Penguins fire GM Ray Shero, coaching staff under evaluation

The Pittsburgh Penguins are cleaning house after another playoff failure this season. (Noah Graham/Getty Images) The Pittsburgh Penguins fired general manager

The Pittsburgh Penguins are cleaning house after another playoff failure this season. (Noah Graham/Getty Images)

The Pittsburgh Penguins fired general manager Ray Shero on Friday, days after the team blew a 3-1 series lead to the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the team announced.

The team is keeping coach Dan Bylsma for now and whoever the team hires as the next general manager will decide Bylsma's fate.

Bylsma has a 252-117 record in six seasons with the team and led the Penguins to a Stanley Cup championship in his first season in 2009, but the Penguins have lost to a lower-seeded team in the playoffs in each of the past five seasons.

The team said assistant general manager Jason Botterill, who is a candidate for the job, will temporarily assume Shero’s duties until a replacement is found. Penguins forward Sidney Crosby, who led the league in scoring this season, said it's not the coaches fault that the team underachieved.

"At the end of the day we feel responsible," Crosby said Thursday. "We are the guys that go out there and want to perform and want to win and we have that expectation. It's difficult to win and I don't think there's been any lack of effort from players, coaches, anybody in the conversation. "I don't think it's been a lack of trying."

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