Mike Sullivan, Penguins still searching for answers on what went wrong
If things had gone as planned, the Pittsburgh Penguins still would be in Toronto, playing the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs.
Sergei Gonchar would be trying to help defensemen Justin Schultz regain some confidence.
Jacques Martin would be going over video of the Bruins’ dangerous top line.
Mark Recchi would be trying to figure out if forwards Jason Zucker or Bryan Rust be the best fit for the left circle on the power play.
And Mike Sullivan would be overseeing his assistant coaches’ activities.
Instead, he’s looking for their replacements while also trying to figure out how things went so catawampus less than a week after being dispatched from the qualifying round by the Montreal Canadiens in only four games.
On Wednesday, the team dismissed all three assistant coaches, opting to not renew their contracts that had expired in June but were extended given the NHL’s hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic.
A search for a new coaching staff is in its embryonic stages. So is a search for figuring out why this franchise has fallen so far after winning back-to-back Stanley Cup titles in 2016 and ’17.
“It’s very disappointing for all of us, the players included,” the Penguins coach said via a video conference with reporters Wednesday. “This is an emotional time for me because I know how hard we worked to put this team in the best possible position to have success. But hard work doesn’t always guarantee success. So, we’ve got to make sure we all soul search. I know we’ve got a committed group from a work ethic standpoint. But we’ve got to translate that into results. We fell short this year, and we all have to take responsibility for it. It always starts with the head coach, and it starts with me.”
Much like general manager Jim Rutherford the day prior, Sullivan was short on specifics on what changes are needed with regards to the roster.
“That’s a tough question to answer at this point,” Sullivan said. “We’re still coming off of an emotional loss. I’m trying to digest what just happened in the short term. But I’m sure that’s a discussion that Jim and I and the hockey operations staff will have moving forward.”
By any measure, the Penguins had a successful regular season. Their record of 40-23-6 was the seventh-best in the NHL and was achieved despite a bloated number of man games lost because of various injuries, including to vital players such as forwards Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
But the ultimate standard of this franchise is rooted in postseason results.
“We’ve built a certain style of play here that we think gives our core players the best chance to be successful based on the strengths of the group that we have,” Sullivan said. “Based on the year that we had, we feel as though we’ve had a lot of success playing a certain way. Certainly, we will sit down as a group and figure out what changes we need to make in order for us to try to continue to get better and improve. The responsibility falls on me. I’m the head coach. It starts with me. I’ve got to do a better job at making sure we put this team in the best possible position to succeed.
“It’s disappointing that we didn’t finish as strongly as we would have all had hoped. And we all have to take ownership for it. For me, that’s probably the most disappointing part of it. For such a long period of the time during the course of the (season), we felt really good about our hockey team.”
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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