Nearly two years ago, when the Penguins fired Kevin Constantine as head coach, the team's locker room was a joyous place to be. Players gleefully lined up to offer criticisms, many of them biting. Others joked and laughed, creating an almost celebratory mood.
That didn't happen yesterday.
Minutes after General Manager Craig Patrick had informed Ivan Hlinka he no longer would be behind the bench, the players learned of it in their locker room at Southpointe. And minutes after that, they were lacing up their skates for a practice under Rick Kehoe, the new coach, carrying on business as usual.
With one exception: The session was lively, often animated.
"Great practice," defenseman Ian Moran said. "Everybody was just hopping out there."
But that, the players maintained, had nothing to do with finding pleasure in Hlinka's firing. Instead, it was a way to release some of the frustration that has accumulated through their 0-4 start.
Afterward, the mood was reserved and respectful in discussing Hlinka's downfall. No one felt much like criticizing his failure to match lines, his inability to adjust strategies or his reluctance to address players face-to-face.
"Obviously, it's a change I think everybody expected," center Mario Lemieux said. "It's always tough when you have a bad start like this and, usually, the coach is the one who takes the fall. It's nothing new."
"I just don't think we're playing as a team," left winger Kevin Stevens said. "Is that the coach? It's unfair, but ... it's hard to explain. The feeling's just not there yet. We needed something. I don't think our team was competing hard enough to win."
"Coaches don't lose the games," left winger Martin Straka said. "We lost those games. We didn't help him at all. Obviously, he's the guy who took the blame for it."
Straka is one of five Czechs on the Penguins, and those players had the best understanding of Hlinka, a countryman who had coached many of them before arriving in Pittsburgh.
Trouble is, as those players readily acknowledged, having only a quarter of the roster understand isn't enough.
"English was the problem for him, for sure," Straka said. "Obviously, everybody knows there were sometimes some miscommunications on the bench, maybe a little bit. In the locker room, he tried to say some stuff, and he couldn't say it to the guys because the English wasn't there."
"Language was the only thing," center Robert Lang, another Czech, said. "He should have pushed a little bit harder to learn the language. It's a shame he had to go. I don't think there's any other weakness. If not for language, he would be here still."
Yesterday was more difficult for Lang than most. He and Hlinka go back to childhood.
"I hate to see him go. I played for him on previous occasions, and I always liked him. As a man and as a coach, he was good to me and vice-versa."
The Penguins also spoke glowingly of Kehoe, a man many of them have known him for years. No current player has a longer association than Lemieux, who roomed with Kehoe in his first NHL season, 1984-85.
"Rick's been around a long time," Lemieux said. "He knows the game inside and out. He's been around some great coaches over the years, with Bob Johnson and Scotty Bowman, so he's seen the best. And he's been really great for us over the past couple of years, running the meetings and being very much involved with the players, communicating with everybody. We think he's going to be good."
"He's going to help," Stevens said. "He knows the league. He knows guys. He knows who to play against certain guys. He knows matchups. ... And I think Ivan knew that, but maybe the language wasn't there for him to relate that. It needs to be quick, quick, quick. Ivan knows hockey as well as anybody I've ever been around. It's just a matter of getting it across."
Players say language Hlinka's problem 
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