Josh Yohe of The Athletic recently spoke with Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan and the long-time Penguins bench boss pledged his loyalty to the franchise saying that he doesn’t want to coach anywhere else except Pittsburgh. Sullivan has seen a ton of success with the Penguins, leading them to back-to-back Stanley Cup Championships in 2016 and 2017, but the franchise has fallen on hard times in recent seasons, missing the playoffs in two consecutive years and set to make it a third this season, unless they pull off a historical run. Despite all of this, Sullivan remains committed to the Penguins and by all accounts, it appears that Pittsburgh remains committed to him as he has two years left on his contract and there has been no talks of moving on from the most successful coach in franchise history.
Sullivan took over the Penguins back in December of 2015 as they were spiralling out of control. Despite having a roster full of superstars, the team was out of the playoff picture. Sullivan righted the ship and took the Penguins on two straight playoff runs that resulted in championships. But since defeating the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round of the 2018 postseason, Pittsburgh has yet to win a postseason series. They were swept in 2019, eliminated in the play-in series in the pandemic bubble in 2020, and then knocked out of the first round by both New York franchises in 2021 and 2022.
Despite the lack of success over the last eight years, the Penguins have stuck by Sullivan, and he by them. There have been calls for Sullivan to be fired since at least 2021, if not sooner, but none of Jim Rutherford, Ron Hextall, or Kyle Dubas made the move to replace him.
Yohe has long spoken of the bond between Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and Sullivan, and they no doubt have a desire to turn the Penguins around while both men are still in Pittsburgh. The Penguins haven’t called their current situation a rebuild, but it certainly appears like one. Pittsburgh has made moves with an eye toward the future, but Dubas has stated that he wants to turn the Penguins back into a winner as quickly as possible. Given that is Pittsburgh’s mandate, it would make sense that a winner like Sullivan would want to stick around with Crosby, and as Sullivan put it in his chat with Yohe, “I have a certain loyalty to all of the people who are a part of it here, and all I want to do is help this team win.”
Sullivan is a glutton for punishment.
In Pittsburgh, we demand the firing of our coaches no matter how good they are unless they can single handedly deliver championships regardless of the quality of their roster.
And by we I mean they.
If we could still trade Sully for a draft pick, I might consider that the same way I’d consider moving Rust or Rakell but as long as players are playing hard, there is no reason to move on*.
*UNLESS he won’t play the kids next year and gives quality ice time to Kevin Hayes and Danton Heinan. Then he might not be the guy for that moment.
Right now, we are too busy “tanking” our way back into a playoff hunt for some reason to play them, but…
For contrast: Boston ownership gets petulant about Bruce Cassidy (even after success), fires him in 2022, he immediately wins a Cup in Vegas. Boston ownership gets petulant about Jim Montgomery (even after success, including the best season any NHL team has ever had), fires him in 2024, he immediately turns a mediocre St. Louis team into wildcard contenders.
Translation: Sullivan will have no shortage of suitors should he be shown the door.
Eventually, almost every coach outstays his welcome. He has to make decisions that players might not like, like cutting into their icetime or demoting to a lower line. After a few such bumps some players would get pissed off, a situation that is almost impossible to rectify. In addition, some coaches employ practices that players find unnecessary and boring like having too many team meetings.
All this negative baggage piles up during the coach’s tenure. With time, more and more players begin to see him as an impediment to winning rather than a capable decision-maker. Because of this perception, he ACTUALLY BECOMES an impediment to winning, no matter how great his coaching is technically.
One such situation is well described in Sean Avery’s book when he talks about Andy Murray.
When this same coach goes to another team, the negative baggage gets left behind. His new team sees him as a breath of fresh air having no negative baggage of the old guy who has just been fired.
Feeling that you’ve outstayed your welcome is a skill. Paul Maurice felt it at Winnipeg and he resigned. This is very rare because money-wise it’s better to stay on until you get fired even if you know that you can’t win any longer.
Bottom line is – Monty needed to go, the sooner the better. His negative baggage (whatever it was) would make it impossible for the Bruins to continue winning with him. At St Louis he has no baggage (yet). It’s the same coach but two different situations. The difference is the baggage.
I agree that at some point a coach outstays his welcome, although identifying that point is an art & not a science. Because simply winning cures a lot of those ills, and what may appear to be irreconcilable differences on Monday may disappear with a winning streak by Sunday..
Sean Avery explains how it works in his book. It’s not that the players would deliberately play sloppy. It’s that they wouldn’t make an extra effort. That extra effort decides, I’d guess, 20-30% of NHL games. You can still win and even put together a good streak but you can’t win an 82-game season.