Dan Bylsma was fired by the Penguins after another playoff flop in 2013-14. — GETTY IMAGES
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
A weekly feature rounding up a lot of randomness from a lot of time around our city’s teams …
• Had a fascinating conversation this week about Dan Bylsma’s final couple of years behind the Penguins’ bench, and it shed light on something I hadn’t previously understood: Why, if the people over his head were displeased with his system, did it never change?
The answer, according to one individual eminently in the know, was that Bylsma flat-out wouldn’t listen to anyone. No, not even to Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle.
The part that was most irksome to the owners was the same that seemed to irk most in the public, that being the spread-all-over-creation breakouts. Those above Bylsma recognized that the breakouts, one, stunted his own star players’ speed by having them catch passes at a standstill and, two, were laughably easy to defend when a team had time to practice it. Such as, you know, a best-of-seven playoff series.
Bylsma would occasionally be told of this dissatisfaction, and the system would be modified … but never for more than a game or two.
Some coaches really do forget that the objective is to win, not to win your way.
• The Steelers are much more dissatisfied with the route-running of Martavis Bryant and Markus Wheaton than they’re letting on publicly. I was told their breakdown of film — game and practices — show not only poor routes but also quitting on plays. They’ve been furious with both at various intervals.
And I looked into that after Mike Tomlin gave what I thought was a terrific — if lengthy — answer Tuesday when I asked, based on some of Bryant’s big plays of late, if the coach wondered whether or not Bryant could have done this earlier in the season: “He’s done some nice things, but it doesn’t make me wonder. It’s a progress that he goes through and young guys go through to earn their snaps. I think he’s grown more from the time we’ve put a helmet on him to now than he did even from the start of the season to when we put a helmet on him. But again, we’re using him in package football. We’re very cognizant of the things we’re asking him to do. We’re keeping it simple so that he can play fast and utilize the skills that he has. He’s a talented guy. He was a third-year junior when he came out. We’ve had quite a few of those over the years. We feel pretty comfortable about the ability to grow and develop those guys. That was once Antonio Brown, who missed about nine games or so his rookie year but was a critical part of our playoff run.”
Tomlin laughed.
“I have an image of him running down the field with the ball attached to his head in the playoffs his rookie year. He did a lot of watching in a similar manner. Hopefully, Martavis can ascend the way Antonio has.”
There are a lot missteps one can pin on Tomlin this season. Holding back Bryant, in my judgment after these talks, absolutely is not one of them. The young receivers need to man up.
• None of the Steelers’ younger players demonstrates more classic Steelers-like traits than Cam Heyward: He stands tall, he’s big, he’s mean on the field, and he says and does all the right things. He plays and behaves, at least from this view, like the next-generation Steeler.
And that includes his response when I broached that very topic with him the other day: “I have a long way to go, and I mean as a player. I really do. I try to carry myself the right way. I’m respectful of Brett Keisel and James Harrison and Troy Polamalu and the players who have made this defense great for a long time. But that doesn’t mean anything if I’m not playing at that level, too.”
• Russell Martin’s next destination will be determined by the money. No longer any reasonable doubt about that, given the current setting. But I’ve also stood by my original statement in an August column that, all things being equal or close to equal, he’d prefer to stay in Pittsburgh.
And to buttress that, I’ll share here a terrific anecdote Neil Walker told me about as it related to Martin’s final at-bat in the Pirates’ wild card loss to the Giants, after which the crowd at PNC Park stood and roared upon his return to the dugout and drew a tip of the batting helmet: “I don’t know what’s going to happen with Russ, but I know he loved it here. I know that. When he came down those steps after that last ovation, he was emotional.”
How emotional?
“Really emotional.”
• The Pirates are prepared to spend money this offseason, whether that’s on Martin or starting pitching. I’m hearing some impressive figures. But then, hearing isn’t seeing. We’ll see.
• There has been no approach from the team to Walker.
• There’s a quiet but quality relationship forming between Marc-Andre Fleury and Thomas Greiss. Both are naturally easygoing, but it’s clear they get along, always big with goaltending tandems.
One scene I liked: In Minnesota, after the Wild pounced on Greiss for a goal that would be waved off, Fleury was as animated as anyone in defending his partner. And then, off the ice, when a St. Paul reporter asked Greiss a question about the goal, it was Fleury at the next stall who chimed in, “There was no goal.”
Mind you, this was the night before Fleury’s extension was signed in Winnipeg, so any theory that Fleury would already have been cemented in comfort flies out the window.
• Management loves Derrick Pouliot. At least this management teams does, especially adding Mike Johnston’s experience with him in the WHL. He shouldn’t get too cozy in Wilkes-Barre.
• That will be too many defensemen, though, and they know it. Paul Martin is the obvious odd man out, at least in terms of most likely to be traded.
• Todd Haley, to his credit, took the fall for the Steelers’ miserable early offense against the Jets, which, no coincidence, came via the return of the Sideways & Screens R Us playcalling: “When I say it was a poor performance by us offensively, just like when it’s a good performance, it takes everybody. That goes for me as well. The Jets guessed right a couple of times on screens. We didn’t get the rush we were looking for. I have to be better, too, in that area.”
And then …
“But I think our screen game has been a really good weapon. We had two good ones. One got called back on a penalty that could have gone either way on Maurkice Pouncey. It has been a very good weapon for us, and we have to keep it as a weapon.”
No, actually, you don’t. An analysis this week showed that the Steelers run more screens than any team in the league. Given the real weapons at hand, that’s ridiculous.
Lest anyone think this is one man’s mind over others, it isn’t. Tomlin is entirely on board, from what I heard directly and indirectly. Also ridiculous.
See the last sentence of the Bylsma entry above for more.
• Don’t read too much into Tyler Boyd’s public admonition that some Pitt football players care more than others. Those who lead on the Panthers — Boyd, Chad Voytik, James Conner, Todd Thomas, Ray Vinopal — are all highly wound-up personalities. It shows on and off the field. And in Boyd’s case, if you’ll recall, he did nothing but win at Clairton. It’s all he knew, all he understands.
Interpreting his remarks as any kind of general dissension or Paul Chryst losing the roster would be miles off the mark. Just isn’t happening.
• On the hardcourt, where I’ll cover Pitt’s 108th basketball season opener tonight against Niagara, the Panthers’ people are ecstatic about Michael Young’s summer-long leap. And not just because he averaged 22.5 points and nine boards in the two exhibitions. Rather, it’s that he’s that rare big man — 6-9 — who can genuinely play power forward and the post. That affords Jamie Dixon quite the luxury when matching up against a given ACC opponents’ strengths.
“I think that’s something that will occur,” Dixon said, “and I think it will be a strength for us.”
• I won’t say the Riverhounds have a done deal with Dave Brandt, the highly successful coach at Navy, but I will say it’s close. And if you click his name, you’ll see it’s cause for excitement.
• Good dude: Dick LeBeau. That is, if one can call a 77-year-old man ‘dude.’ He noticed that I was walking out of the Steelers’ cafeteria with a smoothie and a banana in hand, rather than the standard Starbucks, and followed me out the door to let me know how smart that was.
We should all be so lucky as to be as phenomenally hale and healthy at his age. He’s a marvel.
November 14, 2014
Friday Insider: Bylsma had chance to change
by Dejan Kovacevic • Friday Insider • Penguins, Pirates, Pitt, Riverhounds, Steelers
Dan Bylsma was fired by the Penguins after another playoff flop in 2013-14. — GETTY IMAGES
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
A weekly feature rounding up a lot of randomness from a lot of time around our city’s teams …
The answer, according to one individual eminently in the know, was that Bylsma flat-out wouldn’t listen to anyone. No, not even to Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle.
The part that was most irksome to the owners was the same that seemed to irk most in the public, that being the spread-all-over-creation breakouts. Those above Bylsma recognized that the breakouts, one, stunted his own star players’ speed by having them catch passes at a standstill and, two, were laughably easy to defend when a team had time to practice it. Such as, you know, a best-of-seven playoff series.
Bylsma would occasionally be told of this dissatisfaction, and the system would be modified … but never for more than a game or two.
Some coaches really do forget that the objective is to win, not to win your way.
• The Steelers are much more dissatisfied with the route-running of Martavis Bryant and Markus Wheaton than they’re letting on publicly. I was told their breakdown of film — game and practices — show not only poor routes but also quitting on plays. They’ve been furious with both at various intervals.
And I looked into that after Mike Tomlin gave what I thought was a terrific — if lengthy — answer Tuesday when I asked, based on some of Bryant’s big plays of late, if the coach wondered whether or not Bryant could have done this earlier in the season: “He’s done some nice things, but it doesn’t make me wonder. It’s a progress that he goes through and young guys go through to earn their snaps. I think he’s grown more from the time we’ve put a helmet on him to now than he did even from the start of the season to when we put a helmet on him. But again, we’re using him in package football. We’re very cognizant of the things we’re asking him to do. We’re keeping it simple so that he can play fast and utilize the skills that he has. He’s a talented guy. He was a third-year junior when he came out. We’ve had quite a few of those over the years. We feel pretty comfortable about the ability to grow and develop those guys. That was once Antonio Brown, who missed about nine games or so his rookie year but was a critical part of our playoff run.”
Tomlin laughed.
“I have an image of him running down the field with the ball attached to his head in the playoffs his rookie year. He did a lot of watching in a similar manner. Hopefully, Martavis can ascend the way Antonio has.”
There are a lot missteps one can pin on Tomlin this season. Holding back Bryant, in my judgment after these talks, absolutely is not one of them. The young receivers need to man up.
• None of the Steelers’ younger players demonstrates more classic Steelers-like traits than Cam Heyward: He stands tall, he’s big, he’s mean on the field, and he says and does all the right things. He plays and behaves, at least from this view, like the next-generation Steeler.
And that includes his response when I broached that very topic with him the other day: “I have a long way to go, and I mean as a player. I really do. I try to carry myself the right way. I’m respectful of Brett Keisel and James Harrison and Troy Polamalu and the players who have made this defense great for a long time. But that doesn’t mean anything if I’m not playing at that level, too.”
• Russell Martin’s next destination will be determined by the money. No longer any reasonable doubt about that, given the current setting. But I’ve also stood by my original statement in an August column that, all things being equal or close to equal, he’d prefer to stay in Pittsburgh.
And to buttress that, I’ll share here a terrific anecdote Neil Walker told me about as it related to Martin’s final at-bat in the Pirates’ wild card loss to the Giants, after which the crowd at PNC Park stood and roared upon his return to the dugout and drew a tip of the batting helmet: “I don’t know what’s going to happen with Russ, but I know he loved it here. I know that. When he came down those steps after that last ovation, he was emotional.”
How emotional?
“Really emotional.”
• The Pirates are prepared to spend money this offseason, whether that’s on Martin or starting pitching. I’m hearing some impressive figures. But then, hearing isn’t seeing. We’ll see.
• There has been no approach from the team to Walker.
• There’s a quiet but quality relationship forming between Marc-Andre Fleury and Thomas Greiss. Both are naturally easygoing, but it’s clear they get along, always big with goaltending tandems.
One scene I liked: In Minnesota, after the Wild pounced on Greiss for a goal that would be waved off, Fleury was as animated as anyone in defending his partner. And then, off the ice, when a St. Paul reporter asked Greiss a question about the goal, it was Fleury at the next stall who chimed in, “There was no goal.”
Mind you, this was the night before Fleury’s extension was signed in Winnipeg, so any theory that Fleury would already have been cemented in comfort flies out the window.
• Management loves Derrick Pouliot. At least this management teams does, especially adding Mike Johnston’s experience with him in the WHL. He shouldn’t get too cozy in Wilkes-Barre.
• That will be too many defensemen, though, and they know it. Paul Martin is the obvious odd man out, at least in terms of most likely to be traded.
• Todd Haley, to his credit, took the fall for the Steelers’ miserable early offense against the Jets, which, no coincidence, came via the return of the Sideways & Screens R Us playcalling: “When I say it was a poor performance by us offensively, just like when it’s a good performance, it takes everybody. That goes for me as well. The Jets guessed right a couple of times on screens. We didn’t get the rush we were looking for. I have to be better, too, in that area.”
And then …
“But I think our screen game has been a really good weapon. We had two good ones. One got called back on a penalty that could have gone either way on Maurkice Pouncey. It has been a very good weapon for us, and we have to keep it as a weapon.”
No, actually, you don’t. An analysis this week showed that the Steelers run more screens than any team in the league. Given the real weapons at hand, that’s ridiculous.
Lest anyone think this is one man’s mind over others, it isn’t. Tomlin is entirely on board, from what I heard directly and indirectly. Also ridiculous.
See the last sentence of the Bylsma entry above for more.
• Don’t read too much into Tyler Boyd’s public admonition that some Pitt football players care more than others. Those who lead on the Panthers — Boyd, Chad Voytik, James Conner, Todd Thomas, Ray Vinopal — are all highly wound-up personalities. It shows on and off the field. And in Boyd’s case, if you’ll recall, he did nothing but win at Clairton. It’s all he knew, all he understands.
Interpreting his remarks as any kind of general dissension or Paul Chryst losing the roster would be miles off the mark. Just isn’t happening.
• On the hardcourt, where I’ll cover Pitt’s 108th basketball season opener tonight against Niagara, the Panthers’ people are ecstatic about Michael Young’s summer-long leap. And not just because he averaged 22.5 points and nine boards in the two exhibitions. Rather, it’s that he’s that rare big man — 6-9 — who can genuinely play power forward and the post. That affords Jamie Dixon quite the luxury when matching up against a given ACC opponents’ strengths.
“I think that’s something that will occur,” Dixon said, “and I think it will be a strength for us.”
• I won’t say the Riverhounds have a done deal with Dave Brandt, the highly successful coach at Navy, but I will say it’s close. And if you click his name, you’ll see it’s cause for excitement.
• Good dude: Dick LeBeau. That is, if one can call a 77-year-old man ‘dude.’ He noticed that I was walking out of the Steelers’ cafeteria with a smoothie and a banana in hand, rather than the standard Starbucks, and followed me out the door to let me know how smart that was.
We should all be so lucky as to be as phenomenally hale and healthy at his age. He’s a marvel.