Penguins Fire Head Coach Michel Therrien

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced on Sunday that they have fired head coach Michel Therrien. He will be replaced on an interim by Dan Bylsma, the head coach of the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Also, assistant coach Andre Savard was reassigned within the organization while assistant coach Mike Yeo and goaltending coach Gilles Meloche will remain on staff. Tom Fitzgerald, the Penguins' director of player development, will replace Savard as assistant coach. The Penguins are currently 27-25-6 and are just four points out of the playoffs after making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2008. Under Therrien, the Penguins have made the playoffs the past two seasons, but have been slumping the past couple of months and are in danger of falling out of contention. The firing of Therrien comes as no surprise as it was rumored some of the Penguins did not like his demanding coaching style and that some players clashed with him. Rather than shake-up the team with a trade, firing Therrien was the easiest option. Bylsma has stated that he wants to make the Penguins a more up-tempo team, which could help pull the Penguins out of their current slump as they have a lot of promising talent on the team. However, if the Penguins cannot pull out of their slump, a trade or two could be the only course of action to get them back into playoff contention.