Penguins lose 2 – 1 in OT to the Defenseless Senators

At the 28th game of the season in 2015-2016 the Penguins were 15-10-3 and in second place with 33 points. Mike Johnston was the coach of that team and found himself out of a job. The Penguins are 12-10-6 this year and have slipped back out of play-off contention to 5th place in the Metropolitan Division after 28 games. Game 28 this year was played against the Ottawa Senators who were 12-14-3 before the game, but were without 2 of their top performers, Matt Duchene and Bobby Ryan, both of whom were placed on the Injured Reserve (IR) list.

Had the Penguins won the game, they would have crawled to within 2 points of second place with 32 points. Instead they find themselves in 5th place with only 30 points. 3 points below were Mike Johnston was when he was given the Pink Slip and 2 places below were the Penguins were when GM Jim Rutherford chose to replace ineffective coach Mike Johnston with Mike Sullivan.

Am I suggesting that Rutherford replace Sullivan? Well, actually….Yes, he should be considering just that. I am suggesting Rutherford treat Sullivan the same way he treated many of his players, bench him.

To lose to a team with a worse record than you isn’t the worst thing in the world; on any given night any team can win. However, when that team is missing 2 key players like Duchene and Ryan, now things start getting a bit problematic. I concede that the Penguins were missing Patric Hornqvist, but he is player, Ottawa was down 2 players, and both of their players went on IR. However, Guy Boucher found a way to adjust his team following those loses, Sullivan didn’t.

Going into last night’s game, Ottawa had given up 119 goals on 1,106 shots, in 29 games; that translates into 4.10 goals per game on 38.14 shots for a Save Percentage Sv% of 0.892%. Not only was Ottawa giving up 1,106 shots on goal (38.14 per game) but their defense was blocking an additional 520 shots (17.93 per game). Teams were having their way with the Senators, offensively.

Last night the Penguins only managed 1 goal on 36 shots. Scoring only 1 goal put the Penguins over 3 below what the rest of the league could do against Ottawa goalies. The 1 goal on 36 shots gave the Senators Goaltender a 0.972 Sv% for the night, well above their season total. Penguin shooters were almost invisible. In fact the only goal our Penguins did manage was an unassisted goal from returnee Jean-Sebastien Dea.

Whether or not Boucher prepared his team’s strategies better, or whether he prepared their psyche better, he did a much better job of preparing his team for the game. A very important game coming on the heels of back-to-back wins for a team desperately in need of finding traction, that team fell flat. Some people will still try and defend Sullivan saying that the players play the game not the coach, but it is the coach’s job to see that the team is put in a position to win. Whether it was because Ottawa came into the game with a better strategy to shut down the Penguin shooters, or they just were up higher than the Penguins and were better prepared to sacrifice whatever it took to win the game, they did their job. Sullivan failed to get his team ready for the fight. In Business or in the Military the person in charge of both training the personnel and developing the strategy is accountable for outcome. This is only logical. Sullivan is in charge of seeing that his team is properly trained to compete as well as giving final approval for over strategies and tactics. This loss, like all loses are his and only his. He has forced Rutherford to dump all the players he doesn’t like rather than finding a way to get them all; players and coaches, to play together for the good of the team.

After 3 years this team is now Sullivan’s. It is far enough removed from Johnston and Dan Bylsma that their influences are gone. This team that is now Sullivan’s and Sullivan’s alone is in 5th place in the division and out of play-off contention. Yes, I still believe that this team can and should still make the play-offs, but it is foundering. Any team with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on it can find a way to sneak into the play-offs based off of their shear will. However, going deep into the play-offs is a matter of coaching. If the Penguins don’t change their coach or change their coach, they will fail this year. That is to say, if Sullivan can’t get over his ego or Rutherford doesn’t get rid of Sullivan, be assured that our Penguins will once again have early tee times.