letang is hurt.
i thought boucher played well… i can think of two nice checks where he definitely layed the guy out and got the fans/players back into the game.
kept the puck in the zone on many occasions.
he played as good a game physically and defensively as letang would have and has some great playoff experience. cant really point the finger at him one bit. we have more offensive firepower than anyone in the league… we came up with a goose egg and you’re blaming the second line defenseman
Dump puck. leisurely go after puck. Watch Flyers blow past you while breaking out in the other direction.
Awesome gameplan they had last night.
im not blaming the whole thing on him… just his parts of the game…
hopefully we can put some behind biron tomorrow
Except the Staal line. They seem like the only line that somewhat dominates everytime they go out. Cycle the puck and win the one on ones.
“CROSBY SUCKS!” “CROSBY SUCKS!”
haha ya they will keep chanting that as they sit and watch us continue in the playoffs
Maybe they can even chant it on the golf course to get the Flyers pumped up for the 18th green.
Penguins Remove “Interim” Tag
Bylsma Agrees To Multi-Year Contract as Head Coach
Pittsburgh Penguins
Apr 28, 2009, 10:05 AM EDT
The Pittsburgh Penguins have removed the “interim” tag from Dan Bylsma’s title and formally named him head coach on Tuesday.Bylsma had served as interim head coach since Feb. 15.
“Dan has done such an impressive job with our team, both on and off the ice, that we didn’t see the need to wait any longer to announce our decision,” said Ray Shero, the Penguins’ executive vice president and general manager. “He is the man we want to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins as our head coach.”
Bylsma, 38, has overseen a dramatic transformation in the Penguins’ fortunes, leading his team to an 18-3-4 record in the final 25 games of the regular season and earning the No. 4 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. The Penguins ousted the Philadelphia Flyers, four games to two, in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs – posting a dramatic come-from-behind victory in Game 6 Saturday – and are now awaiting their opponent in round two.
Bylsma and Shero agreed on a multi-year contract Monday night. The team was informed before practice Tuesday morning.
“Dan has impressed us all with his knowledge of the game, his relentless work ethic, his communication skills, and his ability to relate to the players and staff,” Shero said. “When Badger Bob Johnson was the coach of the Penguins, he said every day was a great day for hockey. Dan approaches the game with that same type of enthusiasm. He accepted the challenge of being our interim head coach in February and made this a very easy decision for our ownership and management.”
Bylsma began the season as head coach of the Penguins’ American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He led the Baby Penguins to a 35-16-1-2 record before being promoted in mid-February.
Bylsma spent the previous two seasons as an assistant coach with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and earlier served as an assistant coach with the New York Islanders and the AHL Cincinnati Mighty Ducks.
The native of Grand Haven, Mich. played nine NHL seasons as a right winger with Los Angeles and Anaheim from 1995-2004. He appeared in 429 career NHL games and played in the 2003 Stanley Cup Final with Anaheim. He retired as a player following the 2003-04 season and immediately went into coaching.
Dan and his wife, Mary Beth, have one son, Bryan.
“I want to thank Ray Shero and our ownership for giving me this tremendous opportunity to be the head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins,” Bylsma said. “I’m humbled. I’m excited. And I look forward to continuing to lead our hockey team.
“We’ve got a great group of players and a great staff. We’ve got phenomenal fans and a state-of-the-art arena going up across the street. The future is bright for hockey in Pittsburgh, and my family and I are happy to be a part of it.”
Damn, really? Didn’t they learn with Therrien? He’s on the payroll for what, another 3 years?
I’m all about rewarding a coach and Bylsma has done an awesome job, but he’s coached 25 games and 6 playoff games in the NHL.
i dont think its typical for NHL coaches to accept one year deals… especially at the age of 38. its the nature of the business.
well looks like its going to be a good semi finals playoff sereis all around:
my picks:
pit> wash
canes > bos
ana >det
chi > van
lets hope it works out that way…
anyways LETS GO PENS
Canes over Bruins and Anaheim over Detroit would be pretty big upsets, but I would love to see that happen.
Canes are simply not going to beat the bruins, Montreal had a break down on all levels even coaching… they fell through the cracks after the all star break and Boston took advantage of everyone of their mistakes.
Im not sure about Detroit, if team Hiller can dominate like he did against SJ and Anaheims top line can continue to do well they will beat detroit its going to be a hard series to rpedict… I am most excited for our series ad the chicago series.
im not sure how i came across this but i thought it was funny…
that’s not nearly as funny as your picks for the second round.
This is going to be a short series if the PP doesn’t start clicking and if the top 2 line winger start chipping in….especially the Geno line. It is like he is by himself out there ½ the time. They got lucky we got through the first round with these problems…and they will not get past this round if they don’t figure something out soon.
just throwin it out there, but i still think we can win this series. everyone but Sid has been invisable so far, noone even bothers trying to shadow/cover/pay attention to Ovechkin and we still almost won both games. its like everything is going against us and we are still in it. if Geno or any other forward decides to wake up, i think they can rattle Varlomov and still steal this series. not sayin its gonna be easy, but from what ive seen, its not a case where we cant play with this team.
It is like players give Ovechkin too much respect. Nobody goes at him to throw him off his game. I liked how Staal and Kennedy got in his face a little by the benches in the first period. I somewhat agree with smokey about how we are still in it w/o everyone playing their game…but at the end fo the day we have to win 4 out of 5 and that means starting now everyone has to play their game.
woo woo tickets for tonights and fridays game… LETS GO PENS we need the two wins
I know the offense (aside from Sid) isn’t performing well and that is a good excuse for us for losing, but does anybody else feel Fleury is playing like shit? AOs 4th goal in game 2 didn’t even look like he tried to stop it, everybody has their bad games… but I don’t think Fleury can afford to have anymore. I hate to say it but I think we put ourselves in a must win situation tonight… 4 in a row will be tough especially with game 7 in Washington