The Other Side of the Coin on Disco Dan, Or It's Time to Adapt

Disco's History with Kris Letang

There's another clip (fast-forward to the 21-minute mark) from early in the 2010-11 season of Inside Penguins Hockey.  It's actually fairly insightful, too.   Kris Letang was coming off a season where he'd scored only 3 goals in the regular season (but managed to score 5 in the playoffs).    Letang had yet to have a "breakout" or "All-Star" season.

Dan Bylsma is bugging Letang about needing to play aggressively--all the time.

As a matter of fact, Dan Byslma had to bug Letang about playing aggressively at this stage of Letang's career.   It's easily forgotten that Disco's first move as head-coach was to make a then-21-year-old Letang a healthy scratch.  It's easily forgotten that Disco and his coaches encouraged Letang to play with his head-up (they constantly reminded him of this in 2009) and that they tolerated Letang's mistakes of aggression when he had his head-up and was playing the way they wanted him to play.

Because back Dan Bylsma became the head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Kris Letang had all the talent to be a productive offensive defenseman, but Letang hadn't yet figured out how to produce offensively in the NHL.

Flash forward to 2013.   Letang is a point-per-game defenseman.  Letang's pretty much been a point-per-game defenseman for the past two years (in the regular season and the playoffs).  Yes, he plays with Crosby and Malkin, but so have other defensemen, and they don't score a point per game.   (Scoring a point-per-game with Crosby and Malkin isn't as easy as Letang makes it look.)

Letang produces offesnively now.   Letang's elite enough offensively that he can make game-changing plays (see the pass for Tyler Kennedy's first goal in Game 5 of the New York Islanders series) when he's having an otherwise "meh" or less game.  

Letang now requires a different type of coaching than he once did.   Encouraging aggression--which, to be blunt, Bylsma had to do in order to get Letang to become an elite offensive player in the first place--is (aside from the power play, where Letang occasionally reverts to his younger terrified-to-make-a-play-self) no longer what's holding Kris Letang back from making the most of his talents.

So, What Now?

This blog post may be moot point because Letang may want more money than the Penguins are willing to give him, and some other team and some other coach will have to figure out how to get Letang to "balance" offense with responsible defensive play.   (I'm of the opinion an actual large top-4 defensive partner would help a whole heck of a lot and that any team investing in Letang would be wise to invest in getting the best from him with an appropriate top-4 (not insanely expensive, just legitimately large and top-4) partner.)  Or some other team or some other coach will have another defenseman or two who focuses on "defense" and Letang's role is more to "roam wild," as he has the past couple of seasons in Pittsburgh.

But should Letang remain in Pittsburgh and should Byslma remain his coach.   Letang's not 23 anymore.   He's produced to elite levels offensively, and he's even been able to play defense effectively in the league too.   (Letang was a player Bylsma trusted to play against Marian Hossa in the Cup Finals when he was all of 22.)

Yet Letang needs different coaching now than he did back when Bylsma started coaching him.   Not coaching that corrected what his "old" issues used to be (fear of making mistakes, unable to assert himself).   Now, he needs coaching that corrects his "new" issues.  A league that scouts him to adjust to what they know he can do offensively.   A league that knows his tendencies to be--well--aggressive, as Bylsma has long encouraged him to be in order to make the most of his physical talents.

And not to coach the aggression or the edge out of him (the last thing any team should want is a tentative Kris Letang, afraid to make plays).  But to transform the aggression, once so necessary, into assertiveness.

It's already happened in parts of Letang's game.   His penalty minutes per game went from over 1 per game in his breakout 2010-11 season to .04 per 60 minutes TOI this season (which is an insane level of improvement, and should give pause to the consideration that Letang won't get any better as a player than he is today).  If you wondered how Pittsburgh's PK suddenly improved in the 2013 postseason, look no further than the fact that Letang--generally--played "assertively" really well on the PK (far better than he did on the PK in the regular season).

But the salary cap is the salary cap, and the Penguins have internal numbers for what they're willing to pay Letang, and Letang has numbers he wants to be paid, and those numbers may not align given that the NHL is a business, first and foremost.  Should Letang move on and be some other coach's player to harness and handle, Bylsma still could--and should-- learn something from his experience coaching Letang.

That players change and grow and that once was needed for a particular player or team may not be what is needed for the player to perform well at this stage.

That line-matching might be needed to get the most from an elite talent.

That a personality might be the same, but the talent might be need to be positioned differently.

That adapting to find what works now is more important than sticking to what once worked so well.

For Bylsma to win another Cup with the Penguins, he'll have to adapt and adjust.  Because even though many of the players he's coaching are the same and  may even have the same temperaments and be the same people they've always been, they're different players than they used to be, with different teammates, and thus require new "handling," "coaching," and "deployment" on and off the ice.

And if Dan Bylsma wants to be coaching the Penguins for the length of his contract extension--the name of the game is to adapt and adjust.   Not just for elite players, but for elite coaches, too.

In Defense of Disco Dan

Watch this clip.  It's from early in the 2010-11 season.  Dan Bylsma is wearing a microphone at a Pittsburgh Penguins practice.

Fast-forward to the 3:12 mark.   Kris Letang, at age 23, is starting to be mentioned as one of hockey's best defensemen for the first time in his NHL career.   Bylsma sees something he doesn't like from Letang during a routine, hum-drum practice drill.

He pulls Letang aside and offers correction.

I doubt Bylsma remembers this incident.  I doubt Letang remembers it.   I only remember it because I was new to management at that time in my life and because I remember watching that particular episode of Inside Penguins Hockey and thinking, "Wow--that's really good management.  I'd like to be able to manage people the way Bylsma just did."

Management that offers correction not by screaming and yelling and dressing down and denigrating and saying:  "You, as a human being, are not good enough."  

Management that maintains the highest of expectations by offering correction by saying, "Because of who you are and the talents you have, this is how you should play.   Because you have these talents, that play wasn't acceptable.  So, here, let me show you.  Make this play instead--because that's who you are and what you're capable of doing."

Management that is firm about maintaining the highest of expectations at all times.

In twenty seconds, Bylsma turns a young player's mistake in practice into affirmation of a young player's talents.  Turns a negative into a positive.

You want to know why Disco's stars spoke up for him?   You want to know why the Penguins were willing to extend his contract after yet another playoff disappointment?

If you're going to make mistakes and get corrected (because every hockey player on the planet will screw up at some point), do you want it to be done in a way that treats you like a human being, or one that treats you as less than human?

Come on.   The millionaire players want to be treated with respect, just like every other human on the planet.

Because when you have a coach who can offer actual, firm correction while BUILDING up a player, not tearing him down.   Because when you have a coach who did that, consistently enough, for players like James Neal and Kris Letang to become All-Stars under his watch.  When you have that coach, you give that coach a shot to figure out the stuff he still needs to figure out (you know, like putting those All-Stars in good position to succeed with appropriate linemates and defensive partners).

Because, whenever I watch this clip, of some humdrum drill in October 2010, I'm reminded of what good management looks like in elite organizations that want to get the best from talented employees.  And I'm struck by the fact that one little interaction between Disco and Letang is pretty much daily reality for Bylsma and all his players.

Say what you will, but correcting a player by saying, "Play to your abilities" clearly got better results--even with playoff disappointments--than what John Tortorella got from talented charges with a vastly different method, more dehumanizing method of correcting mistakes throughout his tenure in New York.

Just ask Kris Letang how much money some NHL team will pay for his services now as compared to the spring of 2010.   Just ask James Neal about that contract he signed with the Penguins last season.

And remember that those two players, once talented kids but ones who didn't produce at elite levels in the NHL, had a head coach in Dan Bylsma who offered enough affirming correction that those two kids are now highly productive--albeit far-more-expensive--NHL players.

The Kippy, Jan, & Jaromir History Lesson And Why Toews & Kane 2013 > Crosby & Malkin 2013 (Hint: Not Talent, Not Character)

Evgeni Malkin will be a Penguin until he turns 35.   With Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin signed to long-term contracts, the Pittsburgh Penguins will always be able to contend for the Stanley Cup.

Except the Penguins will always be a “pretender” among the finalists until the organization realizes star power alone is insufficient to win the Stanley Cup.

A Trip Back in Time

To realize how deeply the pervasive, insidious “stars can do it all” mentality pervades the Pittsburgh Penguins, let’s take a trip back in time to when Jaromir Jagr was undisputedly the NHL’s best position player (while a goalie named Hasek was racking up MVP awards for ridiculous goaltending).    Jaromir Jagr was the best player in the NHL.  Jaromir Jagr could dominate games by himself (and occasionally could win an elimination playoff game against a #1 seed on one good leg).  

In his late twenties, Jaromir Jagr insisted his best linemates were center Jan Hrdina and left winger Kip Miller.   Jagr was comfortable with Miller and Hrdina.  They meshed with his style.  Jagr won the Art Ross Trophy--and he racked up points when no one else in the NHL could score while playing with Kip Miller and Jan Hrdina.

Miller and Hrdina were legitimate NHL players, but not first-line players on a championship team.   But Penguins would always have hope for a championship with a player like Jagr on their squad, and Jagr, the game's best player, would get his Pittsburgh teams to the playoffs.

But with “Miller and Hrdina” as Jagr’s help, Jagr’s team--not the Jagr who was a better player at 28 than he was at 19--was never good enough to win another Cup.  

Meanwhile, Back in 2013

In 2013, the Chicago Blackhawks are in the Stanley Cup Finals.  Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane are supposed to be, for the Blackhaws, what Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Except, well.

Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews have not been consistently good this playoff season.   The Blackhawks are up 1-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals, so some inconvenient facts are routinely dismissed when talking about how the Pittsburgh stars failed versus the Bruins (as compared to Chicago’s).  

The Nexus Of Pittsburgh's Playoff Issues: Were Elite Players Positioned to Succeed?

In 2013, Crosby, Malkin and Letang vs. Boston. 0 points.

Dan Bylsma, coaching stars he trusts, stars who produced on a power play that dominated through two round of the playoffs: “We had chances.”   Ray Shero: “I don’t think anyone would have expected our team to be shut down offensively.”

A look back at Pittsburgh history, though, tells us that Miller-Hrdina-Jagr worked fine if the goal was for Jaromir Jagr to amass regular season scoring titles.    A look back at the entire postseason (not merely the Boston series) clues a rational observer into the reality that Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis performed the same way as Miller-Hrdina-Jagr did come the crucible that is the NHL postseason.   A line that was dominant in the regular season when the best player in the world is way better than everyone else on the ice was not effective enough come the postseason.  Rationality tells us that  Pascal Dupuis is a wonderful human being, terrific person, and  incredibly talented player, but he’s not a first line winger on a championship team.  (If you want a clue about a first line winger on a Cup champion, take a look at Marian Hossa of the Blackhawks, painful as that may be for Pittsburgh fans.)

Rationality states other, uncomfortable facts:  Pittsburgh’s All-Stars (and Tomas Vokoun and Paul Martin, to be fair) got them through the first two round of the playoffs (Malkin and Letang’s occasional giveaways typically covered over by man-advantage dominance).   Look at the statistics.   Pittsburgh’s power play (on which Crosby, Malkin, and Letang starred through two rounds) and highly effective penalty kill (though it’s surely easy to forget that Letang killed penalties really well given that we easily remember the bad and forget the good) got them past the Islanders and Senators.

But there were signs.   No 5-on-5 dominance at even-strength.   A Norris Trophy nominee with no consistent even-strength pairing that worked for more than a game or two.  

Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis was never dominant at even-strength in the playoffs.

An effective “left” winger was never found for Evgeni Malkin and James Neal (and no, Jarome Iginla is not a left winger).  

Though Zdeno Chara plays best with Seidenberg (and didn’t play nearly as well against the Toronto Maple Leafs when paired with bottom-pairing defensemen) and Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook are at their best as a tandem and Drew Doughty plays best with a steady partner like Rob Scuderi and Ryan Suter only found his game once he got paired with Jonas Brodin, the Penguins entered the postseason expecting their top-minutes eater on defense to play with one of Simon Despres, Mark Eaton, or Matt Niskanen (all players who would be fifth o rsixth defensemen, at best, on other conference finalists).    (Side note:  The issue of how much Pittsburgh should/should not pay Letang on a future contact is not for this post; the point here that Pittsburgh entered the postseason at a disadvantage compared to other teams who put their top defenseman in a better position to succeed.)

Sure, Pittsburgh’s stars should have “willed” their way to a point or two versus the Bruins.   And the lack of support for the All-Stars doesn’t excuse the nightmare that was Game 2.

But mental mistakes?    But an inability to find time and space?

Is it fair to ask if Beau Bennett could have created more space for Crosby?   Is it fair to ask if Pascal Dupuis would have been able to ignite a third line rather than stay on a first line that was producing very little at even-strength?   Is it fair to admit that pairing an undersized bottom-pairing defenseman with an undersized Norris Trophy nominee isn’t the way to get the best out of either player when it comes to postseason match-ups against elite, large power forwards and isn’t putting either player in the best position to succeed (and you surely didn’t see the best out of Kris Letang or Matt Nisaknen during the 2013 postseason, did you)?

The Condition for Future Championships

Jaromir Jagr really did say it best.    Of course, Jaromir Jagr in his twenties simply said, “Kippy and Jan and I have to get it going.”   And that, of course, is the attitude of young stars who don’t know any better.  Who think, because they’re so talented, they should just “will” a win--because, let’s be blunt, they can so often do just that on their own during the regular season and even against “really good” teams on occasion.

But the Penguins’ coaching staff and management should know better, and to learn better, they only need to look to the Blackhawks.

Toews and Kane were nowhere near as good through two rounds as Pittsburgh's stars.   They simply didn’t have to be.    

But Chicago’s in the Stanley Cup Finals, and Pittsburgh’s not.

Because Chicago had coverage for their stars when they got shut down.   And because Chicago--aggressively--puts their stars in the best position possible to succeed by adjusting lines and reuniting a struggling defenseman with a defensive partner who brought out the best in him.  

You want another championship in Pittsburgh with Crosby and Malkin at the helm?

The Penguins won’t win another Stanley Cup until Ray Shero and Dan Bylsma acknowledge that coverage--in the form of both personnel and personnel deployment-- for star players is a prerequisite condition for any future championships.

That means someone has to tell a young Sidney Crosby what no one dared to tell a young Jaromir Jagr.   “You need more help on your line to win another Cup.”

Does anyone in Pittsburgh actually know, believe, or realize what it took Jaromir Jagr a career to learn?

Because, if not, the Penguins must learn to be happy with entertainment, sellouts, and Art Ross trophies.    Because even the most elite players in the world win their Cups with appropriate support and fail to win it all without support.  

Don’t forget that, either, should someone tell you how great Toews and Kane are after the 2013 Cup Finals end.  Toews and Kane are great players--but to win it all, they’ll have had even greater support.

How about the Penguins make it an offseason priority to figure out what support their elite players need when matched up against other elite teams? How about the Penguins make their offseason priority finding the complementary personnel that will put their elite players in the best position possible to succeed, rather than saying, “They’re elite; they’ll be able to do it on their own!”?

How about the Penguins realize that no elite player or two or three--on their own--will ever be sufficient to win a championship?  And how about their general manager acts in accordance with that truth this offseason, and how about their coach acts in accordance with that truth come next season when it comes line-ups and defensive pairings?   And how about we stop hearing about how the Pens always have a chance to win because they had Sid and Geno and start talking about the Penguins as a team--not just stars--that truly covers each teammate well enough to have a shot at winning it all?  

It's Hard to be the Favorites, but It's Worth It, So DO YOUR BEST EVERY YEAR

"It can happen to anybody. It’s a lot tougher to take it if you’re the favorite but as long as you work hard and you give your best and you don’t have any regrets after the season, its fine. Anybody can get hot for two weeks and everybody can beat everybody. But the hardest thing is knowing you didn’t give 100 percent because you have to live with through the summer and wait for next year. And you don’t know what’s going to happen  next year. Once you get that opportunity, you’ve got to grab it … or least play the best hockey you can play."  -Jaromir Jagr, 2013

Translation:  It’s really hard to win the Stanley Cup, and no matter how good you are, bad things can happen, but you have to do as much as possible.  Because the chance to play with great players like this doesn’t come around often, and even if you do all of that I said, you’re probably not going to win because it’s really, really hard to win.  But, at least if you do all that stuff, you’re actually putting yourself in the best spot to win.   And you haven’t put yourself in the best shot to win unless you really do all that stuff I mentioned.  

Takeaways:  Accept it's hard to be favored to win the Stanley Cup every year.  Accept that realistically high expectations are a good kind of hard, to which you should give your best, because the opportunity will be gone before you know it.  

Action Items:    Do everything I just said. Don't let it take you as long to it took me to learn it, and don't make the same mistakes you made thinking me and Mario could do it all.   

The Best Players in the League are Gonna Have Off Nights--DURING the Playoffs!

                            

“That’s the worst feeling. That’s why I try to work extra so I wouldn’t go through that feeling. But sooner or later, you’re going to go through it. You’re not going to be your best every night for 10 years. It’s impossible. I know they went through it. It’s not easy. I’m sure next year they’ll come back and be the best again.”  -Jaromir Jagr, 2013

                Translation:   Doesn’t matter if you’re the greatest player in NHL history, you’re going to have an off game or two, and you’re going to have those nights IN the playoffs, too.   It’s the most horrible feeling in the world when you’re a great player and you don’t produce when your team most needs you to be on but you just don't have it.  You feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders and you press like crazy and it still doesn’t work and it just sucks.   

                Takeaways:   There’s a psychology to what was happening with the Pittsburgh All-Stars in the 2013 Eastern Conference Finals. It was why Jagr once said he was “dying alive” when he could no longer score goals (no, Pittsburgh media, that quote never had anything to do with Jagr hating your city; it had everything to do with an elite talent fed up with himself because he couldn’t perform to his expected levels).   Crosby, Malkin, and Letang knew they HAD to produce for their team to win.   So they tried—and tried too hard to force plays that weren’t there.   Not because they didn’t care or because they were selfish or because they were dumb.  Because they were stars who were having really, really bad games, unable to produce when their team most needed them to do so against a very good opponent—and they knew their team was going down if they didn’t do SOMETHING.

Action Items:     Dealing with the “psychology” of superstars is never easy.    They’re used to being able to dominate.  And when what they usually do (dominate!) doesn’t work, they don’t typically react well.  They may not even know how to react.   They revert to doing things that ought not to be done, because, they can usually get that pass to work and create a scoring chance from the high-risk play that works against inferior competition in the regular season.  

   Somehow, you have to get the superstars to relax.    So, you have to give them help.  They need to know someone else can cover if they’re off, so they can just make a safe, simple, and smart play rather than force it.   But, psychologically, they also need someone to tell them what a 41-year-old Jagr might wish he could back and tell his 29-year-old self:   “Yo, kid, you have a ton of talent, but there’s no way you’re winning a Cup by yourself, so just relax and just play cause this slump isn't going to last forever."

    In upcoming seasons, SOMEONE, regardless of whether that’s a forty-one-year-old Jagr or a coach or whomever—actually has to get that message THROUGH to Pittsburgh's All-Stars.   It’s not so much “acquire a veteran” or “get a different coach” as it is “deal with immense pressure by reminding players they won’t succeed if they try to do it all themselves.”   Pittsburgh's biggest takeaway is to get THAT message through to their best players, such that they simply play hockey--and don't try to do what no human (no matter how gifted) can do.

It’s the Playoffs: Expect Us to Key in on Your Stars

"They’re great players. There’s no question about it. It’s not easy. Everybody is waiting for you to do something. It’s like in basketball. When you [face] a good player, you double team him. Let the other guys beat you. If you’re going to play against LeBron James, you’re going to put two guys on him. Let the ‘Birdman’ [Heat center Chris Andersen]  beat you.”  -Jaromir Jagr, 2013

                Translation:   In the regular season, coaches game-plan a little bit, but in the regular season, Crosby and Malkin and all the other All-Stars on the Penguins can run wild because they’re way more talented than most other guys on the ice.  But in the playoffs, coaches really game-plan hard for the game’s best players.   No matter how good those guys are, they’re going to have off games at some point, and somebody else is going to have to step up and cover for them. 

                Takeaways:   Back in the day, Jagr insisted he was fine with Jan Hrdina and Kip Miller as his linemates—and he won the NHL scoring title with Hrdina as his center and Miller as his left wing (literally—I watched it happen; Jagr was THAT good in his prime).   In the modern NHL, Dupuis-Crosby-Kunitz was the NHL’s best regular season line.   In the postseason, that line didn’t do a whole lot at even strength.    In the modern NHL playoffs, former MVPSs like Crosby and Malkin will be facing former Norris Trophy winners and Selke winners.  Strength on strength, talent on talent.     What works in the regular season won’t automatically translate to postseason success. 

                Action items:   There are several things Pittsburgh needs to do.  

            1.)   Plan for postseason success, not regular season success.  It is an entirely different thing to plan for postseason success than it is to plan for regular season success.   Bluntly, that means Pittsburgh better have 6 defensemen (not 3) capable of playing top-4 minutes if they hope to advance in the 2014 NHL playoffs.   It means the third and fourth lines need to be able to drive possession positively.   At its basic level, it means that a TEAM has to be constructed to cover when the inevitability of "stars" being shut down occurs.    

            2.)  Give your All-Stars linemates and partners who cover their relative weaknesses (which they have!) the best.   In the postseason, opponents will focus all their energy on shutting down your All-Stars.   What are your stars' "weak" points?  Because all talented players have them.  All of Pittsburgh's stars are guilty of trying to do "too much" when things get hard.   But, why?  Is it because no one can create time and space for them, so they try to create that time and space themselves (and fail)?  Is it because they're being asked to do something (dominate physically stronger opposition) they just can't do?   

            Look at when and why Crosby, Malkin, and Letang failed this postseason.   And, for any All-Star on your roster next season, openly acknowledge their weaknesses.   Find the defensive partner who can complement and cover; find the linemate who can create time and space. Because in the postseason, such coverage is necessary because All-Stars are going up against All-Stars, and their All-Stars are going to be keyed in on shutting down your All-Stars.  

        3.)   Make sure your depth guys can beat your opposition's depth guys:  Your All-Stars will fail at times.   Your team will have to cover when your All-Stars are shut down by other All-Stars.  You need a third liner or depth defenseman to come through with a game-winning goal: do you have the third liners and depth defensemen who can do that?   If you don't, can you find them?  

Teams—not Individuals—Win Stanley Cups

“This is not All-Star.   You do not pick individual players.   This is team sport.”   -Jaromir Jagr, 2013

 "The game has changed. That’s the first thing. The game has change so there is not much difference between the best player and the worst player on the ice. The fourth line can play easily against the first line. I don’t think it’s the same as 20 years ago. Coaches could look for the matches – put the first line against the fourth line – and there’s a chance you could score. The game has changed a lot. There’s a lot of good players. Very close." -Jaromir Jagr, 2013

Translation:   Expecting an All-Star, or even a group of All-Stars, to win a playoff series on talent alone will not work in the modern NHL.   There's less of a difference between fourth line and first line talent than there once was.  A physical fourth liner can overpower a smaller, skilled first liner.  Teams are closer than they used to be.  Parity rules in the salary-cap driven NHL.    

Takeaway:   All-Stars need to play within a structured, team system.   All-Stars also need support from other players.  You can't expect a team of All-Stars to win a series just because they're All-Stars.  It's not enough to be talented in the current NHL.  

Action Item:  Pittsburgh's All-Star talents need help from teammates.  All Pittsburgh players must be willing to do the dirty work.  All Pittsburgh All-Stars must buy into the team system—whatever the team system is—and play to their talents within a system designed to maximize their talents.   The Penguins need to make sure their best players are on lines or defensive pairings with appropriate personnel.  The Penguins also need to make sure their stars are playing within a team system that brings out the best in their talents—and that their stars aren’t going “outside” the system in the hopes of creating something from nothing.   

Franchise Players Can’t Do It All

                                                 

"When you play defense, good defense means you play the zone…. With our defense that we play, if [a defensive player] makes a mistake, there’s always somebody else. So it’s tougher. You’d have to beat five guys, not one guy. That’s why I would say it was tough for [Evgeni] Malkin and [Sidney Crosby] because it was a five guy unit."  -Jaromir Jagr, 2013

                Translation:    Even when I was at my best, I couldn’t beat all five guys on the ice.  (Notice the stick-hold in front of the net?)  Neither can Crosby and Malkin.  The Penguins didn’t have enough puck support to beat our defense. 

                Takeaway:  Expecting Crosby and Malkin to “will” their way to take over a game is fine when playing borderline playoff teams in the regular season.  It might even work against lower-seeded playoff teams in early rounds.  It’s sheer lunacy against equally talented teams (teams that have trophy winners of their own). 

                Action Item:   Pittsburgh's All-Stars have to play within a structure that provides them with the support they need.   Tactics have to be adjusted when dealing with a talented opponent employing a great system.   Elite players need to play with players who help to create time and space when matched up against 5-man units.  

The NHL, the Trap, and Legal Interference Come the Playoffs

“When you go against defense and you know somebody’s chasing you from behind, it’s tough to change speeds.  You just come in the trap. That’s the way Boston plays. That’s the way New Jersey plays. I remember in 1996, that’s the way Florida played, and we lost. People said, ‘How could you lose to Florida?’ They did a good job.” --Jaromir Jagr, 2013

Translation:   Mario and I only scored 1 goal TOTAL in the 1996 Eastern Conference Finalsagainst Florida.   We couldn’t get past New Jersey in 2001.   Our teams back then weren’t built to beat the trap, and our teams weren’t built to deal with interference being legal.   Crosby and Malkin had the same problem this series that Mario and I had when we lost to Florida and New Jersey.

Takeaways:   If you watch the NHL playoffs, you know the rulebook changes.   In the NHL playoffs, interference is more legal than it is during the NHL regular season.   That’s just reality.   But, if interference is legal, how does having an undersized defense, comprised mainly of puck-moving defensemen, provide any benefit?    How does maintaining lines that score 5-on-5 in the regular season with lots of time and space work out when time and space disappears in the postseason?

Action item:  Accept that interference is legal in the NHL playoffs.   Adjust your team, system, and structure accordingly so you can have success when—inevitably—your team encounters the trap and a slew of legal interference.   This likely means swapping out personnel on wing and defense—and it definitely means adjusting structure and strategy to be able to break a trap.  

Jaromir Jagr, Loosely Translated: A 6-Point Plan for Returning the Pittsburgh Penguins to Glory

 AKA:  How To Make the Pittsburgh Penguins a Champion Again

 Jaromir Jagr is older and wiser—and a lot slower on the ice—than he used to be.   After Jagr’s Bruins swept the Penguins, Jagr offered a slew of insightful quotes.   (You can find the great quotes here and here and here. Note:  I write a blog for fun, I couldn’t write this without journalists who asked great questions, so thanks and credit to the journalists who got these great quotes in the first place.)  

Here, I’ve taken the liberty of translating Jagr’s quotes into takeaways and actionable items for Pittsburgh’s management and coaching staff.   

Why a blog series on what Jagr had to say about the 2013 Eastern Conference Finals?     

Because Jagr, at age 41, has learned some things that a younger Jagr didn’t know.   What Pittsburgh hockey fans could forget Jagr insisting things would be just fine with “Jan and Kip” as his linemates?    What Pittsburgh fan could forget thinking, year after year, “Well, we have Jagr and Mario, so we always have a shot?”

What Pittsburgh fan can forget how those late nineties teams never got back to the Stanley Cup Finals?   What Pittsburgh fan can’t look back and see what Jagr now sees:  To win a Cup, even when you're the best player in the world and it isn't close, you need more help than Jan Hrdina and Kip Miller on your number one line come the playoffs.   To win a Cup, you need great defense and great goaltending. While you need All-Stars, you also need Troy Loney or Max Talbot to score some important goals.

The Penguins’ post-series quotes greatly distressed me:  the players, too often, sounded the way a much younger Jagr sounded.   That they just “didn’t execute.”  That they should have done better.   That they should have played better.   The coach sounded pretty much the same way.

Jaromir Jagr’s quotes pointed out what he has learned—and what it would be wise for Pittsburgh’s management, coaching staff, and players to learn if they hope to return to the Stanley Cup Finals in future seasons.  So, without further adieu, let’s begin this series on translations, takeaways, and actionable items for returning the Pittsburgh Penguins to glory.

All taken from the mouth of wise old sage, Mr. Jaromir Jagr.  (And, no, I can’t believe I just typed that-now-true-description of Jagr.)

Without further adieu, here's the Series:  Jaromir Jagr, Loosely Translated:  A 6-Point Plan for Returning the Pittsburgh Penguins to Glory.

• The NHL, the Trap, and Legal Interference Come the Playoffs
• Franchise Players Can't Do It All
• Teams--Not Individuals--Win the Stanley Cup
• It's the Playoffs--Expect Us to Key on your Stars 
• The Best Players in the League are Gonna Have OFF Nights--AND during the PLAYOFFS!
• It's HARD to be the FAVORITES--so do your BEST EVERY year

Trading All-Stars

Pleading for a dose of rationality before pulling the trigger on trades you'll regret...

The last time the Penguins traded a franchise player, they didn’t make the playoffs for several years.

If Nashville would somehow want to trade Shea Weber for Kris Letang and one of Pittsburgh’s elite defensive prospects (and I don’t know why Nashville would, so this is speculative moot point), I do that deal in a heartbeat because it makes Pittsburgh better now.   If Montreal wants to trade PK Subban for Letang, I can live with that deal, too.  

I can’t deal with trading Letang for prospects and “a position player”—it doesn’t improve the Penguins NOW, in Sidney Crosby’s prime.   Getting a “scorer” and a prospect in exchange for an All-Star defenseman doesn’t improve where the Penguins are weak NOW.

I can’t even bring myself to think about trading Evgeni Malkin, but suffice to say if one were to consider such utter lunacy, you’d need to get enough points scored, plus goals saved to make up for the 100 points Malkin would be contributing to your line-up (good luck doing that).   If I trade Malkin, I want a young franchise defenseman, a second line center, and 2 goal scoring wingers, or a 1-goal scoring winger and a 3^rd line center.   I doubt there’s a franchise that has what I need to get equal value for Malkin, and no other team typically wants to gut their franchise for one player (unless we’re talking the Flyers in 1992 for Lindros). 

Trading All-Stars players—generally speaking—weakens a team unless you are exchanging All-Star players for All-Star players.  Think John Cullen for Ron Francis.   Think Mark Recchi for Rick Tocchet.    And, please, whatever you do, do not think about Jaromir Jagr for prospects whose names I can’t bring myself to write (because, while that's the worst-case scenario, the team that gets the better player usually wins the trade).  

Trading All-Star players—without getting equal return—means you’re more likely to become the Tampa Bay Lightning (borderline playoff team) than a much better team.   And getting “equal return”—as in, “Use the cap space to trade and acquire some other defenseman!” isn’t like a video game.   Franchise defensemen aren’t readily available, and cost a mint.  Franchise centers aren’t readily available, and cost a mint. (  You may have “cap space,” but you won’t be able to acquire other “franchise” players without giving up significant assets.)

I recognize we live in the era of the salary cap and it’s impossible to keep teams forever together and that hard decisions have to be made.

I’d just suggest that in lieu of trading All-Stars, Pittsburgh considers putting the All-Stars they already have in the best position to win with the most appropriate line-mates and defensive partners for the postseason (which is very different than the NHL regular season). 

Because—as the years 2002 through 2006 demonstrated so painfully, you’re more likely—short-term—to weaken your team when you trade a franchise player, especially if you fail to get another franchise player in return.   And, because, as the difference between this year’s Penguins and  the 2011 Penguins should show, you’re more likely to advance in the playoffs (even if not capture the ultimate prize) if you keep your franchise players.   

I can only hope management—in particular, Mario Lemieux (who once, basically, approved the trade of Sergei Zubov for Kevin Hatcher)—takes a look at their team and makes rational decisions to IMPROVE the team, rather than IRRATIONAL decisions based on the disappointing emotions of a playoff loss that was a collective, organizational failure (from the GM's failure to get the right (on-ice, not on-paper) support to the coaching staff's failure to adjust to star players' failure to produce to supporting star players' same failure to produce).

Sometimes, Hockey Happens

1996 Eastern Conference Finals.   Ron Francis is hurt.  Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr just defeated an excellent New York Rangers team in 5 games.   New York’s coach says, “Good luck to the next team that has to stop Mario and Jagr.”   

The Florida Panthers stop Mario and Jagr.

To the tune of 1 goal in 7 games.

Mario is in the Hall of Fame.

Jagr will join Mario in the Hall whenever he decides to hang up his skates.

Mario and Jagr were, individually,  better than any player on that Florida Panthers team.   They still lost that series.    They scored one goal between them.

Sometimes, hockey happens.    Teams win and lose.

Keep that in mind, should you be tempted to scream that it’s time to “blow up the Penguins” or that franchise players aren’t really franchise players.

Mario and Jagr.   In their primes.  One goal against Tom Fitzgerald and the Florida Panthers and their blasted rats.

Yeah, what happened to Sid and Geno in 2013 happened a generation ago to Mario and Jagr—and it will happen to another team replete with future Hall-of-Famers in some upcoming NHL playoff season.

Cause that’s hockey, and that’s the NHL playoffs, and teams win the Stanley Cup, and it’s really hard to win the Stanley Cup—and that’s why we watch, and that’s why we celebrate when our captain hoists the silver chalice.