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    • The Sullivan Question, Collapse Concerns
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    The Sullivan Question, Collapse Concerns

    Pabio Posted on

    The Pittsburgh Penguins have a question for Mike Sullivan, even if it’s poorly phrased by my many eager members of the paying public. This fan base can rival the folks in Toronto when it comes to throwing a good fury of kicks and punches. After a winless roadie in which the Penguins blew two 2-0 leads and were trampled by the Carolina Hurricanes before leaving, and the Winnipeg Jets and Edmonton Oilers on the road, there is a lot of emotion, and none of that. It’s good.

    These questions and answers are being written on Sunday from a multitude of airports. My close friends at WestJet, along with their best friends at Delta Airlines, had a computer malfunction involving my flight. Their computers logged me as present but not as verified, even though their main system shows my documents as verified. The vicious cycle of customer service people calling each other to figure it out continued while my connection from Calgary took off without me.

    In the end, they determined that it wasn’t their fault, but Hal, the computer that controls their businesses and a space station, was evil.

    Eventually, an enterprising, if somewhat haughty, agent found a way to get me home by returning to Edmonton later Sunday evening, then taking a red-eye connector to Atlanta in the morning, then on to Pittsburgh. It was that or get stuck in the Chicago airport for most of Monday.

    So today and tomorrow I’m flying from Vancouver to Calgary…to Edmonton, to Atlanta, to Pittsburgh. The Canadian airline industry is straight out of Ayn Rand’s dystopia, but I digress.

    With a Chili’s shaker of Patron margaritas in front of me (OK, maybe it’s my second shaker already), let’s do the Penguins Q&A, including Sullivan’s question.

    Questions and answers about penguins

    Answer: Okay, let’s try the first fastball pitch.

    This situation is much more complicated than “They stink, fire the coach!” » The premise is solid: the Penguins have struggled to show up to too many games over the last season and a half. They make horrible mistakes, making A silly rookie movesand otherwise fight like a pinata.

    In an ordinary situation, the coach would have disappeared after last season. However, Fenway Sports Group has committed a lot of money to Sullivan, and they are no fools. They run a tight ship – they’re not cheap, but they also don’t want to throw Benjamins in if there’s trouble. It’s a factor.

    The hockey world widely regards Sullivan as one of the best. He is an excellent coach who prepares his team well. Several players have told me how Sullivan prepares them more than previous coaches, and they love it.

    So the short answer is that it’s a bit complicated. A new coach might come in and have a bump, but show me a coach who could rumble Evgeny Malkin like Sullivan did in 2016 – but do it now when Malkin is 38. Yes, gamers would bounce that couch down Fifth Avenue like a half-eaten slice of pizza.

    Try to find a person behind the bench who could get this sated group of well-meaning but aging veterans to become raw meat-eating animals like them. It just doesn’t happen at the coaching level.

    So if FSG doesn’t see a return on investment from firing Sullivan, it won’t happen. At least not until there is no other choice. However, I understand Penguins fans who feel we have reached a point of no return. I had the same thoughts, and last March I wrote a 1000 word column calling for it, and got unanimous approval from the staff (but I didn’t press publish because I had a bad feeling it wouldn’t age well.

    The solution to getting more intensity and a team capable of cleaner play is higher than the coach. However, Sullivan does need to make fundamental changes in several areas. A more positional form of defensive system may be all that remains.

    The whole point of his big contract was that FSG trusted him to make the necessary changes, and some big changes too.

    I have to think so, but they won’t get back the first and second round picks they gave up. They will take a hit during the exchange. Karlsson has had a problem with D-zone coverage this season. Sullivan is betting there will be more offense from Karlsson than Karlsson gives up, but that hasn’t been the case. Two of Saturday’s goals were on him.

    I don’t know which GM Kyle Dubas and Karlsson reflect. They will have to agree. It feels like there are few matches, but Karlsson is a name to keep an eye on later this season.

    Jen invoked subscriber privilege with the triple dip. So there you go.

    Yes. There was talk that Barclay Goodrow would file suit against the Rangers over the summer because they waived him, knowing San Jose would claim him – and San Jose was on their no-trade list. But it can be done. Thoroughly.

    2. No. The organization doesn’t need it either. Blomqvist’s development will go well if he assumes a well-utilized backup role. Also know that the Penguins are not content to live a Tristan Jarry charade. They want to save that, otherwise he would have already been on waivers. So if Jarry sets things right, Blomqvist will be sent back to the AHL.

    3. It is impossible to know how Sullivan would behave in a different situation. He was good with the players coming from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in 2015, but the world and the game were very different then. Could he? Yes. But he may need a reset and a new situation to adapt to this type of environment again.

    I think we’ll get a first-hand look sooner rather than later, especially if the team’s downward spiral continues.

    If this nonsense continues, it will happen well before March. Marcus Pettersson and Lars Eller are prime candidates due to their expiring contracts.

    Learn more: Give them Eller; Penguins dish on Eller on the ice and in the locker room (+)

    An off-card player to watch in this scenario would be Bryan Rust. Its anti-trade protection expires on July 1. Rust is a proud family man, and I can’t see him taking a deal anywhere, but imagine him in copper and blue. Or blue and white? There are a dozen teams he would take from very good to Stanley Cup favorites.

    Rust was injured Saturday night, and it didn’t seem minor. So that could also create more decisions.

    Last call!

    I really don’t know. McGroarty’s game is perfectly limited at the moment. He has no points in four AHL games and is minus-4. He still has to adapt and learn.

    If Rust is injured long term, Sam Poulin has seven points (2-5-7) in six games with WBS. I’m just saying…

    And here is the second shaker with salt.

    This question-and-answer session was filmed in 3B.
    Three beers and it looks good, huh?

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    Pabio
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