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Guest Crymson

Bylsma and McLellan Extended

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I really don't get how Byslma gets extended. You have arguably the two best players in the league on your roster and every spring for the past 4 years has been a playoff embarrassment. Oh well, I guess I don't have to worry about them getting Dave Tippett. lol

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Todd's done a good job for the Sharks - no reason for anything but an extension. As far as Dan goes, that's a little harder to call. I think coaches get way too much credit when things are good and way too much blame when things aren't going well; the fans should be angry with their star players more than the coach. The only question, which I am not informed enough nor care enough to answer, is whether Bylsma's lost the team or not.

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I think both are better than any other alternative out there for their teams.

Would you really give up Bylsma for Torts?

Especially with superstars, that guy has proven he can handle stars, let alone superstars!

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Like I said in that other thread...Bylsma seems like a really good guy and coach, one who, for the most part at least, still has the hearts and minds and ears and respect of his troops. Those troops just wilt and die when they come up against a certain brand of playoff hockey. Is that on Bylsma? Personally, I say no, not really. The one thing you could perhaps pin on him is that the players still don't seem to believe in Team D as the requisite cornerstone of any championship team (unless you're ridiculously stacked up front, and you have the good fortune/luck of not running into a big, mean, D-centric team). But even then, I mean, Shero brings in Iginla, Morrow, and whatshisface? ("You forgot Poland Murray.") The mandate From On High was, apparently, "Don't worry about balance. Don't worry about defense. Just score a lot. The best defense is a good offense." Come on.

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I don't understand Doug Wilson. He hasn't changed anything in, what, 5-6 years? They haven't won and they haven't really even come close. I don't consider getting to the Conference Finals two years in a row with a 1-8 record being close. I remember when there were supposed to be big changes when they were eliminated from the Ducks in '09 in the first round. They aren't going anywhere.

With the Pens, they have had better teams since '09 and they haven't really threatened. Granted, I think the only team in the East that could have beaten them last year was the Flyers and this year was the Bruins, but Bylsma's inability to adjust in a 7 game series is very telling. He is Erik Spoelstra of the Heat without the results...

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The Sharks somehow end up as a train wreck one way or another in the playoffs. The diving, the invisibility of star players, etc. The Sharks have a few good players, but that's about it. Jumbo Joe and Marleau are definitely on the decline. The Sharks are the team that can't win a Cup but will make sure the opponent that beats them goes on to lose the next round. Congrats, you are good enough to take a toll on a team but aren't good enough to win. Everything else about that organization is going to have to change if they really want to win a Cup. McLellan is definitely not helping things change around there, especially when he had to tell the refs to stop calling his players out for diving. Maybe he cannot make the changes he wants to yet because of current players or politics. You figure he would try emulate Babs after working in Detroit.

Bylsma being extended is shocking. You figure he would have been the fall guy for all the playoff blunders that have plagued the Penguins since 2009. You might say who is going to replace Bylsma, but the truth is it looks like anyone could do that. Maybe Bylsma is on a short leash as the head coach. There is definitely a strong sense of arrogance that the Penguins have had, and I think that is a terrible attitude to take into a playoffs series. During the Islanders series he let his team run loose and play like crap. If Nabokov were a better goaltender the Pens would have been beat by the Islanders. His players decided that they were going to play when they wanted to. The success against the Senators is nothing new, and I thoroughly expected Pens to beat the Senators in the fashion that they did. It is clear to me that Bylsma is struggling to coach that team, given by the performance of his team and his inability to make adjustments.

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I thought this series against Boston was very telling of Bylsma's coaching skill. Most teams the Pens face in the East are pushovers and they just overwhelm them with talent, but as soon as they face a team that plays any kind of system and has talent, they struggle horribly. Boston had a plan to shutdown the Pens scoring and the not a single adjustment was made, besides putting in Tyler Kennedy. No line swapping, no change in style of play, no adjustments to what Boston was doing, nothing. If they can't win on talent alone, then they meltdown and that's on the coach. They got lucky in '09 with the Devils and Bruins getting knocked out and us having all those injuries. They got lucky in 2010 when the top 3 teams in the East fell in the first round. They got lucky again this year with the Isles and Sens in the first couple rounds. Pens fans get this "false hope" that the team is going to just steamroll everyone the way they steamrolled all these lesser teams.

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The article was pretty significant if you read all the way through..

Bringing in a new face didn't make sense to Shero, who pointed to the stability of franchises like the Detroit Red Wings as the key to being a consistent Cup contender. Besides, while the new deal brings a sense of momentary calm, it hardly assures a sense of long-term security. Therrien was fired halfway through the 2008-09 season even though he signed a three-year extension a few months earlier.

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Guest Crymson

The article was pretty significant if you read all the way through..

Haha. The note about stability doesn't make much sense; the Wings keep Babcock around because he is the best man for the job, not purely for the sake of stability.

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Haha. The note about stability doesn't make much sense; the Wings keep Babcock around because he is the best man for the job, not purely for the sake of stability.

If Mike Babcock were fired, you would see 29 subsequent NHL head coach firings and 29 NHL GMs trying to hire Mike Babcock.

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We really are insanely fortunate to have Babs behind our bench.

The best part is he wanted to be here before it was a possibility, if one were to believe the story about him asking to mentor under Bowman!

Which I do!

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