Penguins Sullivan Needs Diversity Training

Readers beware. This is an emotional, knee-jerk piece that was written in the heat of the moment and probably not very well thought out.

Bear with me if you will.

Last night in the aftermath of the second-period ending melee, the camera panned to Mike Sullivan on the Penguins’ bench. Judging by the expression on his face (not quite bitter beer face but close) he was none too pleased.

I remember wondering at the time if the object of his disapproval might be black-and-gold defenseman Mark Friedman, who squirted gasoline on the incipient embers by grabbing Lightning forward Corey Perry around the mush and taking him to the ice.

My worst fears were confirmed when I read Sullivan’s comments about the incident and more specifically…Friedman.

“You know, we want him to play his game,” said our coach. “We want him to be who he is, but he’s got to make sure he stays on the right side of the line. The type of team that we have here and the type of game that we’re trying to play requires discipline in a lot of forms. And so, we don’t want to be a team that beats ourselves, and we want to be a team that plays to our strengths.

…And I thought ‘Freeds’ was, you know, he kept his discipline on that,” Sullivan added as an afterthought.

Here we go again. We have a guy who brings a little mustard to the proceedings. And Sully’s already trying to rein him in if not neutralize him. Based on his comments, don’t be surprised if Friedman gets yanked in favor of the more even-keel Pierre-Olivier Joseph. Effectiveness be darned.

We’ve been down this road before…with Ian Cole, Ryan Reaves, Jamie Oleksiak and Erik Gudbranson. Guys who don’t fit Sully’s mold or code of on-ice behavior.

I get it…to an extent. He wants his players to play aggressively, but within the bounds of decorum and good taste (and the rule book). He doesn’t want guys running around willy nilly like some unguided heat-seeking missile, whacking and hacking opponents and drawing needless penalties. He wants us to play with discipline and make opponents pay for their misdeeds by scoring on the power play.

A sound philosophy. Generally, an effective one, too.

Still, it doesn’t preclude the need for a little spice on the ice. Our big three of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang play better when their competitive fires are stoked and they have a little piss and vinegar (excuse the expression) coursing through their veins. So does the rest of the team. Saturday’s scrum-filled battle the Rangers and last night’s set-to with Tampa Bay were classic examples.

Friedman plays with an edge. Sully wants to scrub us plain vanilla.

Uh uh. Not this time. GM Ron Hextall and Brian Burke need to put their feet (foots?) down. It’s time for Sully to get a little diversity training.

Variety, as they say, is the spice of life. It’s good for a hockey team, too.