things would have been any different this time?
(Hint: Even Scotty Bowman and the Wings lost a Stanley Cup. To Jacques Lemaire.)
And when the Pens finally won, what was the score, by the way?
Gee, I guess it’s a good thing SOMEBODY, somewhere taught them to play defense like that. Because you never know when Johan Franzen will cripple your offense.
If anything, Michel Therrien was handicapped by his team this year, and couldn’t turn it around for the third year running. Fine. Call him a failure and fire him for it. Make him Scotty Bowman to Bylsma’s Bob Johnson. Fine.
But the ongoing garbage (not just here, but nearly everywhere) about how Disco liberated the team is very much that. Garbage. Therrien may have been the scapegoat, but he was not the primary problem, and despite any relief of pressure, reset button, and attitude adjustment, to suggest that Bylsma brought this magical, completely new wonderous cure called “offense” to the team is about as accurate as declaring the team dead every time they were down 0-2 in a series.
They may not have been able to win the Cup with Michel Therrien coaching them this year, but they sure as h-e-double-hockey sticks would never have won it without having been coached by him.
I mean, he brought Mike Yeo, right?
albert
Jun 26, 07:22 PM
DS – nice rant, man. hope you grabbed a cold one after that.
i like MT. and i agree, he was very good for the team.
the only knock i have on him is last year’s cup final. he played not to lose. as the underdog. weak. in error. with a predictable outcome.
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