I’ve been saying all along…if Bylsma can beat Philly in the first round then he should def be the coach. He did that so my vote is he should be full time head coach. Lets go Pens!

whatever reason, I haven’t thought of Bylsma as an “interim” coach. Has he been referred to as such by Shero, or tagged as such in the papers?

I ask because I don’t really recall hockey coaches as being “interim” coaches, unless there was clearly no way they were coming back behind the bench the next season (see Lou Lamoriello). In contrast, it seems like in other sports, the “interim” tag is used more clearly, like when Bobby Ross quit on the Detroit Lions in 1999, and Gary Moeller got the head job for the last 5 games, paving the way for the Matt Millen era. Or when Steve Fisher took over for the ship jumping Bill Freider in 1989, and had to win the college basketball national championship before he got the full time job…which eventually led to a lack of institutional control, subsequent NCAA sanctions, and over ten years of mediocrity for Michigan basketball….

Hmmm…apparently, my teams have had a bad time with interim coaches who got the job full time….never thought of that before….

Given the Therrien flameout, Shero might want to offer a year to year contract to Bylsma and see if he accepts that. There’s nowhere else for Bylsma to go within the Pens organization, and if Shero doesn’t retain him, you’d be losing someone who seems like he could have a bright coaching future ahead of him.

I voted to remove the interim status, because in my mind he has already earned the job for next year no matter what happens next. But I’m okay with Shero waiting until the end of the season to officially make Bylsma the new head coach. The Penguins don’t need any distractions whatsoever right now — so, Shero is right to hold off on contract negotiations for both players and coaches so that they can focus completely on playoffs. When the season ends, however, I hope they retain him right away because I’m very impressed with him. Just because MT lost the players doesn’t mean the same would happen with Bylsma — from what I have seen of his coaching style, things would never get so tense between him and the players, even in a tough slumping situation. He seems like a great leader.

Different sport but further reasoning – the New York Mets and Jerry Manuel. The guy missed the playoffs as interim coach by one game for the second year in a row. His bullpen was the laughing stock of the MLB but he still received an extension within the first month or two of the offseason. Bylsma came in when the Pens were out of the playoff picture, put them INTO the playoffs, got past the first round and is still rolling along. I say it’s obvious that this team will remove the interim tag.

. . . that we should hold off, at least temporarily. If the team wins the Stanley Cup, of course, that’s one thing: anything less than a full-time head coach position would be a slap in the face to Bylsma. If that doesn’t happen, I would do a limited search. As in, size up the player personnel situation for the next few years, and have Bylsma (along with 1-2 other experienced head coaches) really lay out what their plan is for making the best use of those players and guiding that group to a championship. If he seems to have the best plan, by all means hire him on (and stick to your f—-ing guns even when the team hits some adversity). But let’s all remember that the Steelers passed on 2 excellent coaches from a Super Bowl team to hire a relative outsider for their head coaching position. And, you know, that’s worked out pretty well for them.

 I agree Bylsma did an outstanding job during the regular season. I believe the Pens would not have made the playoffs if the change had not been made. But he has seemed lost for a large part of the playoffs.

 Take a closer look at game 5 after the Pens outplayed Philly for the first period and didnt score, Bylsma panicked. Dont believe that? Take a look at your replay, he became Therien part 2, he shuffled the lines every single shift, just like the guy before him. That is a coach in panic mode. Bringing up Satan and Bouchier is just more of the same. If Sykora is too hurt to play that is one thing, if not he is the man you want on Malkin’s wing. Bouchier is a liability on the power play.

  Let Bylsma work his way thru the playoffs, see what he is made of before canonizing him.

Bylsma has earned it. But the front office is likely to retain Bylsma for another reason: salary. They’re still paying Therrien so it’s unlikely they would hire a coach who would demand big bucks. A couple months removed from the AHL, Bylsma will come on the cheap.

Bylsma has done enough in my book to be given the chance to coach next year. Like Hooks says it’s a thankless position. With the talent the Pens have unless they compete at a high level next year, Shero will, again, be looking for a new coach.

That having been said, I think his gameplan to take advantage of the Pens depth and skill, to set the tone of games, is a good idea. Unfortunately it also works the players harder, so they have lapses in play during what seems like physical let down (just a personal observation). This style of play, IMO, should get them to the Cup Finals, even though the roster is (I think) weaker this year than last (less chemistry), and the East is more competitive this year.

One thing that’s been really positive during Bylsma’s time has been the emergence of Jordan Stall. We all knew he had the skill set, but until the last few months, he hadn’t really set himself apart since his Rookie year. So, that’s a plus, because under Bylsma Stall has seen more time with the number 1&2 wingers, which I think has helped.

The only downsid to Bylsma, at this point, is that he’s laerning NHL playoff hockey on the fly. Last years team would have won convincingly 4-1 against Philly, not 4-2 with some luck. We’ll see if in the next round he can keep coming up with the right balance of lines to win games. My gut says, yes he will. But we’ll have to see.

Clearly, though, he’s done enough to own the title Head Coach.