Bob Smizik: Therrien is given lots of clout

Therrien's job is tough -- clean up the mess Patrick has made
Friday, December 16, 2005
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

If being fired is a sign of failure -- and that's a reasonable assumption -- then the Penguins have had five failed coaches in less than a decade. That's an alarming rate in any business and particularly so in pro sports.

These five coaches -- the latest being Eddie Olczyk, who was fired yesterday -- did not share much in common. Three were former NHL players, two were not. Two had previous NHL head-coaching experience, three did not. One learned the game in Europe, two in Canada and two in the United States. One had a winning record when he was fired, the other four did not.

But the one thing they had in common was that they were all put on the job by Craig Patrick. That's five consecutive failed coaches for Patrick. How many chances does a guy get?

Michel Therrien, appointed yesterday, might be the last chance for Patrick, whose contract expires at the end of the season. Of Patrick, it could rightly be asked: What have you done for us lately?

Patrick was the general manager of Stanley Cup champions in 1991 and 1992 and oversaw some very good to decent teams following that. More recently, the team has been mostly awful and hasn't been within sniffing distance of a winning season since 2000-01.

It's entirely possible Patrick got it right this time when he named Therrien, who had been coaching the team's top minor-league affiliate. The Penguins' franchise, often compared to a country club, might more resemble a prison under Therrien.

"He's very straightforward and blunt and hard," Patrick said. "He's a no-nonsense guy. You're going to do it his way or you're not going to play. From what I've seen this year, we definitely need that."

Therrien inherits a mess. He takes over a team that has won eight of 31 games, that has lost eight of its past nine, that has allowed more goals than any team in the NHL and one that also has become offensively deficient with only 11 goals in the past eight games. It's a team that failed to respond to its previous coach and one that is widely regarded as too old and too slow.
A large share of that mess rests with Patrick.

He's the man who hired Olczyk, although Olczyk had no previous pro coaching experience.
He's the man who signed NHL bust-of-the-year Sergei Gonchar to a five-year, $25 million contract.

He's the man who has had Marc-Andre Fleury, the team's best goalie, playing most of the season in the minors.

He's the man who left Olczyk unprotected this season with a coaching staff -- all of whom also were fired yesterday -- that was way too light on NHL experience.
He is the man who put together the roster that quit on Olczyk.

Patrick has been the Imperial General Manager for too long. He has the complete confidence of owner Mario Lemieux, who again yesterday absolved Patrick of any particular blame.
"It's not one guy," Lemieux said. "It's the whole organization. You can't blame the GM or the coach or the players. It's the organization as a whole.

But Patrick is the face of the organization. He hired the coach and signed the players. He determined the payroll and who made the team.

Some of the power might be ebbing away. Therrien looks to have more control than any coach since Bob Johnson.

Although Patrick would not talk about the length of Therrien's contract, the new coach said it was for three years. Which means he has more security than Patrick -- and possibly as much power.

It wasn't surprising that Patrick fired Olczyk. Considering how poorly the team was playing, something had to be done. But it was surprising that long-time loyalists like assistant coaches Joey Mullin and Randy Hillier were fired, and it was positively stunning that strength coach John Welday, who was in his 17th season with the club, was let go. Goaltender coach Shane Clifford, in his first season, also was fired.

These were moves made not by Patrick, who puts loyalty ahead of competence, but by Therrien, who wants his own people covering his back -- not Patrick's.

Therrien's highly regarded assistant, Mike Yeo, will join him, as will his goaltending and strength coach from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. It also was pretty clear Therrien will have major input into who else is hired.

Therrien has leverage with Patrick, something few, if any of his predecessors (other than interim coach Herb Brooks) had.

Therrien didn't need this job. He didn't come crawling. He was almost certain to get an NHL job by the start of next season based on his previous experience with the Montreal Canadiens, the high regard he has throughout the game and the outstanding job he has done with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

"He'll have a say in the other assistant coach, for sure," Patrick said. "He had definite ideas of what he wanted here and that had a lot to do with what changes were made."
Looks like someone else other than Patrick has some power in the day-to-day decisions of the organization. It's about time.

(Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com.)