First Year Pens' Coaches Historically Bring Championships

The Pittsburgh Penguins have won three Stanley Cups in the last 25 years. Back to back in 1991-1992, and again in 2009. Are there any similarities from those years and this year to suggest fate is behind the Penguins team of 2015-2016? The obvious one is that the top line in all cases featured arguably the best player in the game at the time. Mario Lemieux had such great numbers that just looking at them on a paper they don't even make sense. In 1991-1992 for example, Brett Hull lead the league in goals and Wayne Gretzky led in assists, yet Lemieux took home the Art Ross trophy with 131 points....in 64 games!!! That's 2.05 ppg. In that playoff year, he had 34 points in just 15 games, which is also more than 2 points per game.

In the 2009 cup year, Sidney Crosby put up 103 points in 71 games, and has been magical again in the back half of this season. In the three cup years, the Penguins also had a second league top 5 forward, a beast defenceman, and an above average goalie. Not every playoff team has these things so the Penguins already have a leg up. Yet really, so what? These alone mean nothing, because doesn't every Stanley Cup winning team have these factors? Didn't the Penguins have these factors in years they didn't win the cup? Yes. So that brings us to the most important similarity between this year and the Cup years.... Coaching. In all theee championship seasons, the Pittsburgh Penguins were led by coaches in their first seasons with the team. 1991 saw Badger Bob Johnson take over, and he pushed a close team over the championship ledge. Unfortunately, a terminal illness prevented him from defending his title and he passed away in the offseason. The silver lining is that Scotty Bowman was waiting in the wings. The legend had no trouble helping the team repeat. Even more similar to this current season, Michel Therrien fell short in his Cup bid from 2008 and was let go part way through the following 2008-2009 season. Dan Bylsma replaced him, and won the Cup only in his first year with the team, but his first year in the League. He coached in the AHL before being promoted to the big club. As you know, Mike Johnston was let go during this season, and replaced by Mike Sullivan. He, like Bylsma, had an NHL playing career before turning to coaching. He was also coaching in the AHL during the season of his promotion. Sullivan has been an assistant coach in the NHL, but like Bylsma, this is not only his first season behind the Pens bench, but his first as head coach in the top league. According to history, for Sullivan it's a cup this year or never. EndFragment