Bob Smizik: Therrien preaching new gospel to Penguins

New coach sees bright future for team
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Used to be when the Penguins practiced at the Island Sports Center they would leave their homes, drive their vehicles to the complex at Neville Island, dress for practice, practice, change back into their street clothes and drive home.

Not anymore.

This week when the Penguins practice at Neville Island, they drive their vehicles to Mellon Arena, where they dress, board a bus for the Island Sports Center, practice, get back on the bus for a ride back to Mellon Arena, then participate in off-ice conditioning, then change back into their street clothes, then drive home.

There's a new sheriff at Mellon Arena, and he doesn't buy into the country-club atmosphere that has prevailed for too long with this franchise.

Coach Michel Therrien is 0-2 since succeeding Eddie Olczyk last week, but his distinct style is inspiring hope in what is an otherwise awful season. Therrien preaches discipline and hard work, which are new-age ideas for the Penguins. He brings a calm presence that the franchise badly needs. His strong personality is reassuring to an organization that has jumped from coach to coach without ever believing in any of them.

Therrien brings a gospel that inspires belief.

A recently as a week ago the Penguins thought they had a system with structure along with discipline and conditioning. Once Therrien took over, they learned they had none of that.

Step by step, game by game, Therrien is attempting to remold a mind-set -- that starts at the top of the organization -- which believes that offensive talent is all that's needed to succeed in the NHL. As the current edition of the Penguins, a roster filled with impressive offensive resumes, has discovered, that doesn't work anymore and hasn't for some time.

General manager Craig Patrick insisted that the system being used by the Penguins was the same one employed by the team's top minor-league affiliate at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, where Therrien was the coach until last week. Thirty minutes into Therrien's first practice it was pretty clear what he was teaching was not what Olczyk had been teaching.

There was little Therrien could do taking over one day before a home-and-home series with the streaking Buffalo Sabres. The Penguins lost both games, but it gave Therrien a chance to see what he had and a chance for all the players to see their new coach in game circumstances.

When the Sabres took a 2-0 lead only seven minutes into the second game between the teams, Therrien called a time out and delivered a profanity-laced tirade that got his team's attention. The Penguins outscored the Sabres, 3-2, the rest of the way but lost, 4-3.

Olczyk, a first-class guy who had no previous professional coaching experience, treated his players like men, and they responded by not responding to his motivation. Therrien won't accept that and will resort to whatever level of treatment is necessary to obtain results.

"Why did I call a timeout?" Therrien said in his office at Mellon Arena yesterday. "Because concentration was not there and our work ethic was not there. I'm never going to accept that."

There is no mystique about Therrien's system, and he makes no attempt to portray himself as some kind of innovative genius.

"A lot of team use this system," he said. "It's not new. I'm not the guy who invented the game."
Then he spoke of what sets him apart.

"I like to pay attention to details. I'm really strict about where we're supposed to play. I know when a team plays all together inside the structure, that's a tool a hockey team can use to win some games.

"That's all I can do. I can put a system in place, I can bring some structure to the hockey team. I can bring conditioning. But the players still have to play."

He asks a lot of his players, but not more than they can give.

"I don't demand a guy scores two goals or three goals," he said. "What I'm demanding is that if you have a dollar in your pocket, I'm expecting that you give me one dollar. If all you have is 50 cents, bring me your 50 cents, and you'll be fine."

Therrien didn't have to jump at the opportunity to coach the Penguins and probably didn't. He had to know another NHL team would come along shortly for someone with his resume, which includes coaching the Montreal Canadiens. But he took the job -- after leveraging enough power that he was able to bring assistant Mike Yeo and strength coach Stephane Dube, both highly regarded, to help with this massive turnaround -- with high hopes.

What attracted him was not just the chance to get back in the NHL but what he had been watching at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
"I know this team," he said. "I know the young players. We've got a bright future, and I want to be part of it."

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