Credit: James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images
Before he even had a chance to skate with the Pittsburgh Penguins in training camp, winger Justin Brazeau got used to hearing from coach Dan Muse. It wasn’t all that much, just a chat between a player looking to make a leap in his career and a rookie NHL head coach.
“In the summer, I remember he would give me a call sometimes if he was driving home or something, just to check in and see how life was going and stuff like that,” Brazeau, who signed with the Penguins in July, recalled Friday after the Penguins practiced at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. “I think anytime you have a guy you can approach away from the game, it makes it a little easier with that relationship as far as when it comes to the hockey stuff.”
Muse has made what seem to be few missteps with the Penguins, who sit solidly in a playoff spot after widespread preseason predictions had them missing the postseason for a fourth straight year.
As chronicled recently in PHN, Muse said when he was hired that he hoped to get the most out of every player, and he pretty obviously is doing that — Brazeau, who already has a career-high 15 goals and 27 points, is one shining example — but how?
How has he become such a Penguins whisperer?
Of course, it’s hard to find a coach who does not want to connect with his players, but in this case it seems to be team-wide. This is something different from the time that Rick Tocchet, as a Penguins assistant, worked so well with then-Penguins winger Phil Kessel.
Muse – who on Saturday goes against both is former team, the New York Rangers, whom he served as an assistant, as well as former Penguins coach Mike Sullivan, now running the Rangers bench – not surprisingly deflected, given his likeable, low-key personality.
“No. 1, it’s the players that are here,” Muse said. “They put in the work every day. They have the right mindset. And then the coaching staff, for us, we want to come in here and have the same mindset. We want to put in the work and just keep trying to build, for us to help the players get better, and for us personally – for us to continue to get better as a coaching staff as we go through the course of the year.”
Still, Muse has guided the Penguins through some challenges, including absences – their 4-1 win Thursday against New Jersey was their first without injured captain and leading scorer Sidney Crosby – and a rough patch in December.
A key seems to be Muse’s ability to simultaneously coach the team and its individual players. The roster during a season of transition contains veterans who are future Hall of Famers, young players getting established in the league, and a mix of holdovers and first-year Penguins, many of them who were looking to rejuvenate or kick-start their careers.
“As a coaching staff, we view things as like everybody is different,” Muse said. “Guys are in different places in their career. Guys are in different places in terms of age, in terms of experience. I think everybody operates a little bit differently.
“Collectively as a coaching staff, that’s something that we believe in. This is still, for the great majority of our coaching staff, this is our first year together, and we also have the mindset that we want to keep getting better every day. We want to keep improving on what we’re doing. And we’re going to continue to do that because there’s still plenty of room for growth in everything for the team, and plenty of room for growth as an organization. Just keep working each day toward that.”
The players not only notice, but also seem to appreciate the individual attention.
“He’s been around — maybe not as a head coach, but I think anytime you have that experience, being in the locker room, seeing what the guys respond to best … I think everybody’s different,” Brazeau said. “Some people need maybe a little bit more getting talked to, and some guys need to be left alone.”
Brazeau said Muse’s approach to not only the system he runs but also the way he corrects players is effective.
“From him, just the freedom to go out and play,” Brazeau said. “He does a good job of letting you know about mistakes, but it’s not in a way that your next shift you’re worried about making that mistake again. He does a good job of teaching the game, making sure each person has confidence each time they go on the ice that they can make that play the next time.”
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