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Olympics: Bylsma - worst coach of the Olympics?

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Everyone one here, minus Penguin fans, should just be thankful he is not the coach of their team. Us Pens fans are stuck with him because Shero will never fire his buddy. We are looking forward to more early exits and several more years of Brooks Orpik.
 
Ogrezilla said:
still only in the regular season though. You're right, he can get the best out of a team full of grinders. But a team full of grinders isn't good enough to win anything.
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A team full of mostly grinders was able to blow a 3-1 series lead under Bylsma in 2011.
 
Smoky Thompson said:
I noticed that last night. If I'm not mistaken, the USA had last change since they finished first place in the round robin. Yet Bylsma kept putting Kessel's line out vs Toews.

Toews is arguably the best defensive forward in the world, why would you consistently put your biggest offensive threat out vs him? Kessel was a complete non-factor vs team Canada.
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Bylsma actually wanted the Kessel/Toews matchup. He's a moron. His player assessment is also terrible. The guy plays Adams/Glass as a shutdown pair in the NHL.

In '09 he brought the right attitude to the Pen's dressing room and won the Cup with MT's team. Since then, after implementing his own systems, the Pens have become a very soft and very underwhelming in the games that count.

His Home Playoff Record since '09 is 10W-12L. Scotty Bowman said once, "you're never in trouble in the playoffs until you lose at home" and he's done a ton of it.

Great guy, not a winner when it counts.
 
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now everyone knows why pens fans are like w-t-f when you people say bylsma is so good
 
Yes.

The only smart thing he did was benching Dustin Brown at the end and even then... too little too late.

People talk about Canada and the wealth of talent and players etc when it comes to this. But the biggest thing they have that trumps the US and the thing I'm most jealous of is the coaches and management people. Literally every NHL coach that I can think of who is excellent and who I'd love to coach the national team, I look up and he's Canadian :cry:
 
As a Flyers fan, I know that if Philly meets the Pens in the playoffs they can win the matchup. A bunch of that is due to DB being on the other side.
 
Just to make clear, the Penguins firing Therrien and bringing in Bylsma was the right move in 2009. Therrien had worn-out his welcome and the players were sick of his dictatorial ways. Bylsma was like a breath of fresh air. He loosened their collars and allowed them some offensive freedom while the players still maintained the discipline they learned under Therrien. Since then though, the Penguins have underachieved and it's happened in embarrassing fashion.
 
Leidi J said:
Yes.

The only smart thing he did was benching Dustin Brown at the end and even then... too little too late.

People talk about Canada and the wealth of talent and players etc when it comes to this. But the biggest thing they have that trumps the US and the thing I'm most jealous of is the coaches and management people. Literally every NHL coach that I can think of who is excellent and who I'd love to coach the national team, I look up and he's Canadian :cry:
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Because Canadian fans haven't complained about Babcock, right?
 
Maybe strategically, but the coaching staff of Russia and the Czechs clearly had bigger problems than just pure coaching strategy.

He did not make any adjustments in the Canada game. It was clear after the 1st period that the USA style of carrying the puck into the zone and trying to make a north-south pass was not working.

They should have started playing NHL dump and chase hockey after the 1st period and grinded out the game. Lines also should have been shuffled as needed to support the new style of play.

Then again, the US loss to Canada partly is on the management not bringing 2-3 guys that could have matched up better against the more physical Canadians. Despite the loss to the Fins, the roster USA brought was built to beat the faster European teams, forgetting that they eventually would have to go through Canada to get the gold. Erik Johnson, just as an example, would have helped match up against the more physical Canadian forwards. Fowler and Shattenkirk, for as well as they played in the Olympics, were miss-matched as Canada came in waves.

On the flip side, the 5-0 shutout today, that is on him to a certain extent, but frankly I saw this coming after the loss yesterday. It was gold or nothing for USA. I am a little disappointed in the guys for not trying harder for the bronze, and it is on the coaches to make sure the guys are ready after the letdown, but it happens when you build for perfection.
 
Bylsma cant adapt. He played a run-n-gun style against teams with equal defence or less. So he ran through the teams with less defensive talent, like the penquins do. But when faced with a real team with depth. Boston. What happens? Bylsma cannot play the hand he is dealt and was out coached.

And starting quick two days in a row was dumb.

Team USA looked bad because they're frustrated. They were being locked down and had no strategy from their coach. No strategy and no confidence and it showed in the last two games. It was a great run, but please next time, no Bylsma.
 
nhindian said:
Because Canadian fans haven't complained about Babcock, right?
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Babcock is amazing. Canadian fans are spoiled and will complain about anything lol. I wish we had Babcock and I said it even in the earlier rounds when Canada 'couldn't score' etc etc. just purely looking at the decisions made between the two.
 
PricePkPatch said:
Was that the American team who was all-star during the Round Robins?

The american team who was also the only team whose offense wasn't experiencing problems?
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That might have something to do with them not facing a single good defensive team. (or a team totally committed to defense like those Latvian, Swiss or even Norwegian teams)
In fact, they even had trouble creating much against team Russia.
 
Leidi J said:
Babcock is amazing. Canadian fans are spoiled and will complain about anything lol. I wish we had Babcock.
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Babcock took a team in transition with a young defense to two 7 game playoff series back-back and almost beat the champs. That's coaching.
 
Let's not exaggerate things. The worst coach was either the Russian coach (sending out the same four 5 man units or needing Malkin to tell him to pull out their goalie to add an extra attacker or throwing your star player under a bus) or the Czech coach (taking his son-in-law over better NHL players, not using his NHL goalie in the first game etc).

Bylsma is generally a good coach but with certain reoccurring weaknesses that unfortunately was made glaringly obvious in this tournament. He lacks the ability to adapt mid-game and instead stubbornly stick to the game plan even when it isn't working. He also occasionally makes boneheaded choices either from loyalty to veterans/grinders or just brain-freeze/lack of instinct. One memorable moment this season was when he called a time-out when the Pens were given a PP but Crosby waved it off (the Pens then promptly scored). He is still a young coach and I hope this experience will bring about some improvement in his coaching ability (because the Pens are still stuck with him for another 2 years).

That said, I would lay the blame of today's rout on the entire team. The semi-final against Canada kind of emotionally broke them and the Finns just finished the job.
 
flaneur said:
Let's not exaggerate things. The worst coach was either the Russian coach (sending out the same four 5 man units or needing Malkin to tell him to pull out their goalie to add an extra attacker or throwing your star player under a bus) or the Czech coach (taking his son-in-law over better NHL players, not using his NHL goalie in the first game etc).

Bylsma is generally a good coach but with certain reoccurring weaknesses that unfortunately was made glaringly obvious in this tournament. He lacks the ability to adapt mid-game and instead stubbornly stick to the game plan even when it isn't working. He also occasionally makes boneheaded choices either from loyalty to veterans/grinders or just brain-freeze/lack of instinct. One memorable moment this season was when he called a time-out when the Pens were given a PP but Crosby waved it off (the Pens then promptly scored). He is still a young coach and I hope this experience will bring about some improvement in his coaching ability (because the Pens are still stuck with him for another 2 years).

That said, I would lay the blame of today's rout on the entire team. The semi-final against Canada kind of emotionally broke them and the Finns just finished the job.
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FYI, Therrien was signed to a contract extension in July of 2008. He was fired in February 2009. Contract extensions don't equate to job security in the NHL.
 
KevyD said:
He did the best he could with the talent he had.
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Not really IMO, but the talent he was given is an entirely other discussion and yes, it did limit the teams ability to find success against the better teams of the tournament they played (Russia, Finland, Canada). Someone with a more open style (Lavi, York from BC) would have been a much more logical choice though, and likely would have been better able to exploit the speed the US has in those matchups.

The Russian and Czech coaches were worse though... and arguably so was their selection process.
 
Russian coach by a mile, even if the USA was having difficulty against them, the Russian coach basically cost them any chance in succeeding.
 
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