Penguins Lose To Islanders, 3-2 (SO) In Bylmsa's Debut Behind Bench

Even a change behind the Penguin bench isn't enough to give the Penguins a boost.

In the first game with a new coach, one would think a team would come out flying -- showing work-ethic and energy not seen before, if only because they'd want to impress the new boss, let alone MAKE THE PLAYOFFS.

All the Penguins did yesterday was show they could play on relatively even terms with the worst team in the National Hockey League, the New York Islanders, for 65 minutes, then lose in a shootout.

The Penguins did pick up a point to move them within 4 of the 7th and 8th place Buffalo Sabres and Florida Panthers, respectively.

However, the Penguins also failed to pick up a point that could end up making the difference between them making the post-season or getting an early start at working on their golf game in April.

Evgeni Malkin and Ryan Whitney scored for the Penguins in regulation, but only Petr Sykora was able to beat Islanders' netminder Joey McDonald in the shootout, while his Pittsburgh counterpart, Marc-Andre Fleury, allowed shootout goals to Frans Neilsen and Jeff Tambellini to give New York the win.

On the bright side, the Penguins rang up a season high 37 shots, but that's telling since the Penguins have given up 40+ in each of the 2 games prior to their contest against the Islanders yesterday. New York isn't the best defensive team in the league, either, so too much shouldn't be read into Pittsburgh's shot totals yesterday. Although new coach Dan Bylsma wants the Penguins to play a more up-tempo, attacking style, time will tell if they are able to translate that into more shots and more goals.

It was already going to be interesting to see what Penguins' GM Ray Shero does at the trade deadline. Now, it will be worth watching even more. Will he bring in players with speed? Or will he try to improve the Penguins defensively, where they have been ba a lot of this season? Both maybe? His feelings on whether he's going to keep Bylsma on as coach after the rest of this season may have something to do with that.

The Penguins will have some additional time to work on the nuances of how Bylsma wants them to play when they have their first full practice on Wednesday, one day before their next matchup -- a home contest against the struggling Montreal Canadiens and newly acquired Habs' defenseman Mathieu Schneider.

Meanwhile, Michel Therrein finally spoke about his dismissal yesterday, saying he "never saw it coming" and was "shocked" by the firing. He was not critical of Shero, however. In fact, he went on to predict that the Penguins will make the playoffs.

That, of course, remains to be seen.