Praising Dan Bylsma

If you read this blog or follow Brandon or myself on twitter, you may know that we're not always the biggest fans of Dan Bylsma.  After the past three Penguin games, Dan Bylsma deserves as much praise as he's ever deserved as Penguins coach.  Sure at times he has played Brian Gibbons with Sidney Crosby, Taylor Pyatt with Evgeni Malkin, and Deryk Engellend over Robert Bortuzzo, but the coaching that he has done in the last three games is esentially why the Penguins have 6 points in those games.

Let's backtrack to the Olympics to start off.  After watching some USA games, Brandon and I were texting back and forth and the one thing that pissed us off more than anything with the Americans was the way Dan Bylsma was coaching. There was no grind these bitches down, there was no get to our game.  He was playing matchups like we've never seen before.  One thing that Brandon and I had said is that we wish Bylsma would play matchups like he did in the Olympics.

Now fast forward to right after the Olympic break and remember the Penguins played some of their worst hockey of the year minus a win in Nashville.

Fast forward again to the Anaheim game in which the Penguins played poorly for two periods and were lucky to be tied 1-1 even though only recording 7 shots.  So what did Dan Bylsma do that let the Penguins steal two points from the Ducks?  He switched up his lines.  The lines that have worked throughout the entire season.  He moved Jussi Jokinen to the 3rd Line and moved Taylor Pyatt to the 2nd line.  These moves looked a little crazy at the time, but in return, he got three lines moving and the Penguins recorded as many shots in the 3rd as they did in the 1st two periods.  

Move forward to Monday night in Washington.  We start out by saying, Dan Bylsma owns Adam Oates.  After last nights win, Bylsma is 7-0-0 in his career against Oates.  As you may know, the Capitals entire offense runs through Alex Ovechkin.  Dan Bylsma matched up Maatta and Orpik against Ovechkin as much as he could Monday night with last change.  According to Shift Chart of Ovechkin's 20 shifts on Monday (including Power Play) 14 of them he saw either one of, if not both shifts with Maatta and Orpik opposing him. We've been down on Orpik for a lot over the past few months, but his play over the past two games in shutting down Ovechkin were two of the best defensive games we've seen all year.

Another really good matchup that Bylsma played on Monday was getting the Crosby line out against Mike Green and Dimitry Orlov.  As a Pens fan, thats a matchup that I want to happen all day.  Especially because Bylsma is keeping Crosby away from Carlson and Alzner.  Almost all of Green and Orlov's shifts were mimicked by Crosby.  Adam Oates may have wanted that matchup all game, but you've gotta give Byslma credit for keeping that matchup.

In last nights game, Bylsma made sure he got the same matchups, which is to why Alex Ovechkin looked invsible throughout the entire game.  Ovechkin saw Maatta and Orpik on nearly every single one of his shifts.  Another reason as to why Ovechkin didn't get anything going is that the Penguins dominated the play in the First Period and it seemed like on every one of Ovechkin's shifts, the Penguins had puck possession.  

To finish, the Penguins sudden recent turnaround is only on one man's shoulders.  

If Dan Bylsma keeps coaching the way he has the past few games, the Penguins have a really good chance to go very far in April, May, and June.

Go Pens.