The housecleaning has begun in Pittsburgh. The Penguins will announce Friday that head coach Dan Bylsma and general manager Ray Shero have been relieved of their duties according to TSN's Bob McKenzie.
It was pretty clear coming out of the disappointing series against the New York Rangers in which the Penguins blew a 3-1 series lead to lose in seven games that Pittsburgh ownership led by Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle would not stand idly by.
Bylsma led the team to the Stanley Cup after taking over for Michel Therrien in the latter portion of the 2008-09 season. The team has not advanced past the Eastern Conference Final in the five seasons since.
Over his six years with the club, Bylsma never had a winning percentage below .600 and Bylsma won the Jack Adams as NHL coach of the year in 2011, but the playoff failings were apparently too much for ownership.
Shero will exit after eight seasons at the helm of the Penguins. He's had his share of ups and downs, but he helped put the team on a track for two Stanley Cup Final appearances, winning the top prize in 2009. He also secured long-term deals for some of the game's best players in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. He was named the NHL's general manager of the year last season.
Looking at the entirety of Shero's career as an administrator with the Penguins, he had a lot more hits than misses. Looking back at some of the trades he made, particularly in acquiring James Neal and Matt Niskanen for Alex Goligoski, Shero proved he had a talent for the job and an ability to get the better of opposing GMs. He also acquired Chris Kunitz for a declining Ryan Whitney while the former became one of the league's better goal scorers.
Those are the types of deals that usually bring job security, but those were moves that only addressed the top of the lineup and Pittsburgh's bottom six forwards were constantly a source of disappointment and a detriment to the team.
The Penguins' drafting has come under fire, also, particularly the team's apparent inability to draft contributing forwards under Shero. The club selected defensemen in three consecutive first rounds, landing Derrick Pouliot and Olli Maatta, who was an impact player for the Penguins this year. Joe Morrow, the other first-round defenseman was used as trade bait last season to acquire Brenden Morrow. Additionally, second-round pick Scott Harrington looks like a potential impact defenseman for the Pens down the line.
Still, not having any forwards moving up into the lineup to provide affordable depth players with potential to move up the lineup is a failure, even against those hits among defensive draft picks. Is it firable though? That's tougher to say.
Perhaps another of the team's mistakes was hitching its wagons to Marc-Andre Fleury in net. His career .910 save percentage is below average. This last postseason, he actually had his best numbers since the Stanley Cup run. The four preceding playoff campaigns, Fleury had a sub-.900 save percentage. Not many teams are going to win with that.
The head coach and general manager are ultimately held responsible for what happens on the ice. While the Penguins were always one of the better teams in the league, their postseason mishaps were not totally unpredictable.
Relieving Bylsma and Shero may be the right move at this time for the Penguins, at least to the team's ownership, but it's hard to imagine those two will be out of work for long. Bylsma has been a star coach in the league, despite the fact that his teams have fallen short in the postseason of late and he helmed the disappointing fourth-place Team USA at the Olympics this year.
With a number of openings still out there, Bylsma probably shoots to the top of the list for most teams looking for a new head coach.
Shero should find work rather quickly as well, possibly even in Vancouver where the Canucks are in need of restructuring.
The postseason collapse certainly expedited the possibility of Shero and Bylsma being replaced, but this is a drastic change for what could amount to being a few bad days. While the postseason failings of the last few years have been disappointing and sometimes baffling, what would have happened if the Penguins advanced to the next round? It's interesting how that works out.
If the Penguins can find a way to get appreciably better at their head coaching and GM openings, then this is the right move. It's hard to tell if they're going to be able to do that, though.
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin remain young and talented and remain the kinds of players you'd love to build off of. Whoever steps in has a nice core to work with, but ensuring the long-term health of this roster with a lighter prospect pipeline and only 12 roster players under contract for next season, there will be some challenges.
That said, with the group the team ahs at the top of its lineup, there will remain potential as a Stanley Cup contender. Interesting days lay ahead for this organization.
http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/eye-on...guins-fire-head-coach-dan-bylsma-gm-ray-shero
