Penguins Update: Some Love for Mike Sullivan

It goes without saying Penguins coach Mike Sullivan doesn’t get a lot of love on our blog. For various and sundry reasons my esteemed colleague, Other Rick, wants Sully to be fired yesterday (if not the day before).

I would’ve moved on from him this past summer following a season where he and his staff seemed to have few answers for the team’s myriad issues, to say nothing of missing the postseason for the first time since 2006.

Too, after nearly eight full seasons of Sullivan behind our bench, I felt we needed a fresh approach, systematically, and a new voice in the dressing room.

I’ve criticized his obstinance and unwillingness to adjust his system to fit the talent on hand. Nor am I a fan of the perceived restrictions he places on roster construction (tough guys and kids need not apply).

One thing I’ve never questioned? His quality as a man and a human being. Win, lose or draw, Sully stands in there night after night and answers questions from the media as honestly and forthrightly as he can. Yeah, he gets snippy sometimes, especially following a particularly frustrating loss.

If I had to face down a battery of questions from reporters following a rough shift at the gym, I’d get snippy, too.

What impresses me the most is the standup way he treats his players. Just about everyone and their grandmother, including yours truly, was calling for Sully to bench an aging and ineffective Jeff Carter, who by all accounts seems to have reached the end of the line.

However, it’s all too easy to overlook the human side of things. Players and coaches aren’t automatons or robots…they’re real people with real hearts and souls and feelings…just like you and me.

In Carter’s case, we’re talking about an established star who’s enjoyed a long and productive NHL career. We forget the enormous impact big Jeff had when he first arrived in the ‘Burgh at the 2021 trade deadline. Nine goals in only 14 regular-season games down the stretch and four more against the Islanders in the playoffs.

Remember?

The following season he anchored the top line, and quite effectively, while Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin recovered from injuries. In the process, netting 19 goals and four more in the postseason against the Rangers.

If only former GM Ron Hextall hadn’t offered Carter that two-year extension almost precisely at the time the big guy began to fade, his legacy here might be very different. And you certainly can’t fault Jeff for agreeing to the extension.

I digress.

Yesterday Sullivan was side-by-side with Carter, supporting his player while fielding questions about his recent benching.

“Yeah, it is (a tough part about coaching),” Sullivan said. “We have so much respect for ‘Carts.’ And, you look at his body of work in this league—he’s knocking on the door to the Hall of Fame with what he’s accomplished as a player. He’s a multiple (time) Stanley Cup champion. He’s scored an awful lot of goals in this league, and he’s been such a great player in the game for so long. Those are unique circumstances.

“They’re never easy conversations, regardless of who the player is … And those are hard conversations that the coaches have to make. And unfortunately, that’s part of the job. But that one in particular was a real difficult one for me.”

It’s a quality I’ve long admired about the Pens’ skipper. He rarely, if ever, calls out a player in public. It’s always ‘we’ or ‘us’ or even ‘me’ when discussing the team’s issues. He takes ownership.

There are signs that, in his ninth season behind our bench, Sully’s evolving as a coach. No one’s ever questioned his intelligence or knowledge of the game, or his ability to communicate his concepts clearly and effectively to his players. In those areas he’s always earned the highest of marks. To say nothing of his obvious passion and zest for the game.

Rather, it’s his willingness to make adjustments that’s caught my attention. For example, he’s employed a more conservative 1-2-2 forecheck at times, the better to cover for the team’s defensive deficiencies while saving wear and tear on older legs. Along those lines, he’s subtly reduced Sid and Geno’s workload. Too, he seems more open to using players (Radim Zohorna for example) who aren’t cut from his prescribed mold.

Is Sullivan a perfect coach? No. But no one else is, either.

In the end, all you can ask of your coach is that he prepares the team the best way he knows how and in a way that will lead to success. Despite our rocky start, I think Sully’s doing that.

The rest is up to the players.