Coaching switch was the change Penguins needed

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Penguins must be wondering if an entire team is eligible for the comeback player of the year award.

The Penguins were one more losing streak away from being out of playoff contention when Dan Bylsma took over as interim coach on Feb. 15. Last season’s Stanley Cup finalists stood barely over .500 at 27-25-5, stuck in 10th place in the Eastern Conference.

A team that seemed poised a season ago to be a power for years instead found itself in the running to be the NHL’s most disappointing. The Penguins had two exceptional scorers in Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby but not much else — no locker room chemistry, no resiliency, no reliable goaltending and not much of a power play.

Their confidence? Nonexistent. Their psyche? Fragile at best. Their propensity to make the kind of mistakes that led to locker room rants by coach Michel Therrien? All too common.

The Penguins weren’t responding to Therrien’s my-way-or-else style, one that resulted in 94 regular season wins the previous two seasons but wasn’t working with players who were too worried about committing mistakes to make the kind of instinctive plays needed to win low-scoring hockey games.

So, as it usually is in the NHL when a talented team is playing poorly, it was old coach out, new coach in.

What followed Bylsma’s hiring was one of the NHL’s most remarkable turnarounds in recent seasons, a 16-3-4 run that has carried the Penguins into the postseason for a third consecutive season. It also has stamped them as an opponent not many teams would choose when the playoffs begin next week.

“It saved the season,” goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said of general manager Ray Shero’s decision to replace Therrien with Bylsma, a studious former NHL player who has written books about coaching but lacked NHL head coaching experience.

That shouldn’t be a problem. The Penguins have been playing must-win games — and have won most of them — since mid-February.

To accomplish that, Bylsma changed styles, abandoning Therrien’s disciplined, defense-first system for one designed to constantly pressure the puck, an approach that creates more risks but emphasizes the Penguins’ vast offensive skills.

Most of all, Bylsma changed the way he communicated with Penguins players, telling each one what he expected rather than sending messages through the media or by the way he handed out playing time.

“Therrien is a hard coach and demands a lot from players, as well as Dan, but it’s kind of a different style and I think guys are enjoying it so far,” said forward Jordan Staal.