As I was pondering our Penguins in the wake of my latest rant over loading up on undersized defensemen, a thought popped into my head regarding long-time coach Mike Sullivan.
Is he too much of a hockey purist for the good of the team?
It’s no secret what type of hockey Sullivan prefers. Fast, clean, gritty and straightforward. Not unlike the brand of hockey he played at Boston University and later during his 11-year NHL career.
“Old-time hockey,” to lift a line from Slap Shot.
“Playing the right way,” as Sully’s so fond of saying.
No room for extracurriculars and/or overly aggressive play. Wholly admirable in a way.
Perhaps in a perfect world the way the sport is meant to be played.
As we all know, this isn’t a perfect world. In real life, hockey packs a decidedly harder, edgier punch. In the process, often straying over the line of decorum and good taste. Especially come the postseason.
Fully recognizing the need for at least some level of aggression and pushback, former general manager Jim Rutherford tried for a time to reinforce the black-and-gold with a physical presence. In rapid succession, heavyweights such as Tom Sestito, Jamie Oleksiak, Erik Gudbranson and the capo dei capi of NHL enforcers, Ryan Reaves, churned through the Pens’ lineup only to be quickly shunted to the shadows under Sullivan and discarded.
Rutherford eventually gave up. Or more accurately, gave in, acceding to his coach’s wishes.
Even abrasive types like Mark Friedman and Brandon Tanev, who drew far more penalties than they took, failed to curry Sullivan’s favor.
Don’t look now, but the pendulum is swinging back toward a heavier style of play. A point pounded home by Panthers designated hitters Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk and their hard-nosed cohorts during Florida’s march to the Stanley Cup.
Indeed, since the Pens captured their back-to-back Cups in ’16 and ’17 with a speedy, puck-hounding forecheck, each champion since has employed a hybrid style featuring a healthy dose of physicality. Even the supremely skilled Avalanche, the team that most closely mirrored our Pens in terms of style and pace, boasted their share of bruisers and 200-pounders.
While teams around the league are placing a renewed emphasis on size and aggression, our Pens have gone completely in the opposite direction. Our Metro brethren, for example, have added the likes of Matt Rempe (6’7” 241), Kurtis MacDermid (6’5”, 233) and Brenden Dillon (6’4”, 220) in recent months. Heavyweights all.
By the starkest of contrasts, our four prime free-agent additions average a paperweight 178 pounds.
The better to get pushed around.
Yes, it’s POHO/GM Kyle Dubas doing the signing and not Sullivan. But you can bet your bottom dollar our coach has his fair share of input into personnel decisions.
IMHO, Sully’s still trying to win the way he did eight years ago, with diminishing returns. During the interim, the game has changed. So has the way it’s being played.
The team has changed, too. It’s older, slower and smaller thanks to our recent additions, as if that were even possible.
Too bad Sully, and by proxy Dubas, don’t seem to notice or care enough to alter their flawed approach.
So How Do We Fix This?
As an organization, the Pens need to return to the drafting philosophy initiated by Craig Patrick in the early 2000s and carried forward by his successor Ray Shero. We need to draft scrappier, more competitive players. Guys like Colby Armstrong, Tyler Kennedy, Ryan Malone, Brooks Orpik and Max Talbot to name but a few provided a gritty, get-your-nose-dirty underpinning for our stars.
Dubas actually took a step in that direction recently when he drafted Regina battler Tanner Howe. The kid will bring some much-needed animus and juice to the mix. But a token scrapper here and there isn’t enough. We need more.
Rutger McGroarty, a budding power forward and the 14th overall pick in the ’22 draft, is posturing for a trade out of Winnipeg following two strong seasons at the University of Michigan. He’s exactly the kind of player we need. Yet I haven’t heard even a breath of a whisper that we might be interested.
It’s fair to ask, “Why not?”
Again, we need to change our philosophy in terms of the type of players we pursue. In my book, that includes signing Baby Pens power forward Jagger Joshua and at least giving him a shot at fourth-line duty. It would be truly refreshing to see a Penguin delivering blows with intent for a change.
I doubt if we’ll do it. We’re too set in our ways.
So is our coach.
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Hey Rick,
I am going to have to argue a little with you here, Sullivan isn't a hockey purest. Hockey purest s understand that you have to control both creases to win games and Sullivan refuses to employ the type of players who can control either crease. A hockey purest also understands that a team needs balance, and there has not been any balance on this team since Sullivan has wrested control of this team from the GMs and imprinted his clone mentality of only 1-type of player. A hockey purest understands that the role of the forwards is to shoot the puck and score goals and the role of the defensemen and goalies is to prevent goals from being scored, yet Sullivan put up with a goalie that wants to score goals and instructs his defensemen to carry the puck, jump into the attack zone, even lingering at the opposing net long after the play has dissolved and chase pucks around the defensive zone like 6 year olds rather than defending their crease.
If Sullivan is anything, he is an Ice Capade purest, not a Hockey purest. Furtermore, if I were to draw allusions between Sullivan and the movie Slap Shot it would be the final scene with Ned Braden doing the striptease in a circus performance rather than hockey.
As I wrote in a previous reply that on this pathetic milquetoast incarnation I wouldn't be adverse to Jagger Joshua, since Sullivan stripped this team barer than Ned skated in the aforementioned scheme. But I also would have preferred a better option than Joshua. I have seen nothing in his game to be anything other than the kind of carnival/circus that the Hanson brothers were. I would want players that could skate and contribute more than checks to a win and who are younger. Cruz Lucius would be my pick. Talk him into coming out of college and competing for a roster spot. From game videos I have seen him fore check like a cruise missile, have decent agility on his skates and average just a hair under a point per game at the Univ of Wisconsin.