by Adam GretzFiled under: Penguins
When general manager Ray Shero was hired by the Pittsburgh Penguins prior to the 2006-07 season, he spoke of his desire to put together a team that would be tough to play against, a sentiment that head coach Dan Bylsma even spoke about as recently as this offseason. Shero's father, of course, was the legendary Fred Shero, a coach that wanted team toughness, and the man behind the bench for the Philadelphia Flyers in the mid-1970s when they were the Broad Street Bullies, the epitome of old-time hockey. When those two things are combined, it shouldn't be much of a surprise to see how the makeup of the Penguins roster has undergone quite a shift in recent years, going from the skillful, finesse days of the early 2000s (or in the words of former coach Michel Therrien: "soft"), to the current build that features plenty of in-your-face players that provide a seemingly endless amount of toughness and pugilism.
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