NHL Awards 2011: Pittsburgh Penguins’ coach Dan Bylsma wins Jack Adams Award for Best Coach
Pittsburgh Penguins might not have had its best season during the 2010-2011 time frame, but its coach Dan Bylsma did not lose hope at any moment and kept striving without key players.
Bylsma was recognised for his dedication as he won the Jack Adams Award for being the best coach at the 2011 National Hockey League (NHL) Awards at the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, on Wednesday.
Bylsma was the same coach that led his team, Pittsburgh Penguins, to winning the Stanley Cup in 2009 and remained steadfast throughout last season even though he was missing top two players in his team, Penguins’ captain, Sidney Crosby, and Evgeni Malkin.
"This award is really just an indication of what the players did and what our team did throughout the year, throughout that adversity, and fashioned our team into what was still a very good team", Bylsma said complimenting his players more than he did for
himself.
HL Broadcasters' Association was the authority on choosing the winner of this award from three finalists, Barry Trotz of Nashville Predators and Vancouver Canucks’ coach, Alain Vigneault, but they chose Bylsma.
Vigneault led his team to its first Stanley Cup appearance in nearly 19 years and Trotz also motivated his team into their first semifinals in the franchise’s history, but no one deserved it more than Bylsma, whose team lost to Tampa Bay Lightning in the
Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
"The players did an amazing job to keep on going with the injuries and through some of the down times and kept expecting to win — and did", Bylsma said, adding that near the end, no one could have thought of us going this deep without the manpower he had
at the start.
Sidney Crosby, a key player in Penguins’ attacking line-up, was injured in late January and faced concussion related problems, and remained out for the remaining part.
Evgeni Malkin only played half of the season and stayed out while Penguins also missed all-star player, Jordan Staal, for half the season.
If it can get its line-up back and healthy, the next season will surely yield good results for Penguins if it keeps this level of motivation.
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