As the Pens say goodbye to now ex-coach Therrien, I sit in disbelief at one person who has yet to even be mentioned during this event… or even this season for that matter. His name is Ray Shero.
While it will never be immediately known if Therrien was indeed at fault for this slump of a season that this Stanley Cup Finalist, it was made very clear of the organizations intentions think of such. Now, I will say that Shero at first seemed like he was making amazing trades… we are all now seeing the results of his philsophy. Ever since Shero stepped into the Pens GM position, he’s made trades faster than you can say Sid the Kid. Shero trades the character, heart-and-soul’ players like Armstrong, Malone, Roberts, etc. for sub-par players (Fedetenkov, Gil, Satan). Now, was this of Therrien’s doing? Absolutely not.
All I can say is that Therrien didn’t create this revolving door system, it was SHERO. Therrien is not the GM, SHERO is. Yes, I do personally beleive that Therrien had fallen into this Stanley Cup final hangover, but he worked with Wilksbarre-Scranton Baby pens the whole season! As well, I understand that it’s a big no-no to have a Stanley Cup finalist team to go from top of the league to bottom of the barrel in the matter of 50 games… but they aren’t absolutely out of the playoff picture. Pittsburgh just needs to win Key games (the Shootout lose to NY Islanders was hard to swallow, but I’ll take the point) from here on out with Bylsma, the interim head coach.
If you are going to blame someone for this 08-09 NHL season for the Pens, blame the entire organization, NOT Therrien. However, in my eyes I think this may be a blessing in disguise, since Bylsma was coaching for W-S baby pens… which is what the Pittsburgh Pens have been made up of this past season, so it may work out surprisingly well.
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