Can the Penguins (and Mike Sullivan) Change Their Approach?

“Mike Sullivan needs to change his approach. He keeps doing the same thing, but the rest of the league has adjusted to the way we play. If he doesn’t learn to adapt, they’re going to replace him.”

Those very sage words were spoken, out of the blue, by Wright’s Gym member Jim Hartley as he approached the front desk yesterday afternoon. Which struck a chord and planted a seed for this article.

First, a little backdrop. In 2015-16, our Penguins won a Stanley Cup due in no small part to their exceptional team speed. Maybe they weren’t the fastest team in the league, but they certainly played the fastest.

For the most part, our opponents were overwhelmed. Even a mobile, skilled team like Tampa Bay had trouble keeping up.

Other clubs were quick to follow our lead. Carolina and Toronto even upped the ante, playing at warp-drive speed. Ironically, we repeated the next season with a style that was more of a hybrid. With puck-moving defenseman Kris Letang sidelined, the Pens were consistently outshot throughout the postseason (a paltry 46.1 percent of 5v5 shot attempts).

Thanks to our exceptional skill (10.7 percent shooting percentage) and clutch goaltending, we rope-a-doped foes into submission. A style based in part on having guys in the lineup who were equipped to play a grinding game. Players like Ian Cole, Ron Hainsey, Tom Kuhnhackl, Carter Rowney and Scott Wilson.

A missing ingredient the past couple of postseasons. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Following our back-to-back Cups, GM Jim Rutherford tried to introduce some muscle in hopes of making us better able to compete physically with other clubs. Over a two-year span he imported Ryan Reaves, Jamie Oleksiak and Erik Gudbranson. All were shown the door in relatively short order. Presumably because they didn’t blend with Sullivan’s up-tempo, puck-possession game. (As an aside, Reaves’s Corsi this season was 54.4…the same as Evgeni Malkin’s.)

So Rutherford relented, tailoring this year’s squad to his coach’s liking in hopes of recapturing the ’16 magic. GMJR loaded up on small, speedy types like Teddy Blueger, Dominik Kahun, Dominik Simon and Brandon Tanev and added Jason Zucker, Conor Sheary and Evan Rodrigues in-season. I mentioned in a previous article that they seemed to be stamped out of the same mold.

For a good part of the season the formula worked. Even when decimated by injuries, the Pens generally outskated, outworked and…surprisingly…outhit their opponents (fourth in the league with 1884). Someone (maybe Other Rick) remarked that we appeared to be competing with playoff intensity through the early going while the rest of the league was in regular-season mode.

I agree.

Then the wheels fell off the wagon during the dog days of January and February. Our 5v5 shot attempts percentage declined sharply, along with our compete level and attention to detail. Oddly, just when some big names were returning to the lineup. Culminating in the shocking loss to Montreal.

Among the team’s failings? An inability to possess the puck in the offensive zone…at least in the high-danger areas between the circles. It seemed our guys kept trying to go around rather than through the Canadiens.

It’s my contention they weren’t equipped to do so.

Just my humble opinion. But I think the Pens need to change their organizational philosophy. When cultivating young talent, they’ve consistently accented skill and speed over size and sand, especially over the past few years.

A one-size approach may fit all. But it doesn’t necessarily lead to success…or Stanley Cups. As they say, variety is the spice of life.

To draw an analogy, you wouldn’t stock a football team strictly with wide receivers. Without tackles and guards…guys to do the dirty work…you wouldn’t get very far.

The same holds true in hockey. For every Sidney Crosby you need a Max Talbot, for every Geno a Jordan Staal, for every Letang a Brooks Orpik.

Indeed, while speed teams have fallen by the wayside the pendulum has swung to clubs that embrace a more balanced approach. The past two Cup winners, Washington and St. Louis, prevailed in part by blending players with different attributes, with a healthy emphasis on physical play.

Current Cup hopeful Colorado likewise meshes supremely skilled players like Nathan MacKinnon with an array of battlers such as Nazem Kadri, Matt Calvert, Erik Johnson and Cole. Ditto Boston and Vegas.

The good news? Our front office may already be experiencing an awakening. Last year Rutherford drafted a pair of budding power forwards from the Quebec League, Samuel Poulin and Nathan Legare. This season he signed big-and-tall forwards Drew O’Connor and Radim Zahorna and sizeable d-man Will Reilly.

JR obviously feels a need to diversify.

Does Sullivan? Is he capable of altering his preferred style to include players who might not win a fastest skater competition, yet possess other attributes such as a willingness to battle and inhabit the prime scoring areas?

I don’t know. To my eye, he seems locked into coaching one way…one style. Kind of like former Pens skipper Dan Bylsma. Granted, a style that’s brought him…and the team…considerable success. But one that may not fit our personnel going forward.

If Sully isn’t able to adjust? As Jim so aptly noted, his days in the ‘Burgh may, indeed, be numbered.