The problem with the NHL's award for the coach of the year, the Jack Adams Award, is recently it doesn't go to the best coach. Instead, it has been going to the coaches who are a part of teams that greatly improve from one season to the next. That trend should end this season.
Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Bylsma deserves the award more than anyone else in the league. It's not even close. And I'm not saying it because I'm a homer.
Has any other coach lost his star player for half the season, let alone two, and not seem to miss a beat? Sidney Crosby has missed 39 games and Evgeni Malkin has missed 37, yet the Pens are still one point out of the Atlantic Division title.
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| I know it's hard, but don't hold the tie against him. |
With guys like Tyler Kennedy, Chris Kunitz (when healthy) and a bunch of AHL call ups carrying the scoring load, you'd think this team would falter and back into the playoffs. Wrong. They are playing great team hockey and could win a few rounds even if Crosby doesn't come back.
Bylsma is a big reason for that success. The play of Marc-Andre Fleury and the Pens' defense has played a big role too, but this team would have fallen apart under a lot of other coaches. Let's see how Washington and Bruce Boudreau do if the team lost Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin and Nicklas Backstrom for more than 30 games each this season. Where would the Vancouver Canucks be if they lost the Sedin twins and Ryan Kesler for half the season.
I can't say these teams wouldn't be successful without these players, but I don't think their coaches could have kept them together the way Bylsma has held the Pens together through tough times.
It's not just how he has made the team play without its stars. The man seems to handle every situation the right way. Fleury from the beginning of the season is a perfect example. Fleury was bad for six weeks. Yet Byslma didn't throw him to the wolves or regulate him to the bench. He stuck with Fleury, defended his goalie against the critics and did what he thought was best.
The situation annoyed the media in Pittsburgh to no end. Radio show hosts and their callers were saying that they didn't think Bylsma knew what he was doing, or that Fleury should be traded. Of course, that never happened, Fleury turned it around and five months later he is in the Vezina conversation. Maybe Bylsma knew what he was doing after all.
With the rest of the team, it can't be said enough what an impact Bylsma has on this team. Just watch "24/7". The players buy in to everything he says and he has their respect. He put the team in position to continue their success and they didn't let him down.
Too bad some other coach will get it because his team wasn't in the playoffs last year, or something like that.
The Bus Boys - The Boys Are Back In Town
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