The Pittsburgh Penguins, through some fault of Therrien, some fault of the players and some fault of management, are five points back in the race for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot, and after a loss to the enigmatic Toronto Maple Leafs over the weekend, general manager Ray Shero decided enough was enough, and it was time for a change.
For now, it's up to Dan Bylsma to squeeze some wins out of one of the more talented young nuclei in the NHL, and to do it, he's going to exploit the "speed and skill" of the team, according to the Post-Gazette. He continued in saying, "We need to force teams to deal with the quality of players we have at every position."
As Sean Allen noted in Sunday's blog entry, the Penguins haven't really been getting any production out of their skaters not named Evgeni Malkin or Sidney Crosby. One argument against the recently ousted Therrien was that he was a disciplinarian who wanted everyone on the team to be responsible for tight play in the defensive zone, and this could have led to a decrease in offensive output by some of the second level offensive players on the team. Speaking on a conference call, Bylsma told the Associated Press that, "We need to be an aggressive group, and get focused on playing back to our strengths." Hopefully this means that the team will begin to open up and make the most of every offensive opportunity.
After Malkin's 82 points and Crosby's 71, there is a precipitous drop to Petr Sykora, who is next on the team with 40 points. The team will look to Sykora, as well as this season's free-agent acquisitions Miroslav Satan (32 points) and Ruslan Fedotenko (21 points), to begin to pick up the scoring slack. The Penguins' power play unit has been especially poor this season, converting on just 16.1 percent of its opportunities, which ranks 24th in the league, compared to last season when the Penguins were the league's fourth-best team, converting at a 20.4 percent rate with the man advantage.
It's common for a team to have a small bump in its offensive production after a coach is fired, but this will be especially true for the Penguins, who have been under the tight control of Therrien this season. As the play opens up, the scoring will increase, and players who might've had borderline relevance in fantasy will become trusted components for the remainder of 2008-09. While Sykora, Satan and Fedotenko should be beneficiaries of this, the player with the most potential for a turnaround is Jordan Staal. Staal was a game-breaker in his rookie campaign, notching seven short-handed goals, but had just 28 points in 2007-08, and 31 points through 57 games this season. With an increased focus on "speed and skill", Staal will be able to generate more opportunities and this will lead to his name being more of a regular addition to the score sheet.
Bylsma's first game behind the bench will be against the New York Islanders on Monday, so it might be difficult to glean much information from a matchup against the squad surrendering the third-most goals per game in the league. However, the team will square off against the Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals in the weeks ahead, and these games should give us an idea of which direction this team is headed.
Ice Chips
Arguably one of the most exciting regular-season games in recent memory, the San Jose Sharks and New Jersey Devils scored 11 goals combined in their tilt at the Rock on Sunday afternoon. Fantasy stars Patrick Marleau, Devin Setoguchi, Rob Blake and Joe Pavelski each scored for the Sharks, as did Jonathan Cheechoo, whose second period goal was his first point in nine games. Absentee owners must make up the majority of his 84.7 percent ownership in ESPN leagues, there's simply no other explanation. … For the Devils, Brendan Shanahan was scratched from the lineup due to a bruised foot, but "Shanahan Jr.," David Clarkson came through with the game-winning power play goal on a deflection, while spending the majority of the game in Shanahan's place on the John Madden-Brian Rolston line. Although he still gets some work on the power play, Clarkson's stock took a hit when he was bumped by Shanahan down to the fourth line with Mike Rupp and Bobby Holik. Unless a more serious injury befalls Shanahan this season, we'll have to wait until 2009-10 to see if Clarkson can become a legit fantasy force as a power forward. Clarkson also had an earlier goal in the game, and was joined on the score sheet by Jamie Langenbrunner, Patrik Elias, Brian Gionta and Rolston. … Henrik Lundqvist was chased from the New York Rangers' nationally-televised game against the Philadelphia Flyers during the second period after allowing four goals on 14 shots, while Martin Biron made 35 saves to earn his second-straight victory, starting in place of the flu-ridden Antero Niittymaki. Don't be fooled by these past two games, however, since Biron gave up 17 goals in the five games prior to this mini-streak. … Ilya Kovalchuk and Alexander Ovechkin both played the part of the mad hatter on Sunday, each notching three goals to lead their teams to victory. For Kovalchuk's Atlanta Thrashers, Brian Little had a goal and an assist for his first points in nearly a month and Kari Lehtonen grabbed a rare win despite allowing four goals to the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks' offense began and ended with the Bobby Ryan-Teemu Selanne-Andrew Ebbett line, as the trio was responsible for all four goals. Ebbett is a must-have if this line sticks together, and is universally available. … As for Ovechkin, his third goal of the Washington Capitals' win over the Florida Panthers does have an asterisk: it was an empty-netter. However, empty-net goals still count just the same in fantasy, so we'll take it. While Ovechkin had no trouble solving Tomas Vokoun, Mike Green saw his record-breaking eight-game goal-scoring streak come to a close and, in fact, was held entirely pointless. Obviously there's no need to worry, Green will continue to dominate the offensive categories for the rest of the season. … The Buffalo Sabres were likely emotionally drained after Friday's heavy-hearted 6-5 win against the Sharks, and they were shut out on 36 shots by Cam Ward. Look for a rebound against the Maple Leafs on Tuesday before they face the Flyers and Rangers in tough contests later this week. … Daniel Cleary had two power play goals as the Detroit Red Wings fell to the Colorado Avalanche. While Cleary will provide some occasional scoring punch, don't expect too many more points from him on the power play. The two goals on Sunday run his season total to three. … Playing in his second game on the Vancouver Canucks' top line with Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin, Alexandre Burrows had two assists. As I mentioned in Friday's blog entry, Burrows will be a fantasy goldmine if he sticks with the Sedins, so feel free to pick him up now. … After a stretch in which he gave up 21 goals in six games, Roberto Luongo had a steady two-goal against performance for the 'nucks. While Luongo usually carries a fantasy team's ratio categories, he's been brutalizing his owners lately. Hopefully this signifies a reversal of that trend.
Tim Kavanagh is a fantasy hockey analyst for ESPN.com.
