The Penguins 2018-2019 Preview (Part 1): It all starts with the Coach

“Welcome back my friends
To the show that never ends
We’re so glad you could attend
Come inside come inside”

To borrow the words of those eloquent musicians Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, and Carl Palmer.

After a brief absence due to technical issues we are back!

Without further ado I will jump right into it. So, from the files of nobody asked me but… here are my thoughts on what the Penguins NEED to do to hoist the Cup once more. I will start with the most pressing need.

Mike Sullivan, must, needs return to his former self.
Mike Sullivan is the key to the Penguins return to dominance. When Sullivan had the Penguins taking the league by storm with his Blitzkreig, lighting fast, high pressure attack, he didn’t care if a player was making $9.5 Mil or $700,000, if you didn’t play hard or made too many mistakes, you sat. Last playoffs, a $7.25 mil defenseman made mistake after mistake, from the opening faceoff of the Capitals’ series allowing Evgeny Kuznetsov to walk in on goal, uncontested 17s into the series, up to the very end and only got more ice-time and quality ice-time after each mistake. Sullivan has to return to the Coach that didn’t let any sentimentality enter into the equation, but evaluates every situation objectively. (Need I say Ian Cole?)

Team speed was the trademark of those Cup winning teams. Team speed was driven by Sullivan’s willingness to play the young fast kids, a strategy copied and used against the Penguins last year, time and time again, and often times used to the disadvantage of our boys of winter. Unfortunately, Sullivan opted against his own winning formula and sat the kids whenever he had an excuse.

Sullivan also needs to return to being the Coach that presses the right buttons and adjusts to his strategy and line-up. Throughout the Penguins’ Cup runs, between games or periods, Sullivan tweaked his lines, defensive pairings, and strategies to out coach his opponents. Last playoffs, Barry Trotz out-coached Sullivan. Sullivan doggedly held to his ineffective line combinations and defensive pairings.

With the team suffering from their well-documented, well-discussed lack of secondary scoring, the now departed, much maligned Conor Sheary, pulling his second straight play-off disappearing act, got regular ice-time, while a rookie, CORSI giant got press box time. Sullivan didn’t even shake up the lines when the Brassard – Kessel combination fell flat.

However, I for one, am not going to blame the forwards completely for the lack of scoring. It can get extremely hard for 3 players to try and get the puck through 6 opposing players. There is a very good reason why there are so few Short Handed Goals scored. When the other team has more players than you do, you won’t score that often.

Yes, I am maligning, the Penguins’ defense. The only defenseman on that squad last year that took on the Capitals that had a heavy enough shot to eventually force the Capitals’ defense to play the full defensive ice surface was Jamie Oleksiak. Kris Letang takes too long to get his shot off, and even when he does get it off, “he is liable to hit a hog in the next county with it” and not the net. So forwards who have dropped down low to out-man Penguins’ forwards have copious amounts of time to recover to pressure him. Justin Schultz does have and accurate wrist shot but wrist shots do not strike fear into any player, so laying out in front of a wrist shoot is no cause of consternation to anyone. There is no need to rush back out to the point to try and get a stick on the shot rather than a body. Brian Dumoulin and Olli Maatta have shown some flashes of attack but really do not have shots that scare anyone either.

So what did Sullivan do, he gave Oleksiak very little ice time and the stumbling, bumbling Kris Letang tons of ice-time. It doesn’t surprise me any that there was very little secondary scoring.

More than any other position, Sullivan needs to look at his Defense with an open  mind.

It all starts from the top. Hockey, unlike most of the other major team sports has remained a team sport and has not dissolved into a superstar spectacle. Although superstars are integral parts to the winning formula, to win a Stanley Cup, you still need a team, and a Coach. Team work and depth and strategy are still as important if a team wants to challenge for the Cup. Sullivan needs to return to his top form.