There was a time, during the season’s first half, that the Penguins didn’t look like a well-coached hockey team.
Their defensive habits were, to be polite, poor. Their decision making was outrageously bad, as the opposition was routinely enjoying the fruits of odd-man rushes at an alarming rate.
Special teams can often be correlated directly to coaching and, for quite some time, the Penguins were allowing short-handed goals with such ease, an observer could easily be forgiven for assuming this was actually part of the team’s pregame plan.
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Mike Sullivan, it turns out, always has a plan. And it always seems to be the right one.
Many figures have been important to these Penguins during their recent resurgence. Matt Murray’s performance has been breathtaking, Jake Guentzel is on the verge of becoming a 40-goal man, Jim Rutherford’s work since December has been nothing short of brilliant and, without Sidney Crosby’s masterful work during the dark times, I’m not sure where these Penguins would be.
None of it is possible without Sullivan, though.
The reality of the situation is, the Penguins, as currently constructed, are not willing to play Sullivan’s brand of hockey for 82 games during the regular season. They just aren’t. Sullivan, during his time with the Penguins, is frequently flabbergasted with his team during the fall months. Assignments are blown. Shots aren’t blocked. Blowout losses occur far too often, given the Penguins’ talent level. Sullivan’s face during many of those games invariably turns into an unhealthy shade of red.
These poor traits aren’t on the coach. They’re very much on a talented group that is very, very difficult to coach. Ask Mike Therrien. Ask Dan Bylsma. As Mike Johnston. Therrien and Bylsma were good NHL coaches, Johnston was not. But all three were fired at some point despite having the opportunity to coach future Hall of Famers and a roster filled with good NHL players. Eventually, the Penguins tuned them out.
The Penguins may tune Sullivan out for stretches during a regular season that probably feels a little longer each winter, as the core group is now in its 30s. But when the games truly start to matter, their loyalty to Sullivan is undeniable. And his loyalty to them never wavers.
To Sullivan’s credit, he doesn’t become insulted by this. Frustrated at times, sure. But his ability to view the big picture and act accordingly is among his many strengths. For all of his quality work running a bench, developing players and instilling his system, Sullivan’s ability to understand this group of players and proceed appropriately is his single greatest attribute as a head coach.
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“He knows us very well,” Bryan Rust said.
That he does. It didn’t take Sullivan long to figure out these Penguins, either. Never forget his first act as coach back in December of 2015.
Before there were practices, and before there was a game, and before Sullivan addressed the finer points of his system, the new head coach sat down with Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel and Kris Letang individually. He quickly learned precisely what made them tick and, in turn, those four immediately gave Sullivan their respective trust.
That trust is mutual, and it remains. Sullivan pushes this team and gets frustrated, but he never crosses the line, never disrespects this group. It’s how they must be treated. The is ego there. A lot of it. There is also a boatload of Stanley Cup rings. The coach pushes but doesn’t bully. He preaches this team to play the right way but doesn’t beg.
Eventually, when the spring arrives, this group’s instinctive tendency to defy everything about the coaching profession finally fades. What remains is a gifted team and a great coach working together, perhaps on another championship run.
Rust has witnessed it firsthand.
“A good coach is like a good goalie in some ways,” Rust said. “Don’t get too high, don’t get too low. Things are going to happen. Take it with a grain of salt, and move on. I think that’s what he does.”
Rust has been with Sullivan for years now, starting when they were both in Wilkes-Barre, looking to make it to the NHL. Many of the Penguins will tell you that, yes, Sullivan can be difficult, but that he always rewards his players when they play well. Rust sees it now.
“I don’t know if there was a specific moment when he got through to us this season,” Rust said. “But you can see it. The demeanor of the entire coaching staff now is, ‘OK, we finally got through to these guys. They’re doing things on a way more consistent basis now.’ I don’t know why it is that way, but he deserves a lot of credit for how we’re playing.”
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While Rust has been thriving under Sullivan for years, others are just now getting a taste of what makes this coach a little different than the others.
The Penguins have so many new players this season. Nick Bjugstad, Jared McCann, Marcus Petterson, Erik Gudbranson and Teddy Blueger have only been without Sullivan for a short period of time. They represent nearly one-third of the Penguins’ 18 skaters each night. The transition has been impressive.
“He wasn’t too hard on me right after the trade,” Bjugstad said. “He realized it was an adjustment for us, that it would take a little bit of time. He made us feel comfortable from the very beginning.”
Sullivan can be so abrasive, but in his own way, he is very much a player’s coach. He always seems to know precisely how hard to push this team.
The new guys — and the relatively new guys — have an appreciation for his magic touch already.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed playing for him,” Jack Johnson said. “He does an incredible job of balancing. He demands a lot from us, but at the same time, he knows how to keep guys loose and confident. He just understands that this team needs a certain swagger to perform at the highest level.”
Make no mistake, Sullivan understands this team quite well.
His recent lineup decisions have been nearly perfect. Sullivan’s decision to alter his original plans on a flight from Buffalo to Montreal at the beginning of this month, going with Murray on consecutive nights, was perhaps the season’s defining moment. The decision one week later to abandon his understandable decision to split his power-play units, going with the big guys together when the Penguins had some momentum against Columbus, was only perfect.
Suddenly, the Penguins have stopped allowing odd-man rushes. They’re putting defense first. They’re playing playoff-style hockey, which is what any coach wants to see at all times. Sullivan has an ego, as any great coach does, but it isn’t so big that he loses track of the bigger picture. He has learned that this team will always shed itself of its incorrigible tendencies when the games get a little bigger. The Penguins might be filled with talented players who are difficult to coach, but they aren’t dumb. They know a great coach when they see one.
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It’s not that Sullivan hasn’t wanted to snap on this group. But he knows better, and knows precisely how to handle it.
“Oh yeah,” Johnson said. “There were a few times when I could tell that he wanted to. He let us know he wasn’t happy on more than one occasion. But at the same time, he has this level-headed presence about him.”
The great ones always do.
Tidbits
• Look for Olli Maatta to return to the lineup on Friday against the Predators. He has missed nearly two months because of a separated shoulder. Maatta will likely be paired with Brian Dumoulin, who figures to play on the right side, against the Predators. The Penguins don’t wish to change their other defensive pairings — Johnson with Justin Schultz, Gudbranson with Pettersson — because of how effective they’ve been in recent games.
• This configuration is necessary, of course, because Kris Letang remains out of the lineup with an upper-body injury. He has not skated since missing Monday’s game in New York.
• Evgeni Malkin skated before practice on Thursday but, given that he didn’t practice with the Penguins, it would seem quite unlikely that he will play against the Predators.
• Zach Aston-Reese, who is dealing with a hip injury, did not skate on Thursday.
• The Penguins practiced for about an hour on Thursday at PPG Paints arena after receiving an off-day from Sullivan on Wednesday.
(Photo: James Guillory/USA Today)