Dan Bylsma seeks quality of shots, as opposed to the volume of shots on Halak

Those are the cat calls Penguin players have heard from Penguin fans for eons. And, okay, from media members as well (I’m guilty as charged).

No doubt. Of all the teams in the National Hockey League, the Pittsburgh Penguins may be the most notorious when it comes to over-thinking and over-passing instead of just shooting the puck on net.

With all of the skill the Penguins have possessed over the years, one complaint backers of the Pens have had is that they simply don’t get the puck on net enough.

From Sergei Zubov, to Jan Hrdina, to Alex Goligoski, to Kip Miller, to Jaromir Jagr, to Mario Lemieux, to Dick Tarnstrom, to Sidney Crosby, to Milan Kraft, to Evgeni Malkin, to Sergei Gonchar…any skilled Penguin who has ever played at Mellon Arena has been booed at some point in their career for passing or stick handling instead of shooting.

On the power play. At even strength. On the PK. At the bubble hockey tables on the main concourse…If you play hockey at Mellon arena, you will criticized for not shooting enough.

Frankly, more often times than not, the fans and the media types have been right on this one. Players, coaches, and management types actually agree quite a bit. The protests of players holding onto the puck persist in all corners of Pittsburgh. This act of hockey heresy turns into wasted possessions, failed power plays, and empty trips down the ice.

So imagine how Penguin fans felt when they actually heard Penguin coach Dan Bylsma suggest it was a good idea as to shoot…LESS?!

Yeah, that’s right, the Penguins’ coach is actually endorsing the idea of his players holding onto the puck MORE often heading into his clubs’ series against Montreal starting Friday night at Mellon Arena.

“I think we are going to try to employ a different approach to scoring goals than what Washington did,” said Bylsma. Those comments came in the wake of Washington’s seven game opening series loss to the Canadiens. It was a series in which Montreal super-goalie Jaroslav Halak stopped 131 of the last 134 shots he faced.

“We are not going to be focused on trying to score on every shot. If we have a great chance to try to score we are going to take it. But we are not going to be focused on trying to score on every shot. We are going to be focused on trying to get pucks there (in front of Halak) and get pucks in behind their defense and take care of business with our net front presence.”