By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
Penguins coach Dan Bylsma achieved two important milestones earlier this month. You might have missed them because of the now infamous Friday Night Fights on Long Island and the subsequent Mario Lemieux-driven fallout. But they were significant accomplishments nonetheless. Bylsma got his 100th victory when the Penguins beat the Los Angeles Kings Feb. 10 at Consol Energy Center, then, five days later, celebrated his two-year anniversary on the job. He recognized the first feat in typically understated fashion. "My wife [Mary Beth] doesn't usually come back to my office after a game, but she and my son [Bryan, 12] came back that night and we spent a brief moment together." It's that second achievement that's worth shouting about. Bylsma is a little more than halfway toward becoming the longest-tenured coach in Penguins history. It's unreal, if you think about it. The Steelers have had three coaches in 42 seasons. The Penguins haven't had a man last four consecutive years since they dropped their first puck in 1967.
"I'm well aware of that," Bylsma said, wryly, the other day.
It's probably just as well that Bylsma has little time to think about how his organization -- his sport, really -- has had such little regard for its coaches. He is pretty busy trying to keep the Penguins together through an unbelievable run of injuries and suspensions to key players. He has done a great job. Despite the 3-2 shootout road loss to the Chicago Blackhawks Sunday, the team is 10-7-2 without Sidney Crosby, 7-5-1 without Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
"There aren't a lot of references made to the people we don't have," Bylsma said. "We don't sound alarm bells. There's no panic. We don't have to re-do things. We don't ask our players to step up. We don't ask them to change. We just ask them to focus more on being themselves and playing their game. It's not about who's not in the room. It's about who is in the room right now. It's all about right now."
All coaches preach that sermon in tough times. "There's no secret to it," Bylsma said. "It's not a Kool-Aid. If you want to find the secret to success, go to a bookstore and pick up any one of the 2,000 books on that subject. They all say the same thing." But that doesn't mean some coaches aren't more successful than others. What separates the truly good ones is the ability to get their players to buy into their message and keep them from growing tired of hearing it. It's a real gift. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin has it. "The standard is the standard," he must have said a million times during the team's run to the Super Bowl a few weeks ago. Clearly, Bylsma has it, too. You see it in the way his players react to him. That's why it's nice to think he'll break Eddie Johnston's franchise record for coaching longevity. Johnston coached the Penguins from the 1993-94 season until he was replaced after 62 games of the 1996-97 season.
"It's an energizing thing, a passionate thing," Bylsma said of his coaching style. "My goal is to be actively involved with my players. I know everyone wants to win and wants to do well. But are they willing to get off the couch and do what it takes? I try to encourage the players in what they want to become. You've got to talk about it with them and come up with a plan. I try to create a picture for them of what [success] looks like. And I try to show them how to get there."
A lot of it involves setting a work-ethic standard. It doesn't matter if you're Sidney Crosby, superstar, or Tim Wallace, just up from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. There's a certain way things are done. The right way.
But Bylsma is able to reach his players in a deeper sense. He decided it was OK to invite you into the team's room for a brief glimpse of how he operates. The subject of conversation with his players was leadership, which he defined as "the effect you have in any moment or in any situation on yourself or anyone else."
"Zbynek Michalek was injured early on and I knew he felt bad," Bylsma said. "I asked him, 'Are you a leader on this team?' He said, 'I'm new. I haven't played much ... '
"Then I asked Brooks Orpik if he had noticed [Michalek] 'Yeah, I've noticed him. He's worked as hard to get back as anyone I've ever been around,' he said. I asked another injured player and he said, 'Sure, I've noticed him. He's worked so hard that it makes me feel guilty. I know what I have to do now to keep up with him.' I think 12 players must have said they noticed [Michalek's] work ethic and commitment. That told me he's one of our leaders."
More important, it told Michalek the same thing.
"That's why I hate when players say, 'I'm too young to be a leader ... I'm not playing well ... I can't lead right now.' That's bull," Bylsma said. "You lead by the way you practice, the way you work. You make an impact on other people on the team by the way you conduct yourself, by what you say. I don't care who you are, you are definitely a leader. The question is, how are you leading?"
That special touch has worked for Bylsma since he took the Penguins job. They were in 10th place and out of the playoff field when he replaced Michel Therrien Feb. 15, 2009, then finished the regular season 18-3-4 under him before going on to win the Stanley Cup. Last season, they had the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference before losing in seven games in the second round of the playoffs to the Montreal Canadiens. This season, they still have the second-best record in the conference despite 201 man-games lost to injuries and suspensions.
Bylsma's two years-plus record is 101-50-16.
That should be good enough for the Penguins to keep him around for a while.
Maybe even for four years.
Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com. Ron Cook can be heard on the "Vinnie and Cook" show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
Photo: Getty Images
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