3 days ago
How will Penguins' style of play change under new head coach Dan Muse?
Dan Muse has won wherever he's been.
The new Pittsburgh Penguins head coach got his start as an assistant coach for Yale University, where he piloted the defense and focused on team structure. Yale's 2013 national championship win propelled him to become head coach for the USHL's Chicago Steel.
The Steel won the 2017 Clark Cup, the first in their history, by playing a dynamic, fluid style focused on speed and puck support. That was enough to make Muse the first-ever USHL head coach to jump directly to an NHL assistant coach. Under Muse, the Nashville Predators penalty killing finished sixth in the league in back-to-back seasons.
Muse then landed with the United States National Team Development Program, where his 2023 U18 squad ripped off a record 16 wins against NCAA Division I opponents and won gold over Sweden at the 2023 U18 World Championship. That landed him back in the NHL with the New York Rangers, whose penalty kill finished third in the league under Muse.
Though we won't know exactly how Muse's Penguins will play until training camp, let's look back at Muse's time as a head coach in the USHL and U.S. NTDP for some common threads in his coaching philosophy.
This has been Muse's specific focus in the NHL. The Rangers scored 18 short-handed goals last year, leading the second-place Florida Panthers by six. That was due, in part, to the Rangers' aggressive diamond structure, seen in this screenshot:
The diamond features one forward high, one forward and one defenseman on each flank, and one defenseman in front of the net to protect the crease. The formation is particularly effective against the league's most popular power-play formation, the 1-3-1 umbrella.
In the diamond penalty kill, the high forward acts as a sort of spear, having the freedom to attack the lone defenseman at the top of the 1-3-1. The flank players cover the half-walls and inner seams for protection against high-danger slot passes and one-timers. Having a player low means you don't have to sacrifice the net front for pressure.
I noticed Muse's U.S. NTDP teams ran the same penalty kill as the Rangers did last season. In the next video, take a look at the Americans' diamond alignment on the PK:
Muse's U.S. team allowed only two power-play goals on 22 total opportunities en route to the 2023 gold medal, finishing the tournament with a 90-plus-percent success rate on the kill.
The structure wasn't the entire reason for that success.
Muse's high-energy, tandem forecheck allowed forwards to work off of each other in waves to disrupt the opponent's breakout.
In the tandem system, the first forward (F1) pressures the puck carrier hard, often forcing the carrier to rim the puck around the boards or rush a defenseman-to-defenseman pass behind the net. The second forward (F2) reads the F1's angle and mirrors it, cutting off the first outlet or engaging in a secondary puck battle. The forwards interchange depending on the read, which means F2 can become F1 on the fly — this keeps puck-pressure high and reactive.
Tandem forechecking allows for quick counterpressure if the first wave doesn't force a turnover, essentially trapping teams in a sequence of poor exits. Muse taught this with a layered-support mindset: Each action has a coverage fallback (such as a defenseman filling in when F2 overcommits).
In those clips, you can see the forwards working off of each other to align themselves in the most annoying way possible. These same tendencies exist as far back as Chicago's run through the Clark Cup in 2017.
You can see what's important on the penalty kill for a Muse-coached team: layers of puck support, read-based attacks that aim to make the second and third pass difficult, and structural alignment that permits aggression without sacrificing important real estate.
The breakout reveals another common thread between Muse's teams. Both the U.S. NTDP and Chicago Steel worked the puck laterally to shift the forecheck and create space in the middle of the ice. Rather than relying on static wing support or long stretch passes, Muse's breakouts favor a five-man approach — defensemen hinge behind the net, forwards collapse low in layered routes, and outlets are built through short, high-percentage reads. It's a system designed to beat pressure with poise.
When the defensemen hinge behind the net, the lead forechecker becomes trapped on an island in the middle of them. The forwards are back exceptionally deep, and an easy transitional pass is made. There is so much runway to attack, and the Steel blaze down the ice for a scoring chance.
I noticed similar themes from the U.S. NTDP with Muse at the helm. The focus is on the middle of the ice. Muse doesn't ask young defensemen to make hero stretch passes or wingers to win 50-50 wall battles under pressure. He designs exits with predictable layers of help. Rather than sending the wingers high and risking a turnover at the line, Muse's teams pull their forwards deep, functioning like mobile outlets. As you'll see in the next clips, this setup beats the forecheck not with a single-thread pass but by offering sequential support — every move creates the next option, and as we saw in the penalty kill, tandem work is key.
All of their forwards operate under the same center-like mindset. Being so deep at the genesis of the breakout gives faster forwards the opportunity to use a lot of runway to gain speed and burn through the middle of the ice, making easy lateral passes when necessary to layered support that can carry the torch.
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Let's talk about Muse's pièce de résistance.
In the 2023 U18 World Championship gold medal game, Muse's Americans faced a 2-0 deficit in the third period. Sweden utilized its speed and support along the wall to beat the U.S. forecheck and exploit the American defense in transition. The Swedes exhibited frustrating control over the neutral zone and seemed to be coasting their way to gold.
Until they weren't.
Halfway through the third period, the U.S. stopped trying to force possession-based zone entries. Instead, the Americans started simply dumping the puck into the Swedes' zone and punishing their defense. It worked. The U.S. overwhelmed Sweden and started creating intentional chaos in the zone by springing toward dumped pucks with speed. Muse's change worked. With a faceoff deep in their own end, the Americans crashed and banged their way to a goal.
Off the ensuing faceoff, the Americans made it clear they'd heard their coach's message. They went straight north, dumped the puck in and kept applying the pressure.
But this was a well-coached, mobile Sweden team that began to use the Americans' overzealousness on puck pursuit against it. Utilizing the wall, Sweden made short, strong-side passes that bypassed the U.S. forecheck. The pendulum swung back in favor of the Swedes, courtesy of some tactical work in the face of the Americans' fury. The U.S. tied the score with a power-play goal off an offensive-zone penalty by Sweden, but the Americans remained under duress.
So, seeing that his team's pressure was risky, Muse called off the dogs and forced Sweden to try to knife its way through a U.S. trap. Muse put forth a token forechecker to apply feigned pressure while the rest of the team sat behind the red line, ready to pounce. The decision cooled the Swedes' jets and allowed the U.S. to make some possession-based zone entries off turnovers.
In this clip, notice how much the U.S. changed its forechecking approach to sit back and allow Sweden to try to navigate the mess of bodies in the neutral zone.
The strategy shift got the U.S. into overtime, where Ryan Leonard took over to cap the comeback and win gold.
The Penguins needed a coach who could be a builder and developer without sacrificing the tactical side. Muse may be a first-time NHL head coach, but it's very clear why he reached this point. He's shown he prefers intentional puck support in all three zones and structured systems. Crucially, though, he also has shown he can adapt on the fly.
How well will that philosophy translate to an NHL roster? We'll see, but Muse's foundation is clear. That might be exactly what's needed as the Penguins enter a new phase.
