With the Penguins struggling through the first two months of the season, some have wondered if a coaching change could be on the horizon. Speaking with reporters today including Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, GM Kyle Dubas tried to downplay the idea that one could be coming, giving head coach Mike Sullivan a vote of confidence:
Being with him every day and not only seeing his attention to detail on the systems but his attention to detail with the players and coaching them individually and personally, I think we’re very fortunate to have Mike. Do I think that he’s the right person for this job now and far to the future? I absolutely do. It’s on me to help support the coaching staff as best I can to help us get going in the right direction.
Sullivan is in his ninth season behind the Penguins bench with the team posting a .621 points percentage in that stretch, certainly in the upper echelon. However, they enter play tonight sitting seventh in the Metropolitan Division with a record of 11-12-3, putting them six points out of a playoff spot already.
More from Pittsburgh:
- Rorabaugh also relayed some injury updates in a separate column. Winger Bryan Rust is listed as week-to-week with an undisclosed injury. He last played on Wednesday, leaving that game early. The 31-year-old has been a go-to piece for the Penguins through the first couple of months, notching 10 goals and 10 assists in 22 games, good for fourth on the team in scoring. With Rickard Rakell currently on LTIR (though eligible to return this weekend), Pittsburgh’s depth on the right wing is certainly going to be tested.
- Center Lars Eller didn’t take part in practice today due to an illness but Sullivan indicated that the veteran is expected to be available for Tuesday’s game against Arizona. The 34-year-old is in his first season with Pittsburgh after signing a two-year, $4.9MM contract early in free agency. Eller has three goals and five assists in 26 games so far while logging a little under 15 minutes a night.
- Meanwhile, fellow middleman Noel Acciari took to the ice before practice as he works his way back from a lower-body injury. The veteran has been out for a little more than a week with the issue and is currently on injured reserve but will be eligible to be activated as soon as he’s cleared to return. Acciari has three points and 44 hits in 22 games so far this season.
This is the dumbest thing I have seen. Either Dubas is a yes man and is being told by FSG that he is their guy, or Dubas is not the genius GM we were all told he was. This is ridiculous. This is becoming the Mike Johnson era again. This coach is stale and his system does not work. I’d rather have Dan Bylsma back at this point. You traded all of these players away thinking it was them, and then got the big new shiny piece and low and behold its almost worse than last year. It’s not the players, its the coaching, or lack thereof.
(shrugs) It’s none of the above. Some of us were pointing out over a year ago that Pittsburgh was the oldest team in the league, the championship window was shut, and they needed to start the necessary teardown and rebuild. Instead, they doubled down with We! Can’t! Waste! The! Core’s! Last! Years!, handed out more long term deals with NMCs to guys well into their thirties, and promptly failed to make the playoffs. So, of course, they took what was an already losing strategy and did some more of it, and big surprise, it isn’t working some more.
Every year Pittsburgh chases the Cups this roster has demonstrated it can no longer compete for just adds another year in the wilderness to the rebuild they’ll have to do anyway. If you were expecting Dubas to gimmick the Penguins into being instant champions again, you were deluding yourself. Neither Sullivan, nor Bylsma, nor 1970s Scotty F’n Bowman is going to come up with a “system” that can elbow drop Father Time.
Hey look! Dubas showed up just in time for a lengthy rebuild.
If the power play was decent instead of awful, we’d be fine right now.
If the bottom six could do jack ****, we’d be doing great right now.
The whole “this great coach suddenly became a moron” thing is the first refuge of a know nothing.
The average fan looks at the names on paper, looks at the record, and assumes that because the outcomes haven’t been there it must be something else, so it’s the coach. But you are right: 5-on-5 they’ve been good, the defense has been mostly good, the goaltending has been better than good. If they would get something out of the PP (rather than going O-for-the-month) they wouldn’t be mad.
Pretty much. There’s not a lot that Sullivan can do with a team devoid of depth. As it is, the flip side to “If X was decent we’d be doing great” is that if the goaltending was merely average instead of “best in the not-Boston league,” Pittsburgh would be chasing first draft pick. If Dubas wasn’t under marching orders to chase the postseason no matter what, in a league screaming for goaltending, he could flip Nedeljkovic right now for a handsome return in futures.
Detroit and Carolina could use Ned! LOL
If we had better players and did things better, we’d be better. Wow, I might need a while to let that sink in.
The team is a top 5 team in the league at 5v5, it’s horrendous on the Power Play (save last night).
If they get the Power Play to even average they’re a top 7 or 8 team in the league. No need to panic so early in the season. The bright spot of all of the injuries is they’ll have plenty of cap space at the deadline now lol.