PITTSBURGH (AP)—The Pittsburgh Penguins fired coach Michel Therrien on Sunday, less than a year after he led the team to the Stanley Cup finals.
Dan Bylsma, coach of the team’s AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, was installed as interim coach of the Penguins with 25 games remaining in the NHL season.
I love that man but I suppose it had to be done, if only to go for the "new voice, extra effort" win streak gambit. Pens will always owe a big debt of gratitude to Therrien, who no matter what the crybabies say is pretty much the 3rd best coach in Penguins history by default. But a hockey coach's shelf life is like 2 years max.
While it's far too early to figure out who will be coaching the Penguins in 2009-10 -- Bylsma is, at least in theory, a candidate to hold onto the job he has assumed on an interim basis -- the early favorites have ties to Shero via the Nashville organization.
One is Predators associate coach Brent Peterson, who is in his 10th season with Nashville after coaching the Portland Winter Hawks of the Western Hockey League for seven years. He led Portland to the Memorial Cup junior championship in 1998.
Peterson also was an assistant coach with the Hartford Whalers for two seasons after completing an 11-year career as a center with Buffalo, Detroit, Vancouver and Hartford. He was an outstanding defensive forward and penalty-killer.
Another possibility -- and one who might actually end up on top of Shero's wish list -- is San Jose assistant coach Todd Richards, who joined the Sharks this season after coaching the Penguins' minor league team in Wilkes-Barre for the previous two years.
Richards was an assistant coach with the Predators' American Hockey League affiliate in Milwaukee when Shero was assistant GM in Nashville. He led the Baby Penguins to the Calder Cup final last season before taking a job with the Sharks, where his duties include overseeing San Jose's power play.
A third former Predators employee who could turn up on Shero's radar is Columbus assistant Claude Noel, who was Richards' predecessor in Milwaukee and led the Admirals past the Baby Penguins -- coached, ironically enough, by Therrien -- in the 2004 Calder Cup final.
The best part of waking up is not Folgers in your cup, but knowing that Chuck Norris didn't kill you in your sleep.