By Bob Smizik | Posted at 10 p.m.; updated at 8:30 a.m.
The Penguins decision to fire coach Michel Therrien will be castigated by some as blatantly unfair. It was.
It will be ripped by others as a case of total gutlessness on the part of general manager Ray Shero, who allowed some of the blame that belonged to him fall to Therrien. There is much truth to that.
Still others will say this is another case of the Penguins historical tendency to side with the players against the coach whenever there is a conflict. True, true, true.
Mount up all the arguments you want against the firing of Therrien, who coached the team to the Stanley Cup finals last year, and you still come away with this:
It was the right thing to do.
The Penguins needed a jolt. Firing the coach, announced Sunday night, was the best and most easily attainable jolt available.
With 25 games remaining in the season, the Penguins are in 10th place in the Eastern Conference, five points removed from eighth and the final playoff spot.
It’s possible the team would have made the playoffs with Therrien. It’s also possible it won’t make the playoffs with interim coach Dan Bylsma. But they have a better chance with Bylsma, despite his lack of experience, than they did with Therrien.
It’s this simple: The players stopped listening to Therrien. They stopped playing hard for him. That was not going to change.
Maybe they’ll listen to Bylsma, maybe they’ll play harder for him. It was worth the chance.
The fact ownership agreed to this move, which probably was Shero’s idea, is actually a positive sign. It shows ownership is keenly interested in making the playoffs this season and in order to achieve that goal is willing to pay Therrien the more than $2 million owed him on the three-year contract extension he received after last season.
It will be argued that this should have been done sooner. That’s easy to say, but hard to do. For two reasons, the Penguins had to wait.
* They owed it to Therrien, who had done an exceptional job in his first 2 ½ seasons.
* They wanted to make sure this was not reversible before they blew that $2 million.
The one aspect of this move not to like is the decision to promote Bylsma, who had been coaching the Penguins top farm club at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. This was Bylsma’s first season as head coach. That does not qualify him to be an NHL head coach. Therrien also had been promoted from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, but he had previous NHL experience as head coach of the Montreal Canadiens.
``I didn't like ... the direction the team was headed," Shero said on a conference call Sunday night. ``I've watched for a number of weeks and, at the end of the day, the direction is not that I wanted to have here. I wasn't comfortable, and that's why the change was made.''
The team's 6-2 loss to Toronto Saturday sealed Therrien's fate. The Penguins took a 2-0 lead and led, 2-1, going into the third period. It was clear to Shero, and others, that Therrien had lost his team.
Bylsma does not step into an easy situation. After a game with the New York Islanders, who have the worst record in the NHL, this afternoon, the Penguins engage in a rigorous schedule the remainder of the month. They must play at Philadelphia Saturday and at Washington Sunday. The Flyers and Capitals are in fourth and third place, respectively, in the Eastern Conference. They also must play at Chicago (fourth in the West) on Feb. 27 and have home games with Montreal (fifth in the East) Thursday and the Islanders Feb. 25 to round out their schedule for the month.
The players, who, according to sources, have been grumbling all season about Therrien, no doubt will welcome the change. But whether they can refocus their energies at this point in the season, particularly with such an inexperienced head coach in charge, remains to be seen.
Shero emphatically said the players had not demanded a coaching change, a move that has happened with this franchise in the past.
As badly as the Penguins have played since the end of November --13-19-2 -- there is legitimate reason to believe they can make a serious run at a playoff spot. Although a long run in the playoffs seems highly unlikely, strange things happen in the post-season. A team with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar and Marc-Andre Fleury has the capability of pulling an upset.
That's why Therrien was fired. This team has a chance, albeit a slim one.
Posted
Feb 15 2009, 09:55 PM
by
Bob Smizik