I would disagree with that assessment.
Dan Bylsma was one of the best coaches I've ever seen. The real problem has been Sydney Crosby. Sydney has essentially been Mario Lemieux's child since he came to Pittsburgh. He still lives with the Lemieux family during the season, and he's like their second son, and what Crosby wants, Crosby gets.
You go back a couple of years to when the Pens made the awesome move to get Jarome Iginla. He was a fantastic get for the team, and he was brought in to open a path to the net for Crosby, who was having problems doing that, and Crosby wanted no part of it. Either because he didn't like essentially a second captain being brought on, or didn't like someone coming in to enable him to score, or he didn't like that Iginla was bald, who knows... but he refused to play with the guy, and when Crosby refuses to do something, nobody in management has the power to tell him no because he has the owner's ear. Anytime Bylsma tried to assert his authority, Crosby would undercut him, and if that didn't work he would play like crap.
Bylsma's departing words is you better get a strong coach in here, which is why that idiot Mike Johnston didn't last long. That guy looked like a Disney animatronic at the bench! He let the players walk all over him, and the results showed it. I'm surprised they didn't ditch him before this season started.
I don't know what deal Sullivan cut with Lemieux, but looking at the player acquisitions they made, they apparently decided to finally quit relying on Crosby and Malkin... who's a great guy but has a serious chip on his shoulder because he was a Captain in Russia and desperately wants to be one for the Penguins but can't. Maybe this made Crosby grow up a bit.
