Over the next few weeks, The Pond will take a look at how different aspects of the team performed throughout the 2010-2011 season, and consider the criticisms offered about them. This will be a series of posts updated pretty frequently to give us as fans an opportunity to look towards the 2011-12 season and discuss any areas which we would like to see the Pens improve upon in the future. Up first:
Coach Dan Bylsma
We all know the circumstances which led to Dan Bylsma coming to Pittsburgh from Wilkes-Barre. The Penguins were sitting 5 points out of a playoff spot and in 10th place of the Eastern Conference when Valentines day came around, and they were on the road in Toronto, taking on the Leafs. However, what happened was one of the biggest collapses we've seen from the Penguins in a while. The Pens took a two goal lead only to let in six straight from the Leafs, in a game that probably ended a few relationships that night. Coach Michel Therrien has this to say:
"It's up to the players"..."There's a price to pay to win games on the road and right now we're having a hard time staying focused and executing."Needless to say, after this quote, HCMT became FHCMT, and the next day, the Penguins let go of Therrien, and called up Dan Bylsma in an attempt to right the ship of the team which had came within two wins of capturing the Stanley Cup the season before.
Bylsma loosened the reins on the team and instructed them to play more in the offensive end of the ice, instead of sitting back and waiting for the play come to them. The Pens finished the season 18-3-4 under Bylsma, to finish fourth in the conference and went on to win the franchise's third Stanley Cup. The Pens battled back from being down 2-0 in series to the Washington Capitals in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals and to the Detroit Red Wings in the Cup Finals. The team also won every series on the road. Byls-Magic worked and it delivered a cup. Of course we can never take away what Bylsma did for the team during the Cup year, but was the Pens playing a bit more offensively all that was needed to push the team over top? If a minor league coach could see that, couldn't others? It is a question of which we will never know the answer.
Then came the 2009-2010 season which was the last hockey season to be played inside the walls of the Igloo. Byls-magic worked again during the regular season as the Pens finished 47-28-7 and finished with 101 points and clinched the fourth seed for the NHL playoffs. The Pens dispatched the Ottawa Senators in 6 games and faced the 8th seen Montreal Canadians in round two. The Pens had a 3-2 lead and an opportunity to move on to the Eastern Conference Finals for second consecutive year, by clinching another series on the road, but the Habs forced a game 7 on Mellon Arena ice. A once favorable matchup against the Canadians turned into a nightmare for Pens fans, as the team failed to put on a winning effort and would lose the last game ever to be played in the Igloo's history. But Bylsma gets a pass that year because he did will the Pens to the Cup the year before. You have got to give him that benefit of the doubt, and there is no way around it, but it did seem that the Byls-Magic was running out.
The 2010-11 season rolled about and the Pens with their newly retooled defensive core struggled out of the gate, and it seemed that Bylsma's system was becoming easier and easier for other teams to adjust to. That was until mid-November rolled around and the Pens surged to the top of the Eastern Conference and became the Best Team in Hockey during a 12 game win streak that will find its place in the NHL history books for some time to come. Then HBO's 24/7 Road to the Winter Classic debuted and it gave the fans their first real inside look at how Bylsma conducted business with his team, and left many extremely impressed with the coach of their hockey team.
After the series fans has a new found love for their coach and players in the league voted him as the coach they would like to play for the most. Then catastrophe struck the Penguins with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and many others suffering major injuries. The focus of the fans quickly went from winning the cup to hoping for a playoff spot.
However, Bylsma's system would not break even without its two superstars. The Pens went 21-12-6 after Crosby's concussion and 18-11-4 without both Crosby and Malkin, and stayed in contention for the Atlantic Division title, finishing the season with 106 points and losing the division to the Flyers on the basis of tiebreakers. Ultimately the Pens clinched the fourth seed and home ice for the first round of the playoffs to secure a favorable matchup with the Tampa Bay lightning. Bylsma is a finalist, and should be the likely winner for the Jack Adams award as the best coach in the NHL. What the Pens were able to do without their two stars is astonishing and again Bylsma has to receive a lot credit, because this Pens lineup should not have been in that position without great coaching, given the circumstances.
The Pens jumped out to a 3-1 series lead before the Ligthning forced game 7 at the CONSOL Energy Center. They would of course fall in that game at the hands of a Dwayne Roloson 36 save shutout. Losing to the Lightning with this roster should be no big deal, but what was shocking to some is that Bylsma made no lineup changes as far as inserting another player to change things up. The Pens scored only one power play goal up to the point of game 7 and that was with Eric Tangradi on the ice. Had they scored more goals with the man advantage the series does not make it to 7 games. Of course you can't say that inserting Eric Tangradi into the lineup for game 7 would have changed the outcome. To do so would be very idiotic. However, the fact is that the power play was broken and the Bylsma stubbornly stayed the course and as a result their season ended early.
It is absolutely unfair to judge Bylsma on the outcome of this past season. The Pens roster was so depleted with injuries that it was a miracle that they ended up in the position they were in. Had they been healthy we may be gearing up to cheer the Pens on in game two of the Eastern Conference Finals. The system works to some extent, but there is no doubt there could be changes made to make it more efficient. However, we have seen refusal from Bylsma to make any changes and stick to his game plan, and in some instances (i.e. two consecutive game 7 losses) this decision has hindered the team's ability to be successful. There are also the instances in which staying the course has benefited the team, like it did in mid-November.
Sitting here and arguing that the Pens should win the Cup every year and if they don't, then its Bylsma's fault is highly irrational. However, as Bylsma enters his third full season with the Pens, the microscope will begin to focus in on what he does to make his system more successful, provided that he doesn't encounter the adversity faced in the 2010-11 season. If this team was healthy, and still blew a 3-1 series lead, then this is a different post completely, and the argument could be made that any major falter by the Pens in the 2011-12 season would result in Bylsma's tenure coming to an end in Pittsburgh. Those circumstances don't exist, and because of last season we have to give Bylsma the benefit of the doubt, but on the other hand, this upcoming season may be the most important in Bylsma's young coaching career. The Pens are going to be a very deep team from top to bottom, and barring any injuries should be a contender to life the Cup next June from the very first puck drop in October. If they remain healthy and Bylsma's system gets in the way, and the Pens falter yet again, then let the judgment rain down on him. Until that occurs, we simply just sit back and let the future unfold.
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