Aggressiveness key to strategy of Pens’ new coach

Pittsburgh has just 24 games remaining and is six points out of a playoff spot.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Penguins skated, worked on the power play, gathered at the chalk board. They worked on the penalty kill, skated, and returned to the chalk board.

Then they skated, and skated some more.

Dan Bylsma’s first practice as the Penguins’ coach was more like the first day of the preseason, in tenor and in time. Most NHL teams don’t meet and practice for three hours with more than two-thirds of the season gone, but the desperate Penguins did that Wednesday.

They also didn’t need to be told why they were doing it.

“That was an attempt at training camp, in short order,” Bylsma said. “I think the players understand the situation, understand today would be different from a normal day.”

The defending Eastern Conference champions also understand time is fast running out.

With 24 games remaining, a talented team that was expected to make another Stanley Cup run is six points out of the conference’s eighth and final playoff spot, yet only seven points away from being in fifth place. A demanding stretch that sends them on the road for seven of eight games awaits after tonight’s home game against Montreal.

With seven losses in their last 11 games, two in overtime, the Penguins were playing like a team determined to get their coach fired, which is what happened to Michel Therrien on Sunday. The ouster of a coach who produced 94 wins the previous two seasons and the franchise’s first Stanley Cup finals appearance in 16 years wasn’t universally applauded by fans, and it ramped up the pressure on an underperforming team.

“A lot was expected from us this year and obviously it’s not going so well, and I think everybody was pretty down every day, not having fun,” goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said. “We hate to lose obviously and it kind of got in the atmosphere of the room, everybody was more down. We had to make some changes.”

As 21-year-old captain Sidney Crosby said, “We knew we weren’t playing well and the result of that is usually the coach being fired. Basically, we’ve got to wake up.”