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Joe Starkey
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
You might not agree with everything Penguins coach Michel Therrien does - I certainly don't - but you better believe this:
He is closer to being the NHL's Coach of the Year than he is to the firing line.
In a way, it's understandable that people wonder about Therrien's job security seemingly every time the Penguins have a bad shift. There is no getting around the fact he was forced upon new general manager Ray Shero, just as Shero, Therrien and everyone else in the Penguins organization soon will be thrust upon new owner Jim Balsillie (and he upon them).
When you weren't hired by the guy in charge, you're in a tenuous situation.
But unless this team disintegrates - and that seems unlikely for a club that was strong-willed enough and well-coached enough to erase a 4-0 deficit and win at Washington two nights ago - all questions related to Therrien's job status should cease.
Fact is, the Penguins (13-11-5) are on pace to finish with 88 points, 30 more than last season. They stormed back against Washington largely because Therrien, seeing that Evgeni Malkin was on the ice for three of Washington's first four goals, revamped his lineup. He moved defensive-minded Jordan Staal into Malkin's spot on the second line and put Malkin with Sidney Crosby and Ryan Malone.
About an hour later, the Penguins scored one of the more dramatic victories in recent franchise history on Malkin's mind-bending shootout goal.
It wasn't Therrien's only well-timed move of the trip. He also inserted breakaway specialist Erik Christensen into the leadoff spot in the shootout Monday and had a productive heart-to-heart talk with Malkin on Friday in Atlanta.
OK, "talk" might be stretching it. Therrien is a French-Canadian who speaks splintered English. Malkin is a Russian who speaks almost none. The two might have trouble saying hello without a serious misunderstanding, so Therrien used a league stat sheet to illustrate his point. He directed Malkin's attention to the scoring leaders. There are 30 listed on the daily report.
"I said, 'Where's your name?' " Therrien recalled Tuesday after practice at Mellon Arena. "I said, 'I want you to be in the top 15. Find a way to get there.' We shook hands. He left. He was a dominant player that night."
The move easily could have backfired, but Therrien handled it perfectly. He saw how Malkin had flourished in Sidney Crosby's absence and how Malkin seemed too willing to slink into Crosby's shadow once The Kid returned.
"Sid might be the best player in the league right now," Therrien said. "I want to make sure Malkin has the mentality to be side-by-side with him. My goal is to make sure I'm raising the bar high. Good athletes, when you give them a challenge, force themselves to get better."
Good teams do that, too, which is why Therrien needs to make sure the bar is raised for everyone. The Eastern Conference is jammed like never before. NFL-style parity has hit the NHL, making gigantic one-year improvements possible.
The Penguins should challenge for a playoff spot. They should finish over .500. That's why I like what Shero has to say, as he attempts to walk the line of pushing patience without poo-pooing the playoffs.
Shero must allow for the possibility of something special to happen this season without mortgaging part of the future to try to fill holes.
"Let's see where this goes," Shero said before the game in Washington. "I don't want to lower the bar in terms of what the team's expectations are. To make the playoffs should be the goal, and we're close. We're in every game. What I'm looking for is improvement, and that's what I've said from day one. It's going to be a process. You have to have patience."
Is he considering changing coaches?
"No, I'm not," Shero said. "It's not on my mind. It really isn't."
Nor should it be.
Joe Starkey is a sports writer for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He can be reached at jstarkey@tribweb.com
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