Dan Muse's hire opens a long-awaited, brave new world for Penguins

A notes column about the Penguins’ coaching hire is apropos because related factoids and opinions are all over the place. So, let’s look at Dan Muse via the pause that refreshes.

• For a guy I never heard of before Wednesday’s announcement, Muse seems a good hire. But it’s a bold hire. Far from safe, far from recycled. A commitment to Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty, not Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Somebody whose resume is short on NHL experience but long on success with young players. It’s a brave new world for the franchise. About time, too.

• Muse is 42. He’s been coaching 22 years. He hasn’t played since wrapping up a lackluster Division III collegiate career in 2005. He never skated in the NHL. Some players will see that as a weak point. Muse needs to make a good impression immediately. Come off as knowledgeable and organized.

• The likeliest to be dismissive of Muse are Erik Karlsson and Malkin. Not maliciously. But Karlsson is disdainful of anything he doesn’t prefer, like actually playing defense. Malkin will be in the final season of his contract and probably isn’t thrilled about change in his career’s home stretch. Director of hockey ops/GM Kyle Dubas should do everything possible to trade Karlsson. Cut that potential problem in half.

• The Penguins are rebuilding, But Crosby’s presence and refusal to accept anything but the immediate pursuit of excellence will often put Muse at cross-purposes. That could be difficult to navigate. Sure, Crosby wants to win. Everybody wants to win. But a logical, realistic path has to be followed.

• What the players think of Muse and the new direction doesn’t matter. That includes Crosby. It’s a team game, and this team hasn’t made the playoffs in three seasons or won a postseason series in seven.

• Can this version of the Penguins arrive early and give Crosby another playoff run before his career ends? That depends on the development of the Penguins’ young goalies. Rushing that could prove ruinous. More than any position, goaltenders can be scarred. Presumed long-term bulwark Sergei Murashov is only 21.

• Tristan Jarry will be the No. 1 goalie this coming season by way of being patient with the goaltending prospects and because Jarry will get paid $5.375 million. The quirk in that inevitability; that’s what the dressing room wants, not least the core three. There’s an odd degree of faith in Jarry.

• The Penguins’ older players have to buy into Muse. But Muse can’t cater to them. That especially goes for veterans outside the core three and Karlsson.

• The Penguins’ younger players should be put in significant roles as long as they’re earned. But if a veteran and a kid are competing for a bigger role and more ice time and it’s a close decision, the kid should get the benefit of the doubt. Playing it safe is akin to playing it stale. To limiting potential for growth.

• Dubas should have more input on what Muse does than he did on what previous coach Mike Sullivan did. With Sullivan gone, this is Dubas’ tree. He’s sitting in it. All accountability falls on him.

• Muse should make sure the Penguins’ daily routine — practice, off-ice, etc. — differs from Sullivan’s way. You can change a lot but still maintain staleness via the same method of punching the clock.

• The Penguins’ style has to be more buttoned up and defensive than it was under Sullivan. Attack uber alles hasn’t worked for years because the team’s talent and depth deteriorated. No matter what the vets want, the young players need the right foundation. (That also offers the best chance to win now. It’s more rigid.)

• It would be wise for Dubas to hire an assistant coach with an established NHL track record to work alongside Muse. Preferably a former head coach. Somebody like Jacques Martin, but not him. (He’s 72.)

• Muse is frequently referred to as a developmental coach. His resume confirms. That doesn’t mean he won’t try to win. It just means that improvement on a team and individual level won’t be subverted for the sake of scratching into the playoffs and getting killed in the first round. Youth can err in the process of learning, not get nailed to the bench, scratched or sent to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton after a bad play.

• Muse is known for being a hard worker. First one at the facility, the last to leave. That impresses some more than it does me. Coaches don’t get paid by the hour. You succeed, or don’t.

• Muse won’t be coaching when the Penguins again win significantly. That will be the next coach. Muse’s job is to develop and improve, then pass the baton. Michel Therrien got dismissed in 2009 after brusquely imbuing the Penguins with structure and accountability. Dan Bylsma, an inferior coach to Therrien, immediately won the Stanley Cup. Hockey is a funny old game.

• This will not be easy, nor instant. It’s a work in progress and a discussion in progress. The same template would apply no matter who got hired to coach.

• If Crosby wants a legit chance to win a Stanley Cup again before his career is over, he should probably leave. (He won’t.) Perhaps international hockey will satiate Crosby’s hunger for victory. Like next February’s Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. Da, da, Canada. (Oh, wait, the Russians won’t be there.)