Penguins' Mike Sullivan named United States Olympic coach

Mike Sullivan ran into some familiar names Monday.

To be clear, they’re familiar to anyone who has cared about hockey in the United States over the past 40-plus years.

Or, at the least, has watched the movie “Miracle.”

“At Boston University, we had an alumni hockey golf tournament,” the Penguins coach said. “I happened to run into Mike Eruzione, Jim Craig and David Silk, three guys that played on that team in 1980. Three guys that I looked up to as a child. I wanted to share it with them at that time. But for obvious reasons, I didn’t.”

“It” would be Sullivan being appointed as head coach of the United States men’s Olympic team for the 2022 games in Beijing.

USA Hockey formally announced Sullivan as coach Wednesday.

A native of Marshfield, Mass., Sullivan, like most natives of the Bay State who grew up in the 1970s, got into hockey thanks to Boston Bruins icon Bobby Orr. That love of the sport was only amplified in February 1980 when the United States men’s team - that included Eruzione, Craig and Silk - upset the powerful Soviet Union during the Olympics in Lake Placid en route to an improbable gold medal win that commonly is referred to as the “Miracle on Ice.”

“That whole experience had such an impression on me and my friends at that time,” said Sullivan, who had just turned 12 during those Olympics. “I was participating in hockey in the Boston area at the time. I remember, for a number of the events, being with my team. Wherever we were, we were always looking for a television and seeing how the team was doing. That team had such an inspiration on my generation.”

The 1980 team also is the last U.S. men’s Olympic hockey squad to win gold.

Sullivan, now 53, appears resolute in changing that.

“Definitely the expectation is to win gold,” Sullivan said during a video conference Wednesday. “When you look at the player pool that we have in the United States today, for me, it’s as deep as it has ever been.

“The expectation is to win gold. I believe we have talented enough players to do so.”

That’s assuming, of course, the NHL decides to participate in the 2022 games. As of now, there is no agreement between the league and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to do so.

“I’m going to operate on the premise that the NHL and the (IOC) are going to work towards an agreement, and we’re going to participate,” said Sullivan, who served as an assistant coach during the 2006 Games.

“Until such time as something changes, that’s how we’re going to operate. We’ll go through a process like all the Olympic (hockey) teams in trying to put together a coaching staff and then identifying the player pool that we have … and trying to build the most competitive team we can to win a gold medal. That’s the approach that we have to take.”

The logistics of attending to his duties with the Penguins while also preparing for an international tournament is no small undertaking. Former Penguins coach Dan Bylsma performed that balancing act in 2014 and delegated some of his duties to assistant coach Todd Reirden, currently a member of Sullivan’s staff.

Sullivan, who joins Bylsma, Herb Brooks (1980 and 2002) and Bob Johnson (1976) in a fraternity of one-time Penguins coaches to hold the same post with the U.S. Olympic team, appears to have already prepared himself for that endeavor.

“The most important thing is to make sure we think things through and we’re prepared,” Sullivan said. “We’re starting to go through that process now. Fortunately for me, in Pittsburgh, I’m surrounded by some really good coaches and managers that are so helpful to me.

“There’s no doubt this, logistically, will be an added challenge. But it’s a challenge that I’m excited about. It’s a challenge that I look forward to.

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