On this date in Penguins history: Eddie Olczyk is named head coach

A new voice for this new X Generation.

While June 11 has historically been kind to the Pittsburgh Penguins, there was once a time when the sun did not shine favorably for the black and gold flightless birds.

Cast your minds back to the fabled X Generation.

Admittedly, this author was too young to properly remember this new era of Penguins hockey, but with a new era came a new head coach.

Lacking professional coaching experience, longtime Chicago Blackhawks forward, and one-time Penguins forward, Eddie Olczyk was hired as the team’s head coach on this day in 2003.

Olczyk, 36 at the time, was replacing Rick Kehoe, who was let go two months earlier.

In his debut season, the team started with an 11-42-5-4 (W-L-T-OTL) record, and Dick Tarnstrom led the team in points with 52. The team finished with a 23-47-8-4 record.

At least the suffering was rewarded with the Penguins selecting Evgeni Malkin as the second overall pick in the 2004 NHL Draft.

The 2004-05 NHL lockout would prevent Olczyk from building on any of the few successes of the prior season.

Olczyk would amass a 31-64-8-10 record over his season-and-a-half as bench boss and was fired 31 games into the 2005-06 season to make way for Michel Therrien on Dec. 15, 2005.

Olczyk would have a successful post-playing and post-coaching career as a game analyst and color commentator, most notably for NBC Sports and TNT Sports.

What did you think of Olczyk’s brief tenure as Penguins head coach? Did you live through what many Penguins fans consider the ‘dark times’ before the present-day core came into its own? Or are you like me, reliant on YouTube videos and secondhand accounts to paint a picture of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the early 2000s?