{"id":558461,"date":"2026-04-23T20:06:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/558461\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T20:06:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:06:18","slug":"muse-leans-on-experience-to-get-penguins-out-of-3-0-hole-vs-flyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/558461\/","title":{"rendered":"Muse leans on experience to get Penguins out of 3-0 hole vs. Flyers"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Laviolette was let go by the Predators in 2020, Muse sought more experience as a head coach and went to the USNTDP, where he coached future NHL players such as Ryan Leonard<\/a> (Washington Capitals), Will Smith<\/a> (San Jose Sharks), Zeev Buium<\/a>\u00a0(Vancouver Canucks) and Luke Hughes<\/a> (New Jersey Devils), as well as Penguins prospect Rutger McGroarty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was great for me and helped me with a lot of my development,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot different going from high school to that junior level and the high intensity, but he helped the young guys a lot and he was great with the leadership group there.\u201d<\/p>\n

A former forward who played four years (2001-05) at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts (Division II at the time), Muse doesn\u2019t have a background as a star player, but Laviolette said that hasn\u2019t prevented him from connecting with players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s his game plan, it’s his message, it’s his approach,\u201d Laviolette said. \u201cHe\u2019s a positive person. It\u2019s his work ethic, his knowledge. \u2026 It\u2019s about him understanding the game, understanding people, understanding how to teach and communicate.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of that helped Muse quickly earn the respect of Penguins veterans such as Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Erik Karlsson<\/a> and Rickard Rakell<\/a> as well as younger players such as 19-year-old rookie Ben Kindel<\/a>. Although the Penguins have struggled through the first three games of the playoffs, Muse has remained even keeled while trying to guide them through the biggest adversity they\u2019ve faced this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s been just steady,\u201d Crosby said. \u201cI think that his message has been the same as far as what he expects and making us understand the situation or things we can improve on. But I think as far as what we want to do and there\u2019s little tweaks that, he\u2019s been able to do that and communicate that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is Muse\u2019s first playoff series as an NHL head coach, but he\u2019s been through them before as an assistant, including reaching the Eastern Conference Final with the Rangers two seasons ago. He leans now on what he learned then and during his tenure a head coach in the USHL and with the USNTDP.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a coach, I think you are always going back to all those experiences, going through a number of series there both in Nashville and in New York,\u201d Muse said. \u201cObviously, it is different as an assistant coach, but I think you can learn a lot during those. I was very fortunate working for Peter Laviolette and learned a ton from him just seeing how he operated both in the regular season and the playoffs, knowing about the experiences that he had not just in those times that we were together, but in others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laviolette is one of four coaches to have come back from 3-0 series deficit to win, doing it with the Flyers against the Boston Bruins in the 2010 Eastern Conference Semifinals. At least to start, Muse wants the Penguins to take a narrower view of the daunting challenge ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to find a way to do more,\u201d Muse said. \u201cWe need to find a way to go into this game and to win a game, and that’s it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Laviolette was let go by the Predators in 2020, Muse sought more experience as a head coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5119],"tags":[5,2409,231,5281,4,2410],"class_list":{"0":"post-558461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nashville-predators","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nashville","10":"tag-nashville-predators","11":"tag-nashvillepredators","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-predators"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116455825986970854","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}