Thoughts on Tomas Vokoun a day after his signing with Pittsburgh
If Tomas Vokoun is so good, then why didn’t any contending teams trade for him in 2010-11 when he was available with Florida? Detroit was looking, Philly, yet no one went with Vokoun.
Vokoun has a reputation of speaking up against his own teammates when he thinks they’re not playing well in front of him
here and
here, for instance. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say when he sees the defense in Pittsburgh on a first-hand basis.
He has great numbers over the course of his 14-year NHL career, but how much of that is his own doing and how much of that is the defensive systems and philosophies from the organizations he’s played for? Surely Nashville and Florida installed defenses that were designed with a lesser offense playing in front of him.
How is Vokoun going to react when opponents get three odd-man breaks during the same Pittsburgh power play?
Signing for $2 million basically acknowledges that the Pens realize Marc-Andre Fleury needs help. To be blunt, the Flower pretty much wilted against Philadelphia.
Change is needed, but it remains to be seen whether signing a soon-to-be 36-year-old that has a history of fighting with coaches like Peter DeBoer heads the team in the right direction.
GM Ray Shero said that the move will help make Fleury a better player. That may be so, but signing a goalie for more than $600K or so also shows a certain amount of unhappiness with the team’s netminding performance in 2011-12.
It will be interesting to see how Fleury reacts to the move, not now so much, but when the bullets start flying in the regular season.
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Pens coach Dan Bylsma spoke on KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh on Monday night. Click
here. He talked about how the team was never comfortable tightening up defensively. Bylsma noted that the Pens could outscore teams, 6-4 or 8-4, without paying close attention to the defensive side of things – something that came back to bite them in the playoffs.
He also said that the penalty-killing unit lost confidence against the Flyers in Game 2.
One area that I wish the interviewer, Bob Pompeani, would have touched upon, was Bylsma’s usage of Fleury during the regular season. Shero had stated that he wanted Fleury to start in about 60 games but started in 64 contests and played in 67.
Even in the games Fleury didn’t get into, he had to wonder if he might be called upon, given the ineffectiveness of Brent Johnson and the inexperience of Brad Thiessen.
That said, Bylsma played Fleury sometimes when it didn’t seem necessary. He started Fleury four times in six days during one stretch in March and three times in four nights in February.
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Congratulations to Michel Therrien, the new head coach of the Montreal Canadiens. His press conference calling the Penguins defense “soft” makes for some of the finest theatre in sport. Here is the clip, in case you haven’t watched it recently. Click
here.
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"Penguins’ Crosby feels ‘great.’ Interested in NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement," the
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.
“I feel great,” he said. “This is really the first summer I’ve had in a couple of summers to get ready for next season. I’m excited. I’m ready to go.”
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Treasure Life!
JT
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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