Todd Reirden continues to deliver Mike Sullivan's message to the Penguins

The message was the same on Friday during the Penguins’ practice session.

And just as loud. Perhaps even louder.

Sure, it might have been delivered with a hint of a Midwestern twang instead of Boston bluntness. And it came from a slightly higher elevation.

But it was Mike Sullivan’s message.

And it was spoken by Todd Reirden.

Since the Penguins announced Sullivan, their coach, had tested positive for covid-19 on Thursday, Reirden, an assistant coach, has filled in for Sullivan through two games and a practice session. All of this has taken place while the team is missing four players who also have tested positive for covid-19: defensemen Brian Dumoulin, Marcus Pettersson, Chad Ruhwedel and forward Sidney Crosby.

During that practice on Friday, the Penguins operated at a brisk, fastidious pace that has become the trademark of the Massachusetts-born Sullivan during his successful tenure in Pittsburgh.

“Mike Sullivan does such a great job of empowering us as assistant coaches, especially me in my particular areas with the team and with the defense in other areas that I don’t think that it will be much different,” said Reirden, a native of Deerfield, Ill. who stands at a robust 6-foot-5. “It won’t be much of a surprise for the players.

“We’re (Sullivan are Reirden) speaking the same language in terms of the message that we’re delivering to our team. Now, it’s my responsibility to continue to push those ideas out there as our team continues to grow and go through difficult times. … It will be much Mike Sullivan’s message and I’ll be delivering it just as I do from the bench, but just be in a different capacity.”

This isn’t the first time the Penguins have turned to Reiden in the absence of their head coach.

“It’s a different situation, but in 2014 with the Olympics, I was gone for two and a half weeks,” former Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said by telephone Saturday in reference to his stint as the United States’ coach during the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. “Todd stepped it, be it just practice, but he stepped in as a de facto head coach and steered the team at that point in time.

“Todd has a great rapport with the players, great respect from the players. And because he’s in the trenches every day with them, developing who they are as people, when you step into the spot he’s in right now in (Sullivan’s) absence, he has the respect of the players and can be that voice in front of the room.”

Chaz Palla | Tribune-Review

Former Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma (left) and assistant coach Todd Reirden stand on the bench during Game 3 of the Eastern Conference final in T.D. Garden in Boston on June 5, 2013.

Reirden is in his second stint with the Penguins. Originally joining the organization as an assistant coach with their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and serving as head coach of that team for parts of two seasons, Reirden was promoted to an assistant role at the NHL level on Bylsma’s staff in 2010. In total, he spent four seasons on the bench in Pittsburgh before leaving in 2014 and joining the Washington Capitals.

During that time, Reirden worked predominantly with the team’s defensemen as well as the power play.

An ex-defensemen himself who racked up 183 games at the NHL level, Reirden played a key role in developing plenty of defensemen of various skillsets and talent levels.

“He’s an elite coach at getting with the player, getting with the team, having a plan for development, what your game is, how you’re going to play it, how you’re going to be a better player and working with the player, be it on the ice, be it on the video, be it with personal time,” Bylsma said. “The list is pretty long. (Matt Niskanen) Deryk Engelland and Ben Lovejoy and Paul Martin. In his time in Pittsburgh, (Martin) went through that with Todd and helped develop his game, helped develop him as a person and ultimately as a better player. That’s the strength of Todd as a coach.”

Minnesota Wild defenseman Alex Goligoski worked under Reirden, either with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton or Pittsburgh in the late 2000s and early 2010s. A second-round pick (No. 61) of the Penguins in 2004, Goligoski has carved out a 15-year career thanks in part to the lessons offered by Reirden at an embryonic stage of his professional existence.

“Just a great communicator,” Goligoski said. “Just a really nice guy. He wants to have team success. He was always very communicative and helpful with young players like myself at the time. He was awesome.”

In Washington, Reirden first served as an assistant and associate coach in the same capacities with the defense and power play under head coach Barry Trotz. After the Capitals won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 2018, a contract dispute with Trotz led to his departure and a promotion for Reirden.

As head coach, he led the Capitals to first-place finishes in 2018-19 as well 2019-20, but each season ended with losses in the first round of the playoffs. Fired by the Capitals on Aug. 23, 2020, he was re-hired by the Penguins just over a week later on Sept. 2.

By the time Reirden and the Penguins had reunited, there were only a handful of players still on the roster from his previous tenure, including All-Star defenseman Kris Letang.

After Reirden directed the Penguins to a 3-2 overtime home win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday, Letang presented a game puck to Reirden in the dressing room. Afterward, in the media room, he explained what Reirden offered in Sullivan’s absence.

“He’s going to be himself,” Letang said. “He’s going to stay the same person. They have different personalities, they bring different things. But you also have to (remember) Todd coached at Washington for a few years. They have big-time players. He has that experience. We’re pretty comfortable with him. He brings a lot of energy to the meetings. The way he comes in between periods, I think guys are confident with him.”

Coach Reirden: "Awesome job. Huge team win for us, again battling through adversity. We don't have some players, we don't have some coaches, but we're not stopping. That's what it means to wear this jersey." pic.twitter.com/JOeZ1anwVd

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) November 5, 2021

“You’re talking about a guy that’s been a head coach at the AHL level and also at the NHL level,” Bylsma said. “The one thing throughout his career as a coach, both as a head and an assistant, he’s one of the best at putting a plan together for players or the team … developing the player and the team within that plan. That’s why he’s a great coach. Is saw him on a little video clip (posted on social media by the Penguins) giving a speech to the team after the game they won (against the Flyers). It was evident in that speech that he planned for the players, planned for the team. That’s what he’s great at.”