"It's A Great Day For Hockey"

Well folks much to my pleasure and others dismay, Ray Shero with the blessing of Mario signed Dan Bylsma to a two year contract extension along with assistant coaches Tony Granato and Todd Reardon. It was the right thing to do for several reasons: Dan has gotten the Pens to the playoffs every year he has been here and usually as a higher rated seed. Dan has gotten the team to the conference finals twice in 5 years with a chance to with the Stanley Cup. Dan won the Jack Adams award getting the Pens to the playoffs without Geno and Sid. Dan helped get Paul Martin and Matt Cooke turned around successfully. Dan is well respected by the entire team and organization.

The Penguins are, I believe, one of the premier organizations in all of sports. Mario is a class guy who runs a class organization. Their popularity has soared to be like that of the Steelers. In fact I am friends with several of the "Brinzers" - our great friends from the British Penguins Fan Club and follow tweets from a Penguins fan club in Brazil and Poland.  Don't you think Mario wants class people to run his organization ? He recognizes that with Dan who is a class act.

I have heard it all from benching players who should be in the lineup to playing Iginla on his off wing to not adjusting during the games.........The only comment I say is to look at the score from games 3 & 4 against Boston and if one of those shots that hits the post goes in we could have gone 7 games and........Point is the series with the exception of game 2 was razor close. This is something that Ray Shero and Mario recognized along with the fact they have a class guy already in place. I have seen a lot of coaches who did not deserve to be behind the bench, were not repected or well liked by the players, or over emotional - names like Kevin Constatntine, Ed Olczyk, and Michele Therrein come to mind. Or what about the antics of Boudreau or Tortorella ?

Today is a significant day in the history of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Ray & Mario chose not to have a knee jerk reaction and put great faith in Dan and his staff. You can rest assured that tweaks will be made that will get us to that moment where we see Sid carry the Stanley Cup again.

It truly is without a doubt "A Great Day For Hockey" ! Let's Go Pens !