The Penguins and Flyers will clash tonight at home for the last time this regular season in Pittsburgh. They have one more regular season game in Philadelphia on March 25th. They may have at least four more games this spring. Right now the Flyers are the most probable opponent for the Penguins
These probabilities will change quite a bit given how many games are left, but 38% is significant this early to be considered a potential matchup. Here’s to hoping whatever goalie is in net for Pittsburgh does better than the 83.4% save percentage from the last time these two teams met in the playoffs.
Today was an optional skate so there weren’t any line rushes. I wouldn’t expect any drastic changes to the lineup. Tristan Jarry is the likely starter.
In other news Sidney Crosby was voted most difficult player to play against and best role model among other things
Sidney Crosby is still much respected around the league. He placed first in a number of categories. Former Penguin Ryan Reaves was voted the toughest in the league. Best forward of all-time was won by Wayne Gretzky, which we know is wrong, all you have to do is watch 99's Youtube highlights and compare it to Mario. The next three in order? That Mario Lemieux guy , Sidney Crosby, and Jaromir Jagr. Player that you would most want to be teammates with was Gretzky, Crosby, Lemieux as the top three.
Speaking of Sid his former coach was doing just that. Dan Bylsma had some interesting things to say about him.
He said that Sidney Crosby wasn’t the most talented player in the league. This is a sound byte that is going to get some play. The thing is I don’t disagree. The sum of Sidney Crosby’s parts are what make him the best. His natural skill is among the best in the game. Where he leaves the others in the dust is his commitment to the sport. He is always looking to improve. He’s a robot. When I think of most talented I’m thinking more about puck skills and IQ than I am the strength stuff.
Dan Bylsma also said that the plus-minus stat has value *Ron Howard voice* It doesn’t. This only makes him look dated and foolish.
This interview sparked some conversations about Dan Bylsma’s ability as a head coach in the league and I also have some thoughts about his tenure with the Penguins. He wasn’t a great coach and he wasn’t an awful coach. He was an average coach with generational players in their prime. He replaced a horrendous coach and by default the team was much improved. Some of the criticisms of Bylsma are 100% valid especially his player usage during the end of his run in Pittsburgh. The Craig Adams and Tanner Glass stuff was laughably bad. That said, the underachieving label is overblown. There were legitimate injury issues that needed to be navigated that included some of Pittsburgh’s best players. They never once were in danger of missing the playoffs. The times that they were healthy Marc-Andre Fleury did his best to submarine the team in the playoffs. After the 2009 Stanley Cup win the Penguins only won three playoff series, two of those came when Fleury was finally replaced by Tomas Vokoun. From 2010-14 Fleury had a 5v5 playoff save percentage of 90.9 and all situations was 89.1%. Absolutely brutal. Yes, included 2014 against the Rangers because five of the seven games of that series he failed to eclipse the .900 barrier in a single game with the other two being shutouts. Mike Sullivan isn’t coaching the team to playoff wins with goaltending like that.
Dan Bylsma wasn’t great. He wasn’t awful. He was the beneficiary of generational players. He was the victim of horrible playoff goaltending and injuries. He and Ray Shero can share the blame for the awful depth choices in the later years.
Thanks for reading!
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