Official : Fire Mike Johnston Thread

[Master Shake*]

Too soon?

disclaimer* I havent been able to watch as many games as I usually do the past 2 years.

In all seriousness I hate quick turnovers but it might be best.

This team cannot beat any quality team, especially the defensive minded ones. It is more of the same old same old. I see no difference between this year and the last 5.

I doubt we move past the first round this year.

So who is your choice for next head coach?

Pierre McGuire

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[Zen Arcade]

Milan Kraft, so he can teach everyone the secret of his world destroying wrist shot.

 

[tom_servo]

Official Lock This Thread Post.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Serious question: How long is he under contract for anyways??

 

[ProgOg]

Serious question: How long is he under contract for anyways??

Contract length means nothing for NHL coaches. I think most firings that happened recently came after contract extensions.

 

[Master Shake*]

Milan Kraft, so he can teach everyone the secret of his world destroying wrist shot.

Kraft would have done extremely well with Crosby or Malkin. Its a shame our coaches were morons when he was here.

 

[Michael8771*]

The team will give him one playoff run. Likely one and done though.

 

[roquay]

I got 999 posts but firing Johnston ain't one of them

 

[Kristopher Letang]

This year gonna be special boys. Just wait for it to happen... Don't kill me for this post now, do it if the playoffs suck again. I will make sure I bump this thread at the end lol.

 

[Will Hunting]

If the Pens are easily eliminated by some Metro team in R1, then sure. It´s also a most likely scenario. Not gonna happen sooner, though. But anyway, even under Bylsma, I haven´t been as pessimistic as I´m now. It seems like there´s not even a hope. Under Bylsma there was at least a hope until we found a way to lose, but right now it looks like that we´re a team that EVERYONE WANTS TO FACE IN THE PLAYOFFS. Laughing stock of the Metro. And we have actually a better roster than last year, JR is actually doing a decent job so where´s the real problem?? Johnston needs to right this ship pretty soon but it almost looks even worse now than under Bylsma (or close to that).

 

[NewAgeOutlaw]

It's too soon. Sometimes it can take a team a while to play the way a new coach wants them to play consistently. You have seen flashes where the team has played the kind of hockey that Johnston describes but they are struggling mightily as of late with consistency.

They are still lapsing to Bylsma hockey, especially on the breakout. I'm willing to at least see how the team plays under him in the playoffs this year. He emphasizes that the whole regular season should build to the playoffs which is the right mentality. We'll see how that works out. He makes some strange personnel decisions but that will happen with pretty much any coach.

It's way too soon to talk about firing though. The roster is still flawed and needs tweaking so I don't think any coach (especially those who are available at this very moment) is going to be able to put this team over the top. If they play horrible hockey in the playoffs and are still having issues ~20 games into next year I think you really start considering firing him. 50 games just isn't enough to start that kind of talk.

Fwiw, the team was much worse at this point in the season in 09.

 

[Captain Hook]

Johnston gets at least all of this year. You re-evaluate after that.

 

[FRUSTRATEDPENFAN*]

Why fire the coach its not his fault the players on this team cant play a physical grinding game and the other teams know it simple as that. The penguins are the forth best team in the Metro and wont be winning anything this year sorry to admit very disappointing

 

[Will Hunting]

What about Rick Tocchet though? Those PP entries are something else, using Paul Martin on a PP, Chris Kunitz is a lock on that 1st unit etc.. And that 2nd unit.. is that 2nd unit gonna score a PP goal again this year?