By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
Michel Therrien watched just about every minute of every Penguins playoff game last spring -- all but the third period of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final against the Detroit Red Wings.
"I didn't have to watch that because I knew we were going to win," he said this week.
I'm thinking there was a little more to it than that. I'm thinking that Therrien couldn't bring himself to watch Sidney Crosby hoist the Cup even though he adores Crosby. I'm also thinking that's why he made sure he and his two kids were on a plane the next morning for a vacation in the Dominican Republic "so we wouldn't be around for all that stuff."
Peter Diana/Post-Gazette
The Penguins fired former head coach Michel Therrien in February.
The coronation of the NHL's new kings. The victory parade that clogged Downtown streets. The love fest with a hockey club that lasted all summer.
Seems kind of ironic, doesn't it?
Therrien, who was fired as Penguins coach in February, wasn't a part of any of it, yet none of it would have happened without him.
Team owners Ron Burkle and Mario Lemieux contacted Therrien after the Detroit series to tell him as much. So did several players. Max Talbot, the hero of Game 7 with two goals, called to thank him for what he meant to his career. Rob Scuderi did the same after he signed a four-year, $13.6 million contract with the Los Angeles Kings. Crosby sent frequent text messages, one just this week.
"I am so proud of those guys," Therrien said.
It's easy to forget now, after the joy of a Cup season, that Crosby and the Penguins weren't much of a team when Therrien took over from Eddie Olczyk in December 2005. "We had to change the culture, change the structure," Therrien said. He was the perfect man for the job. He demanded accountability even if it made him unpopular at times in the locker room. Certainly, the boys weren't thrilled that first season when he publicly called out their defensemen, accusing them of trying to be the worst in the league and saying they were "soft."
"I was not there to be a popular guy," Therrien said. "I was there to bring guys along and make them better players. You don't become champions with no structure, no commitment and no discipline."
Therrien's way worked. The Penguins improved by 47 points in his first full season and made the playoffs for the first time in six years. The next season, they went to the Stanley Cup final, losing in six games to the Red Wings.
Then, almost just like that, Therrien was fired.
That's the way it works in the NHL, a league that has little regard for its coaches. It didn't matter that the Penguins had to play much of the season without their two top offensive defensemen -- Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney -- because of injuries or that Ruslan Fedotenko, Tyler Kennedy and Marc-Andre Fleury also missed significant time. It didn't matter that Miroslav Satan failed as a winger on Crosby's line early in the season after the team was stung by Marian Hossa's unexpected defection to the Red Wings. Therrien took the fall.
I can't get past Gonchar's shoulder injury. He didn't play until Feb. 14, the day before Therrien was fired. I'm convinced Therrien still would be the Penguins' coach if he had the man he called "the quarterback of our power play."
"I don't know much about football, but I don't think the Steelers could replace Ben [Roethlisberger] if he was out for a long period of time," Therrien said. "I think they would be in trouble. It catches up to you after a while."
The Penguins were in 10th place, five points out of a playoff spot, when Therrien was fired and replaced by Dan Bylsma. At the time, Therrien predicted the team still would compete for the Cup. He became even more convinced soon after when general manager Ray Shero traded for Chris Kunitz to play on Crosby's line and added veterans Bill Guerin and Craig Adams.
"I think there were nine different players on the team that won the Cup from the team that started the season. That's half a team," Therrien said. "Everything came together for them."
What about Bylsma, who led the Penguins on an 18-3-4 surge to finish the regular season and then guided them expertly through the playoffs?
"Honestly? He did a great job. He and the staff," Therrien said.
Therrien worked the first and third rounds of the playoffs as a between-periods analyst for RDS, a French-speaking Canadian television network. Once the Penguins were matched against the Red Wings in the Cup final, he said he knew that they would win. "After losing the year before? And with the Hossa thing? They had fire in their eyes. You didn't have to make any big speeches before those games."
As happy as Therrien was for his former players, it still hurt him to see them be so successful without him. "It is hard, I'm not going to lie. That's probably the hardest thing that can happen to you in this game. But things happen for a reason. Sometimes, we don't know what that reason is, but I'm convinced there will be another challenge for me."
Therrien still lives in Nevillewood. One reason is he loves Pittsburgh. "The people here have been so great to me, so respectful, so gracious." A bigger reason is he is a single dad and his kids are settled here. Elizabeth, 17, is a junior at Chartiers Valley High School, Charles, 15, a sophomore. "They don't want to move again right now," he said.
Still, Therrien, 45, will coach again. He interviewed with one NHL club this summer -- he wouldn't say which one -- but can afford to be patient because the Penguins will be paying him this season and next, thanks to the contract extension they gave him after the team went to the Cup final in 2008.
"The money is nice, but I want to work," Therrien said.
Not in television.
Not in player development.
Not as an assistant general manager.
As a coach.
"I'm more motivated than ever," Therrien said. "I'm more convinced than ever that my recipe is good. I know I will coach again. I know I will win a Cup."
Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.
First published on September 25, 2009 at 12:00 am
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