The Common Denominator

[SidDidNothingWrong]

You know what I heard today on the radio?
Buffalo Sabres head coach, Daniel Bylsma(I think you guys have heard of him), was being praised by hockey analysts for constantly shifting lines and trying to get his players to make better combos.
Hmmm.
We seem to have fired him due to incompetence, and we hire another coach who is his polar opposite yet is making the same mistakes. Now I ask you, what are the constants in this equation?
Mario Lemieux
The core

I have some news for you, Kunitz isn't playing on a line with Crosby because poor Sid is being forced to by evil Mike "I don't know where I am" Johnston. Either the players are running the team, or Lemieux is taking a part in the incompetence. It is as simple as that.
We had more success with Craig Adams, Tanner Glass, and Deryk Engelland on the team than we do with Kessel.
Blame whomever you choose.
But when the best center in the world(choose which of Sid or Geno you want) cannot score on Mike "World Championships" Smith coming off a back to back after putting like 30 plus shots on him, there is a problem.
Blame the line combos.
Blame the coach.
Convince yourself that if we somehow got a top 4 D or one more winger our team would be perfect. Like Scuderi is so malevolently bad that the damn best player in the world cannot be even slightly effective.
I hate that. Getting rid of Scuderi is something that would make our Corsi numbers great. However, one Scuderi is not the difference between one goal in 2 games against meh opponents and 4 goals.
We stink. Be grateful. They won a Cup and have a playoff streak but our two best players are wearing out and our team is a phantom. There is decline and teams come down from being good. We are a fringe playoff team with work ethic problems. These losses are to be expected.

Click to read more...

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Kunitz gets gifted time alongside Sid because of the familiarity aspect. Johnston doesn't want to **** with years of comfort and statsheet success. He doesn't have the brains or the sack to put together competent lines, regardless of whose feelings are hurt.

If you don't understand how Lovejoy and Scuderi being atrocious defensemen, in all three zones, affects the play of the forwards, I don't know what to tell you.

 

[JTG]

Dan Bylsma never changed anything while he was here. He never made an adjustment. That is what lead to his demise.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

I'd be curious to know who these "hockey analysts" are that were praising Bylsma. I saw the game today. The Sabres looked just as disorganized as I remember the Pens looking under Bylsma, but with significantly less talent to cover up for it.

And he's not exactly changed all that much when it comes to his usage of younger players. Sam Reinhart's getting the Beau Bennett/Simon Despres treatment, despite the fact Buffalo isn't exactly teeming with all-stars up front. Gionta is currently out hurt, so it's going to be interesting to see what happens with Reinhart when he returns.

He also keeps two players together (Kane and Eichel) whose styles just don't seem to mesh. Individually, I thought both looked pretty good today. But they didn't show the tiniest bit of chemistry. Yet ol' Dan stuck with them for the entire game.

So yeah, if today's game is any indication of Bylsma's coaching, I don't miss him one bit. He doesn't seem to have a learned a thing.

 

[Penguinator]

Gotta love the ignorant misplaced Mario hate from the OP.

Awesome...

 

[SidDidNothingWrong]

The point I was trying to make had little to do with Bylsma. He is gone. So why are the same problems occuring? It is more simple than we as a fanbase are making it out to be. Malkin hasn't scored in like 14 games. Is that Scuderi's fault?

 

[AltDess]

Yes

 

[#66]

You know what I heard today on the radio?
Buffalo Sabres head coach, Daniel Bylsma(I think you guys have heard of him), was being praised by hockey analysts for constantly shifting lines and trying to get his players to make better combos.
Hmmm.
We seem to have fired him due to incompetence, and we hire another coach who is his polar opposite yet is making the same mistakes. Now I ask you, what are the constants in this equation?
Mario Lemieux
The core

I have some news for you, Kunitz isn't playing on a line with Crosby because poor Sid is being forced to by evil Mike "I don't know where I am" Johnston. Either the players are running the team, or Lemieux is taking a part in the incompetence. It is as simple as that.
We had more success with Craig Adams, Tanner Glass, and Deryk Engelland on the team than we do with Kessel.
Blame whomever you choose.
But when the best center in the world(choose which of Sid or Geno you want) cannot score on Mike "World Championships" Smith coming off a back to back after putting like 30 plus shots on him, there is a problem.
Blame the line combos.
Blame the coach.
Convince yourself that if we somehow got a top 4 D or one more winger our team would be perfect. Like Scuderi is so malevolently bad that the damn best player in the world cannot be even slightly effective.
I hate that. Getting rid of Scuderi is something that would make our Corsi numbers great. However, one Scuderi is not the difference between one goal in 2 games against meh opponents and 4 goals.
We stink. Be grateful. They won a Cup and have a playoff streak but our two best players are wearing out and our team is a phantom. There is decline and teams come down from being good. We are a fringe playoff team with work ethic problems. These losses are to be expected.

I've been a Pens fan since 75. Its refreshing to see someone else finally state the obvious. There's a reason why Willie D ran for the hills. He didn't want to be another babysitter. That's nothing on Sid or Malkin... its a culture that been around the Pens and needs to change.

Your going to get placed on a lot of ignore lists.

 

[#66]

Gotta love the ignorant misplaced Mario hate from the OP.

Awesome...

Its not a slight to Mario. What worked for him worked in the past... but it keeps this team pigeon holed. You need a strong coach that's respected by their team. The pens DO NOT allow that to happened.

When they do have a strong coach they get him booted... and win cups.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I do think Lemieux is partially to blame for us having MJ. I feel like the Pens holding on to Bylsma after they fired Shero was looked down upon by many coaches, so they got stuck with a CHL coach who got suspended for a full season and left his team in ruins. So in that sense, there is some blame due for him.

 

[Hophog]

The point I was trying to make had little to do with Bylsma. He is gone. So why are the same problems occuring? It is more simple than we as a fanbase are making it out to be. Malkin hasn't scored in like 14 games. Is that Scuderi's fault?

It's got to be a lot easier to defend Geno when there are defensemen on the ice that you can literally ignore and have no concerns that they are going to skate the puck out of the zone, make a decent pass or take a decent shot. There is a reason Scuderi is constantly open and getting the puck. Teams don't need to account for him and that leaves them an extra guy to double team whomever they want. I don't disagree that there is a culture problem and players skills and or work ethic are declining, but a few sorry defenseman can cause a huge issue with offense simply by being players that don't need to be accounted for.

 

[#66]

I do think Lemieux is partially to blame for us having MJ. I feel like the Pens holding on to Bylsma after they fired Shero was looked down upon by many coaches, so they got stuck with a CHL coach who got suspended for a full season and left his team in ruins. So in that sense, there is some blame due for him.

To a degree... I don't think anyone thinks Mario has bad intentions or is all about money.

I do think his take on how to treat stars, coaching and management are outdated. What makes me mad is that it seems set in stone with Penguin hockey.

 

[madinsomniac]

Its not Lemieux...since he is about as dis-attached from the hockey operations as it gets... the guy is a minority owner propped up as the face of the franchise ownership. Im not sure how he could affect the team like this...

And the "core' doesn't play on the third and fourth lines, so you cant really blame them for taking all these scorers and draining their ability to score up and down the lineup...

Players overthinking and systems that don't put them in position to score against NHL caliber goalies and dmen do have a common denominator... using minor league coaches with minor league philosophies is something that is consistent...

Pens HC's since the 90's Bold ones coached in the NHL after their pens stint... only really therrien and Bowman were of note...

Bob Johnson, 1990–91 (Died )
Scotty Bowman, 1991–93 - Went on to coach the red Wing through their dynasty period
Eddie Johnston, 1993–97
Kevin Constantine, 1997–99- coached 31 games for the devils in 01-02
Herb Brooks, 1999–2000 Came out of Retirement for 58 games, retired again afterwards
Ivan Hlinka, 2000–01 - never coached in the NHL again
Rick Kehoe, 2001–03- coached for pens for 2 years, never made the playoffs or coached again save for a minor league interim stint
Ed Olczyk, 2003–04 - Broadcaster now
Michel Therrien, 2005–09 Success coaching in Montreal for last 3 years
Dan Bylsma, 2009–14 - coaching again
Mike Johnston, 2014–present

 

[madinsomniac]

Though I guess you could say that current ownership never replaced the front office personnel that has lingered since the 90s outside of the GM

 

[Empoleon8771]

To a degree... I don't think anyone thinks Mario has bad intentions or is all about money.

I do think his take on how to treat stars, coaching and management are outdated. What makes me mad is that it seems set in stone with Penguin hockey.

I think he just didn't want both Shero and Bylsma to go run off to Washington together and screw the Pens over. While I understand his logic, I think it was an extremely bad decision and it ended up hurting us more than helping us. For example, had they actually gone to Washington, Trotz would have been an option for us and we wouldn't have been blacklisted by every unemployed coach.

 

[ColePens]

To many of these threads. Don't need more.