Pens Notes: Malkin, Kennedy, Defensive Depth, Power Play & more
Friday Morning’s Pens Notes While driving into the office this morning, heard Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma on 93.7 The Fan. Here are some tidbits from Bylsma’s interview with the The Fan morning show… — On Evgeni Malkin: Bylsma said reports coming back to him is that Malkin continues to workout extremely hard and believes he will be in the best shape of his career for camp. Bylsma even mentioned he got a call from Sergei Gonchar recently who said he’s never seen Malkin in this type of shape and working out as hard. Bylsma also confirmed that Malkin could have returned in the playoffs. Bylsma said at the time of the injury, initial diagnosis from doctors is that Malkin’s
Mike Yeo to be named head coach of the Minnesota Wild
The Minnesota Wild will introduce Mike Yeo as the team’s new head coach tomorrow afternoon. Yeo will be the 3rd head coach in franchise history and will replace the recently fired Todd Richards. It was first reported by the Minnesota Star Tribune. Yeo who was a former assistant with the Penguins under Michel Therrien and Dan Bylsma, guided the Houston Aero’s to the Calder Cup and is widely regarded as one of the top up and coming coaches in the game. Yeo beat out two prominent coaches in former Edmonton Oilers head coach Craig MacTavish and his former mentor Michel Therrien who had strong interest in the job and is a scout for the Wild. Therrien interviewed for the job
News and Notes
A quick Penguins News and Notes for this evening I‚Äôve been told the Penguins cancelled practiced today so the new coaching staff could get accustomed to being in Pittsburgh and develop a plan for Wednesday. Assistant coach Tom Fitzgerald flew straight to Boston following yesterday‚Äôs game to get things from home. He wasn’t even around today. Fitzgerald was working primarily from Boston prior to being named assistant coach on Sunday. Mike Yeo was kept around because he is well liked by the players and Bylsma requested that Yeo remain with the staff. The two are close Dan Bylsma has played a strong factor in Paul Bissonnette‚Äôs development as a forward since last season. Wouldn‚Äôt surprise me to see him with
Breaking News: Penguins fire Michel Therrien
Dan Bylsma has been named interim head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Bylsma, 38, has been serving as head coach of the team‚Äôs American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Therrien and Savard were relieved of their duties. Savard has been re-assigned to another position in the organization. Assistant coach Mike Yeo who runs the Penguins struggling power play will remain with the team. Goaltending coach Gilles Meloche will also remain with the coaching staff. Tom Fitzgerald, the Penguins‚Äô director of player development, will join the staff as an assistant coach. Michel Therrien did coach today’s practice in New York which ended around 3:00 p.m. this afternoon. More to come
Sunday Morning Quick Hits
The Penguins practice this morning at 11:30 a.m. Although the Penguins are coming off of an embarrassing 6-1 loss to the Panthers and are in the midst of a four game losing streak, don’t expect the Penguins to endure a long grueling practice this morning. The team has four games this week. Miroslav Satan has four goals in his last 26 games and has been non-existent during that stretch. Satan was dropped to the fourth line on Saturday. Therrien has proved in the past that he won’t play players in roles that they were brought in for, if they are not producing. Nils Ekman is a good example of that. Therrien’s hand has been forced in regards to Satan but