Though some were holding out hope that Petr Sykora might be able to stay on board with the Penguins in some capacity, it does appear that he is officially done with the team. Especially based on his comments to the AHA daily Czech newspaper.
Tomas Jandik, who regularly translates Czech and Russian articles and interviews over at www.letsgopens.com, posted his latest today and it is quite telling. In the interview Sykora seems to be harboring a good bit of resentment towards Penguins head coach, Dan Bylsma. He also says that his time in Pittsburgh is over for the second time in a month.
No. My agent talked to the management, and I won’t be back. When the coach does not want Sykora, nothing can be done.
Incredibly. I think I had two excellent years there, scored 59 goals, and persuaded the previous coach Therrien about my qualities. But this is business, nobody cares about feelings. I’m pissed off; but on the other hand, it gives me more fuel to prove they had made a mistake.
Sykora went on to show his true feelings towards the coach that benched him for most of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
It’s never a good thing when you are coached by a former teammate. On top of that, he used to be a player who drifted around as a fourth-liner. I was younger than him, played on the top line, scored goals, was the little star. Now the roles got reversed, and from the first moment I had a feeling that he let me ‘eat it.’ I honestly say that I have not had liked him even as a teammate. Which does not happen to me often…
Though Sykora had great chemistry with Evgeni Malkin over his time in Pittsburgh, it is worth noting that his play did significantly tail off. In fact, he scored only 10 points in his last 36 games as a Penguin. He was knocked off of the top two lines and off of the number one power play unit, two areas that he needs to be a part of to be successful.
Sykora has also proven that he isn’t very effective in a checking role, which has seemingly ended his time in Pittsburgh.
It will be interesting to see how the team deals with losing a player that scored 59 goals over the past two seasons. Especially now that they seemingly have a need for a second line winger, at least until Max Talbot recovers from his labrum surgery.
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