After a 2-2-0 trip to the West Coast and losing in a shootout last night to the Los Angeles Kings, the second loss in five days to the Pacific Division leaders, Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford decided to pull the plug on head coach Mike Johnston.
The Penguins brought in Johnston at the start of last season to install a defensive mentality to combat bad habits picked up from the Dan Bylsma “run-and-gun” tenure.
Johnston delivered on the expectations to some extent – the Penguins currently ranking sixth in the NHL with a 2.32 goals against average – but at the expense of a star-studded offense including Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel.
With the centers, namely Crosby and Malkin, tasked with digging for pucks in corners and tying up with opposing players in front of the net in the defensive zone, breakouts evolved into chipping the puck into the offensive end and sending in wingers to dig out the puck. Very simple. Very basic. Effective with the right team.
Instead of Crosby taking a pass in stride with the far-side winger flying the zone and backing the opposing defense off the blueline to set up a play off the rush, the best player in hockey turned into the best grinder in hockey.
Failing to capitalize on the team assets and a lack of trust in younger players like Daniel Sprong and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton blueliner Derrick Pouliot proved to be the downfall for Johnston.
Expect Johnston to return to the NHL as a head coach at some point, but the task of establishing better balance through the Penguins lineup proved to be too tall a task for the rookie coach.
Enter Mike Sullivan. A former player with 709 games of NHL experience took over head coaching duties for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at the beginning of the season, quickly earning a reputation as a stickler for conditioning in order to utilize the Penguins speed and skill.
So far so good. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton went 18-5-0 with Sullivan in charge, good for first in the Atlantic Division and third in the AHL, though boasting the best winning percentage with two games in hand on the Toronto Marlies and Rockford IceHogs. As for balance, the team ranked second in the AHL in goals for and third in goals against.
Sullivan last served as a head coach in the NHL in 2013–14 for six games with the Vancouver Canucks with John Tortorella suspended, but coached the Boston Bruins for two seasons from 2003–06 (interrupted by the 2004–05 lockout season), accumulating a 70-56-15-23 record and qualifying for the playoffs in 2003-04.
The Penguins fired assistant coach Gary Agnew along with Johnston and promoted former NHL head coach Jacques Martin from the press box to behind the bench. The team opted to keep assistant coach and former Penguin Rick Tocchet as well. Interestingly, Sullivan served as one of the assistants under Tocchet with the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second half of the 2008–09 season.
Expect Sullivan to open things up a bit, especially offensively.
At the beginning of the season, several question marks surrounded the defense – the health of Kris Letang and Olli Maatta, the age of Rob Scuderi, the capability of Ben Lovejoy and Brian Dumoulin. However, the defense, aided by the stellar play of goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, so far appears capable though needs to add another top pairing blueliner, especially with the cap space freed up with the Dupuis’ departure.
Sullivan draws a tough first game with the Penguins against the Metropolitan Division leading Washington Capitals, currently ranked fourth in the NHL with a 2.26 goals against average, on Monday night. But the change gives the Penguins a needed shakeup. The last time the Penguins switched head coaches midway through the season worked out pretty well.
