Penguins Re-Sign Michel Therrein

I promise I'll get back to posting about the Penguins' greatest games as soon as they stop making news. I assure everyone -- I was not going to interrupt the discussion to report that the Penguins traded the rights to Tim Brent to the Chicago Blackhawks for the rights to defenseman Danny Richmond. I'm all about the team and news, but couldn't get excited about that deal enough to post. Sorry. All dealing Brent did was eliminate one of the 9 borderline NHL forwards the Penguins were going to have compete for 1 or 2 remaining forward spots in camp.

But news about the coach re-signing?? That's certainly post-worthy.

Michel Therrein got a new 3 year contract today. I'm not aware that terms were announced, but the deal replaces the one he currently had with one year left on it, and increased his salary. Basically, in addition to more money, Therrein got a 2 year extension.

I'll say this: 3 years is a long time for a coach to be around in the NHL, a league that goes through coaches about as often as I wanted to look at Katie Price (a.k.a. Jordan) about 5 years ago when she graced the cover of Playboy. Can you say, OH MY ........?????? :

Anyway, back to Therrein.

(Do I have to?)

Okay.

Overall, it's hard to complain about what Therrein has done the last few years. There always are things to nitpick about, but there probably are about every coach. Most imporantly, he wins games, and that's really all you want from a coach. The fact that the guy said to have the most dislike for Therrein -- defenseman Brooks Orpik -- re-signed with the team says it all. Orpik knows that Therrien has helped make him a better player.

I've noticed Therrein grow a lot in the last few years, particularly in the way he handles goaltenders. Back when he coached in Wilkes-Barre, he was pretty tough on Marc Andre Fleury, Andy Chiodo, and others. If one of them played a single sub-par game in the playoffs, he was on the pine. That's certainly not a way to build a goaltender's confidence. But he's gotten better with that over the years and, even though he still rotates lines too much, he's also installed a sound 1-2-2 system for the team that plays to the strength of the team and lets them succeed when they play it.

Of course, only time will tell if Therrein is around at the end of his new deal. After all, expectations are high around town now that the Penguins advanced to the Cup Finals. If they go through a mediocre stretch or are eliminated in the first two rounds of the playoffs, there will be calls to fire him.

Those calls probably will be unjustified. Just as they have been thusfar ....