3 Ways Change Can Improve Penguins; From Coaches, Fans, to Defense
The words of Pierre Luc Dubois on TSN Radio echoed loudly, even if they were merely intended as compliments to the Washington Capitals, and the Pittsburgh Penguins should take note.
The Penguins’ change behind the bench might have more of an effect than anticipated.
Dubois noted the welcoming he received, the camaraderie he felt, and the support he felt from Washington coaches upon his acquisition from the LA Kings. It was a daring trade that Washington executed, snagging a center in the early years of an eight-year contract who had all but quickly washed out in LA, causing many to speculate he could be bought out just one year into the deal.
“First of all, the players here from Day 1 welcomed me like a brother. And then the coaching staff after that–from the head coach to the assistants–even the GM, president, everybody,” Dubois told TSN radio.
Last season, Washington was embarking on a rebuild. Nick Backstrom had already stepped away, and T.J. Oshie was only an official announcement away from doing the same. They were no longer viewed as one of the lions of the Metro Division.
And yet, Washington roared like it was the heyday of the Penguins-Capitals rivalry.
The Penguins are about to embark upon their own version of a retooling. No, general manager Kyle Dubas has not made an audacious swap, nor has he gambled on any free agents, unless you count signing Philip Tomasino to a contract that slightly exceeds the maximum amount they can stash in the AHL. But it will be a season of change nonetheless.
Coaches & Atmosphere
The first change that might bear fruit is the Penguins’ coaching staff.
Just as Washington coach Spencer Carberry created an inviting and conducive atmosphere to improve in Washington, so, too, can new Penguins coach Dan Muse.
The lack of improvement in the second-chance players and prospects ultimately rests upon the players themselves, but it is not a positive mark on former coach Mike Sullivan, either.
Let’s be blunt, the Penguins’ entire situation was still built on the championship core, including the coach. While Sidney Crosby might be one of the best captains to wear the C, and was known for going out of his way to welcome new people into the room, the overarching situation still more closely resembled a closed society of demand and expectation.
In other words, pressure.
Pulling back the curtain on Muse and assistants Todd Nelson and Mike Stothers, there are similarities in their style, notably their demeanors, that should remove some of the negative pressures, fostering more confidence, just as they did for Dubois.
PHN has written about each coach individually, but not the group. There was an immediate air of not only enthusiasm with the new assistants, but also an engaged caring. Stothers accepted the job on the same phone call in which it was offered and had media and team personnel laughing as he told stories and quickly connected with people in his first media availability.
Nelson was renowned for creating a family atmosphere with the AHL’s Hershey Bears, who won a pair of Calder Cups under Nelson. When we first wrote about him as a potential candidate for the head coach position, multiple Bears’ personnel reached out to us to sing his praises as a coach, but primarily as a human being.
That type of gregarious pursuit of connecting with the audience was also quickly obvious when he spoke to the media.
We will see how everyone reacts if losses pile up and when adversity slams against the Penguins’ hull like a hurricane, but the intensity and dourness of the previous regime have been replaced by eagerness and a bit of warmth.
That seems more conducive to the growth of graduating prospects and players fighting to make an NHL career.
2. De-Fense! Ryan Graves
Regardless of the coach’s demeanor, the Pittsburgh Penguins can improve their lot in life with better defensive play.
The Penguins’ blue line wasn’t just porous last season, it was occasionally jaw-droppingly terrible. Bewilderingly bad.
One player who will have a chance to resurrect his career, which crashed with the Penguins, is defenseman Ryan Graves. Dubas quickly lavished a six-year deal on the big D-man as the heir apparent to Brian Dumoulin as the stay-at-home counterbalance to Kris Letang’s occasionally risky offensive attack.
Instead, it became Graves who was the great risk. While Dubas brusquely dismissed the idea that the Penguins’ system was the cause of Graves’s slide, it surely didn’t help.
Trading Graves is almost an impossibility as he has four years remaining on his contract with a $4.5 million average annual value, so affixing a mere second-rounder won’t cut it.
No, the only real course of action is resuscitating Graves’s play.
With a new coach, a new system, and a new environment, it’s now or never for Graves, who could become a mainstay on the Penguins’ blue line or an expensive member of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
3. Fans
Ask any Penguins fan who is over 40 about the Student Rush programs of the early 2000s and watch them smile. It was a marketing and ticket gimmick that was every bit the equal of The Boys of Winter campaign of the early 1980s.
The players on the rebuilding team sometimes handed out slices of pizza to the couple of thousand students who lined up before each game to buy unused tickets for $15 or $20. The crowds were raucous, fun, and gave a damn about being there.
Those tickets and those fans became a thing.
The Penguins lost most of those games, but that was merely a footnote to building something larger. Those fans knew it. The team knew it. And it was a golden moment that existed beyond the reflected glory of any championships.
Eventually winning and Stanley Cup parades turned those cheap tickets into overpriced vinyl-clad tombs for hand-sitters who arrived late, left early, and generally displayed the same enthusiasm for the game as being sucked into seeing someone’s vacation selfies.
The pinnacle of that new fanbase, the youthful fans who revived the game culture from quietly waiting for Mario Lemieux or Jaromir Jagr to score an amazing goal to actively participating, was the 2008 Stanley Cup Final. Fans poured years of their passion into that somewhat unexpected playoff run, and the old Civic Arena actively shook for minutes at a time, even during commercial TV timeouts.
Media colleagues from Toronto who were seated beside me turned toward me, their words overwhelmed by the noise, to show the goosebumps. Yeah, even some Toronto media were in awe of the ferocity of Penguins fans.
Now, many of those same people have aged out or been priced out, and it’s up to you, the next generation of Penguins fans, to lift up the fanbase.
Create a culture beyond waiting for Sidney Crosby to do something, beyond racing to social media to join the latest pile-on.
Like the players, fans can embrace the opportunity of change. Create your culture. And for gosh sakes, stick around for the end.
Categorized:Pittsburgh Penguins
The Boys of Winter, watch them grow.
How about adding seniors in with the student rush?
All 3 ways are conducive to winning…
That coaching change will be a BIG PLUS!!!
Priced out…yep. And the rave/club atmosphere is hard to take, which isn’t unique to PPG.
Nobody talks about the main benefit that Washington team got to really help their rebuild – the LTIR status of the high money, aging stars. That team can’t make the moves it made without that money. Every guy on the team had a career year last year, and that’s not going to happen again. In for a big regression.
New coach should really help. Priced out of going to more than 2 or 3 games for sure.