Friday night, with the Penguins in the process of blowing a two-goal lead on the Winnipeg Jets en route to a 5-2 loss, I sat watching the game with my brother at a Bloomfield bar. A guy standing in front of us turned around and said, apropos of nothing: "Can I ask you guys a question? Do you like Dan Bylsma?"
Before either of us could answer, he added, "Because I fucking hate him." To be honest, as I told him, it was a hard question to answer. You can begin, as did Bylsma's career, by dropping the hammer: he won us a Cup. You do that, and you're almost untouchable. Almost.
But with three consecutive disappointing showings in the playoffs, Bylsma's post-championship grace period might be coming to an end.
So, do we like him? It can be extremely difficult to assess a hockey coach's influence on the on-ice-product. If we look at the record alone, Bylsma comes out smelling like roses; the Penguins have made the playoffs in every year of his tenure, and perennially challenge for the top spot in the conference. Then again, having Crosby and Malkin on your team will cover up a lot of mistakes. I get the feeling that this squad could make the playoffs with that Watson robot from Jeopardy! calling the shots (seriously, this is an idea that would probably work).
Beyond the wins, Bylsma's got a lot to recommend him. He's well-liked by players, and seems to have contributed considerably to secondary players like Chris Kunitz, Pascal Dupuis, Matt Cooke, and Matt Niskanen performing beyond expectations. He's instilled in his team some of the trademarks for which they are known: tenacious forechecking, quick breakout passes from the blue line, a swarming penalty kill and a dump-and-chase, puck-possession game on the other end.
And on the other hand, we've seen Bylsma fall in love with his system, and show a reluctance (if not an inability) to adapt to opposing schemes. He can be predictable, down to his vague, constant dictate to "Get To Our Game," and as a result the Penguins are susceptible to the kind of teams that can throw a lot of looks at you. This is especially an issue with fast, young teams like the Maple Leafs and Jets, who overwhelmed the Pens in consecutive contests.
Worst of all is the feeling of watching an opponent adjust to the Pens as a game progresses. They are a force in the first period, often looking like they are going to bowl over the other team, but that dominance is almost never sustained through the entire game (the win against the Rangers in our second game came close). No lead feels safe with this team, particularly in the wake of the Flyers series last playoffs. In those situations, like our last game against the Jets, the calm, collected mien that we've come to appreciate from Bylsma instead can read as frozen and ineffectual.
Finally, there's the goatee that has sprung up on his face this season. Look at the photo up top: it's an unfortunate rhombus of hair surrounding his mouth, calling into question anything that comes out of it. Oddly enough, it looks like he's channeling another goateed Pittsburgh coach who went from universally loved to somewhat divisive - Bill Cowher. Cowher was an institution in the city, who positioned the Steelers as a Super Bowl favorite year after year, but those teams all too often fell short against teams who challenged them to adapt to different styles. Of course, Cowher's reputation was forever validated with a late-career Super Bowl win, while Bylsma's career was, from the first, christened with that "CHAMPION" seal which never fades.
All of this is to say, I don't really know how I feel about Dan Bylsma. What I DO know is that it will be interesting to see what he does this season, and how it will affect fans' opinions of him. This team is not without flaws (*cough* third defensive pairing and offensive depth *cough*), but when you have the two best players in the world in their prime, the expectation is to win now.
It's not fair to Byslma to be held to such standards, but when you have early success (and his was really the earliest and most successful), the challenge is to find ways to continue to improve. If the Pens lose tonight in Ottawa, the fans will certainly be in three-game-losing-streak burn-down-the-team-and-piss-on-the-ashes meltdown mode. Fair or not, with such a razor-thin margin of error, Bylsma will be hard-pressed to find new ways to prove himself. According to the guy at the bar, everyone (except for him) loves Byslma. But in Pittsburgh, where the fans are as passionate as we are spoiled, nothing is guaranteed.
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