This is really not a surprise. The Ivan Hlinka experiment just didn't work out. There were problems last year -- communication problems were part of it, but that's not the whole story. I think really the Penguins would have been better off letting Hlinka go at the end of the season. They would've done that if they hadn't had that nice playoff run, and so they felt obligated to keep the guy. That was a mistake. Yes, they went to the conference finals, but they were some of the most noncompetitive conference final games I've ever seen. The coach was overmatched as well.

Matchups are the heart of the matter. Ivan really did not believe in trying to set his lines to get good matchups for his players, and that just doesn't fly in the league today. He'd be on home ice and he wouldn't get Mario Lemieux or Jaromir Jagr away from a top checker. That was just not the way that he coached. But the bottom line is, if you have a Mario or a Jagr, you have to create matchups for them, get them good situations. You have to get Mario Lemieux away from Bobby Holik. That's the coach's job.

This decision came out of Craig Patrick's office, but Mario was heavily involved. The bottom line is, the guy's the best player and he's the owner of the team. If Ivan Hlinka had Mario Lemieux as an ally, he'd still be coaching.

With the 0-4 start, it was a wise decision to cut their losses quickly. As I mentioned in my column last week, with only eight teams making the playoffs from each conference, you don't have a lot of time to screw up. The Eastern Conference is tighter this year, there will be a lot of teams fighting for those seventh and eighth playoff spots.

Can the Penguins be one of those teams? With their offensive potential, they can certainly turn it around, but it's going to be hard for them. You've subtracted Jaromir Jagr, who's arguably the best player in the league. I mean, it's nice to have Mario Lemieux. but when Jaromir Jagr disappears from your lineup and you don't get anything but young players in return, that's a big loss. Bringing in Rick Kehoe as coach makes sense, he's been in the organization a long time, and if Mario can get healthy I don't want to say they can't do it, but it's going to be difficult. The conference is more competitive and they're not as good. It's as simple as that.

E.J. Hradek writes puck for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at ej.hradek@espnmag.com.