Penguins Predicament: Are Hextall and Sullivan on the Same Page?

Be forewarned…this is going to be a bit of an unusual post. More a ramble than an article. It actually started as a reply to our long-team reader and respected commenter Mike. But I wanted it to have more legs because I think it speaks to one of the Penguins’ most pressing dilemmas. One that lies just beneath the surface. Here goes…

I think Mike hit on a key issue, one that Mark Madden also addressed in his article on the Tribune Review titled, “Penguins mangled defense needs a shakeup, but can management pull it off?” Namely, that GM Ron Hextall and coach Mike Sullivan aren’t on the same page in terms of personnel and scheme.

I’ve touched on this before, but Sullivan’s very much a one-trick pony who only knows (or wants to play) one style. An aggressive, forechecking, speed-based game. On our toes, not our heels.

I get it…to an extent. It’s the style he knows best…the one that won him (and us) two Stanley Cups.

On the opposite side of the teeter-totter, Hextall’s trying to bring in a little more size and physicality. All of his significant additions…Jeff Carter, Rickard Rakell, Jeff Petry and Jan Rutta are bigger, albeit slower players.

And therein lies the rub. Sullivan won’t compromise or adjust his preferred style to fit the talent on hand. He didn’t do it back in 2018-19, when former GM Jim Rutherford brought in bigger players like Nick Bjugstad, Erik Gudbranson and Jack Johnson in order to encourage more of a hybrid style. And he’s not doing it now. A glance at our nightly shot totals, for and against, speak to that.

It’s as if our coach and GM are perched in the same canoe, but paddling in opposite directions. Almost as if they’re in competition with each other. As a result, the canoe’s going ‘round and ‘round in circles.

Along those lines, I read on another site that we don’t seem to have an identity. I agree 100 percent.

We’re not a fast team any more. Nor, aside from our top two lines and maybe a couple of defensemen, are we particularly skilled.

We aren’t especially big or physical or hard to play against. We’re just kind of there…an odd conglomeration of competing visions and preferences.

Jesus stated in the Holy Bible, “A house divided against itself will not stand.” Truer words were never spoken.

He also warned against serving two masters. “Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”

I can picture Sullivan cringing in private when president of hockey operations Brian Burke made his “long-pants hockey” statement a couple years ago. I’m also reminded of Sully’s rather defensive and unsolicited assertion in the wake of our first-round loss to the Islanders in ’21.

“We didn’t lose because we weren’t big enough.”

Until our brass and coaching staff come into agreement and develop a clear vision of how this team should be constructed and how we should play, our downward spiral will likely continue.