‘Don’t Overthink It’: Muse Brings a Fresh Air, Nelson Explains Power Play Strategy

There is a different feel and vastly different atmosphere surrounding the new Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Muse and his assistant coaches.

Former Hershey Bears coach Todd Nelson felt welcomed and had an instant connection with staff and management. Nick Bonino had not so jokingly been told that if Muse ever got a head job, Bonino would get a call. Andy Chiodo won the job as the Pittsburgh Penguins’ new goaltending coach, replacing himself after he was let go in April as part of the coaching staff purge following the Penguins’ third straight disappointing season.

In a departure from years past, the Penguins’ head coach addressed the media during the Penguins Development Camp, and assistant coaches were also allowed to speak. Such has not been the case around the Penguins for nearly a decade.

Welcome to the fresh winds of the Penguins’ rebuild.

First, we got some clarity on the staff duties.

“Todd Nelson will be working with the forwards, along with Nick Bonino. And then Mike Stothers will be with the D, and he’ll be working the penalty kill,” Muse said. “Bonino will also help with the penalty kill. Rich Clune will be eyeing the sky, so he won’t be on the bench during games, but Rich is going to be involved in a lot of different things. I can tell right away from working with him, he’s going to somebody who can bring a lot of ideas to a lot of different parts of the game.”

Muse, 42, was one of the youngest candidates interviewed for the job. He’s just a couple of years older than Mitch Love, who was the hot name on the interview circuit. Without decades of experience at the NHL level, Muse did not arrive with a shirtpocket list of coaches the organization had to hire.

No, Muse and general manager Kyle Dubas set about building the coaching staff in a collaborative process with Dubas.

“We were working together throughout the entire process. I think whether it was a name that maybe came to me or a name that came to him, we were communicating on all that, along with Jason Spezza as well, and that was great,” Muse said. “You know, I didn’t come into the job saying this is the group … And so that probably made it for a little bit of a longer process, but I actually thought it was really good. I got to speak with a lot of great coaches, any one would have been great behind an NHL bench.”

The people on the inside have used the word collaborative a lot lately. The coaches are collaborating on a theme and message for this coming season. They are collaborating on styles and tactics in each facet of the game.

Swept away are dictatorial edicts from the head coach to assistants.

“I was blown away by the conversations (with Nelson and Stothers). Just how impactful they’ve been on both the teams that they have worked for in the past, but also the relationships, and the way they’ve been able to help players continue to grow in pro hockey,” said Muse. “I feel, we feel strongly that there’s gonna be a lot of benefits that they’ll be able to bring to the back end … this is going to be a collaborative group. This isn’t gonna be independent contractors working in different parts of the building.”

Chiodo was the most surprising hire of the new staff, perhaps even more so than plucking Bonino from the final days of his playing career in the Austrian league. There could be no questioning that Penguins starting goalie Tristan Jarry struggled mightily last season, even spending a month in the AHL after clearing waivers, and anticipated prospect Joel Blomqvist did not meet expectations when his big chance came in Jarry’s absence.

However, Chiodo could also claim successes during his tenure, including Alex Nedeljkovic, who resurrected his career with the Penguins. Louis “Spicy Broccoli” Domingue also had a career rebound with Chiodo.

It was not a forgone conclusion that Chiodo would return, and Muse indicated he got in line with everyone else for the job.

“He went through the process, too. This wasn’t me being here and saying, ‘this is convenient to keep somebody on board.’ Obviously, these hires are important, and making sure that the group that we have here is the right fit for these players and the organization, and also for the staff, for the way that we wanted to work together,” Muse said. “And so we went through a process with (Chiodo). I met with him for a long time. I spoke with other candidates, and he earned the job.”

Todd Nelson

Nelson implied that he did not interview for the Penguins’ head coaching position, though the unfolding events confirmed the substance of PHN’s report in May that the Penguins management “liked” Nelson. However, as he returned from Dallas, where he interviewed for that head coach opening, the Washington Capitals informed him the Penguins had also asked for permission to speak with him about the assistant coach positions.

The 56-year-old coach was immediately engaging and affable in his small press setting held inside the Penguins locker room at the UPMC Lemieux Complex Friday. Like Muse minutes before him, he posted up at the spot in front of the room, just as Mike Sullivan had done for nearly 10 years.

Nelson confirmed he needs to add a second pig to his annual pig roast that he holds for players and team personnel. He joked about signing hockey cards–he played one game for the Penguins in 1992, and Topps made a rookie card. Apparently, there are some in circulation, and Penguins fans are finding them to get his autograph.

Nelson was easy-going and genuine in his media time. It was the same fresh air that Muse brought into the room. They are coaches unencumbered by past successes, failures, and public criticisms. They are justifiably hopeful for the future, but aware that their performance this season is about helping a myriad of players find their best games, and not about the Stanley Cup.

Nelson has coached in the NHL before, and was the Edmonton Oilers’ interim head coach in 2014-15, the campaign that led to the first overall draft selection and Connor McDavid. However, Nelson didn’t get to stick around and has coached primarily in the AHL since.

He was in good standing with one of the premier AHL franchises, well-liked by the Hershey organization, and quite successful, too. Hershey won back-to-back Calder Cups in 2023 and 2024.

So, why now and why choose the Penguins to come back to the NHL?

“That’s a great question because I never expected this. I think two and a half weeks ago I was in Dallas, and all of a sudden I got a phone call from the Caps and they said, ‘Pittsburgh has asked him for permission, do you want to talk with them?’ I said, yeah, I’ll kick some tires and see what happens,” Nelson recounted. “So then Dan called me up about two hours after he got permission. And you know, we talked and we hit it off. We had a good conversation, and in the back of my mind, I’m thinking, ‘Well. I’m still going to go back to Hershey.’

“I really enjoy being a head coach. And we talked, and then he called me the day after that. We talked again and had another really good conversation. Then two days later, they said, ‘Well, do you want to come in here and meet everybody in the organization?’ And that’s what I did. And as the day grew on, just talking with Dan and Kyle, it just felt more intriguing to me … I talked to my wife about it, and, like, I spent quite a few years in the American League. I had my degree of success there, and I was up for the challenge of something new.”

Nelson will run the forwards and the power play when the season starts, and get an assist from Bonino on both. It was specifically the power play that Nelson’s words might resonate with Penguins fans.

The power play has been a rollercoaster of success and failure over the past several seasons, including the equivalent of a hockey faceplant in 2023-24 when it was below 16% before rebounding to nearly 26% last season. The new assistant coach seemed impressed with last season’s effort, and touched on one thing that previous coaches have struggled with: personnel.

Do not expect to see the star players dominate the first power-play unit anymore. The days of the five best players soaking up the full two minutes are probably over.

“Don’t overthink the power play,” Nelson began.

“I think the biggest thing is just working together, getting pucks to the net. Attack the net. Make sure that when you shoot the puck, you have to retrieve it in those loose puck battles. Come with speed off the breakout, and just everybody working together,” said Nelson. “That’s the biggest thing is trying to find the personnel that work well with each other because you’re dealing with high-end skill. You’re dealing with guys who are all very proud hockey players, and sometimes it might look good on paper, but it doesn’t really mesh well on the ice. So that’s something that we’ll talk about as a group and figure out moving forward.”

It was just one day, but the contrasts between the new and the old were so dramatic that it was hard not to root for the new coaches to succeed. More importantly, the rank-and-file players will likely find their interactions and directives quite different, too.

It’s a new day with the Penguins set against the fitting backdrop of Development Camp, filled with 13 new prospects and a few others who are hoping to make the jump to the NHL this season.

For many in Cranberry, Friday brought a little hope and a little fresh air. And, don’t overthink it.