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Originally Posted by Huntingwhale
I don't see why there is such backlash from people. The guy just took his team to the conference final, where the PLAYERS crapped the bed. Why is there no talk of shipping out Crosby, Letang or Malkin when THEY are the ones who didn't show up? Does anyone really think that hiring a new coach for a team that just made the final 4 will really push them over the edge?
The fact is, Bylsma plays a system that caters to the teams' strengths. Other then round 3, the team was dominant all season long. Why change the system when it clearly works?
Firing Bylsma IMO would have been a huge mistake. It's not his fault his core of superstars thought they could coast against Boston.
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Crosby and Malkin showed up, but they were double and triple shadowed through that conference finals series. Instead of putting the right people to on the lines with the two superstars, Bylsma used players like Matt Cooke explicitly on the second line. Cooke didn't do anything but moved his mouth and gave the opposition the stupid stare. And notice that there was no fights and Crosby kept getting knocked down? The first two lines and the defensive core was running around scared most of the time. Crosby and Malkin, by 4th game is probably bruised and battered so bad that they had nothing left after Bylsma overused them to get something going. There were tougher guys in the lineup that could've help the Pens get through that series. Just that Bylsma didn't use them enough. Management saw from previous years that the Pens were not tough enough and that's what they went out to get during the trade deadline. But, Bylsma relied only on his two superstars to try and get to the Cup Finals.