The revolving door that is the Penguins Head Coach position has deposited Michel Therrien on the street, two and a half years after replacing Eddie Olczyk. Therrien was rewarded with a three year contract extension worth $3 million after coaching the Penguins to the Stanley Cup Finals last season. This season has been a disappointment to say the least and since about the middle of January his job has been on life support.
Therrien accomplished some good things while he was behind the bench. Success eluded the team after the Olczyk fiasco. New coach Therrien could not help salvage the season and lead them to the playoffs. He became famous that season for his "soff" post-game rant. Therrien's broken English rants were very entertaining, especially because he seemingly could not grasp the idea of the plural tense. My favorite quote was: "A lot of guy don't care. Dey say dey care, but dey don't care."
In 2006-07, he coached the Penguins to their first playoff birth since the 2000-01 season. Although the Pens were bounced out of the series by the Ottawa Senators in five games, one could get the feeling that the Penguins' fortunes were about to change. During the most recent season, 2007-08, Therrien coached the Penguins to their sixth division title, the Eastern Conference championship and two games from winning the Stanley Cup.
He was not without his faults, however. He was a tough, demanding coach. Coaches like that are good for a young, undisciplined team like the Penguins under Olczyk. After a while, though, they tend to burn out their players and the message gets lost. These types of coaches also tend to not last long at their posts. Scotty Bowman was a tough coach who was hated by a lot of his players. The biggest difference is that Bowman has the Stanley Cup rings to backup his demands, Therrien doesn't.
He had a tendency to publicly call out and criticize players, such as dressing defencemen Ryan Whitney and Brooks Orpik as wingers when their performance dipped last season. Other strange personnel decisions included playing promising young defenseman Alex Goligoski as a winger for a few games, supposedly benching winger Miroslav Satan and then playing him so he could play his 1,000th game and letting slumping back-up goalie Dany Sabourin play on the father's trip just because his dad was there to watch. His decision to put Max Talbot out as the sixth man in game five of the finals last year was gold, though, as Talbot scored the tying goal and sent the game to overtime which the Penguins eventually won.
Therrien also seemed to get flustered when his system wasn't working and it was like he didn't know what to do to fix it. He would thrown together line combinations like he was picking out of a hat and the players were guaranteed to find new linemates almost every shift. His only real trick when he needed offense was to pair Malkin and Crosby on the same line. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.
All in all, he was a good coach. He was exactly what the team needed after the disaster that was Eddie Olczyk. He brought the discipline that was missing and was rewarded by two good seasons of hockey and almost won a Stanley Cup. The saddest part is his firing. If the players quit on him and purposely lost to get him fired, they should be held accountable. Winning and losing is 50% coaching and 50% playing. The players are just as responsible, if not more, for the disappointing season this year. So, good luck to you in the future, Michel.
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