ON MIKE SULLIVAN’S DEBUT BEHIND THE BENCH
Beau Bennett is hurt again. But that’s probably not a fair assessment as to whether or not anything will change with Mike Sullivan as the new coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Only a yet to be discovered alignment of the planets will likely change that fate.
As far as matters that can be controlled by the human beings running the team, Monday night’s box score also suggests that the Mike Johnston-to-Mike Sullivan swap won’t yield much of a difference. Another loss (4-1 to Washington) in which Pittsburgh struggled offensively. Another empty effort on the power play. Another night where the Pens gave the puck away more often than they took it away.
But a deeper look at the numbers infers some good may come from the coaching change. The Penguins did generate 45 shots on goal. They uncorked 34 more that were either blocked or missed the net. They also tallied 34 scoring chances.
And, on a more intangible angle, they actually looked like they were trying hard. That was something that general manager Jim Rutherford said was lacking from his team under Johnston at times. But on Monday, the Pens went hit- for-hit with the Capitals (37-36 Pittsburgh). They battled in the faceoff circle winning 54% of draws. And Nick Bonino even got into a fight, a rare occurrence at Penguin games of late.
“I thought we played with energy. I liked our aggression. I thought we were on the puck. Our feet were moving,” said Sullivan after the loss.
So, that stuff was good….right?! That was the sign for hope that this coaching change may help the club…perhaps?
But some unfortunately familiar issues continued to plague the Penguins in Sullivan’s debut. One of which, by the admission of the players, was still an inability to get the puck out of their own end and through the neutral zone with consistency.
“Execution wise, [hide] I think he (coach Sullivan) wants us to make a few more plays coming out of our end. I think he wants us to be more poised in that area. I thought we showed signs of that in different parts of the game. But it’s not something that is going to happen overnight,” said team captain Sidney Crosby.
This is something that could be fixed in part by last night’s acquisition of Trevor Daley from Chicago. With him coming in, and Rob Scuderi heading out, Rutherford is hoping that equates to a better Penguin transition game.
“Trevor can skate. He can move the puck. That’s something we have talked about. Trying to improve that…improve our back end by getting more puck movers. And he can certainly do that,” said GM Jim Rutherford.
The power play was also a disappointment as Sullivan admitted the team passed up some shooting opportunities that were present. Another area of frustration that seems to be carrying over for coaches, management, and fans alike.
But what may have been the biggest reason for Johnston’s undoing manifested itself once again in Sullivan’s debut. And as was the case with Johnston, this may be something Sullivan can’t fix. This was another evening when Pittsburgh’s alleged “high level talent” failed to cash in on numerous scoring chances.
Evgeni Malkin scored Pittsburgh’s lone goal on a deflection. But in a combined 16 other attempts Malkin, Crosby, and Phil Kessel failed to score. For being some of the most skilled players in the world, the Penguins sure do have a hard time burying chances. Pittsburgh is 24th in 5-on-5 shooting percentage at 6.5%.
“I think we need to do a better job of taking the goalie’s sight lines away,” Sullivan pointed out. “I thought we generated a lot of shots. But I thought he saw a fair amount of them. We need to make it more difficult on our opponents’ goaltenders by getting more people to the blue paint.”
That also can be a product of harder work. But now that the Scuderi/Daley trade has been made, all the answers are going to have to come from within for a while, as Rutherford has stated he wants Sullivan to get accustomed to the current roster before making any more deals.
“I’d like to give Mike a little time with this group and see how it settles in. And then we will take a look at it,” confirmed Rutherford. “I think our team is pretty good. But we need to get a few breaks around the net.”
So Rutherford is comfortable with the current roster and coaching staff for now. But if the Penguins are still on the outside of the playoffs looking in at the trade deadline, expect that notion to change. Because it may be the GM’s job that’s on the line by then.[/hide]
Maybe if we had new articles, prospect tracker and in depth player columns, trade chart, eumors, daily five, basically everything that was promised to us when this site was created, we wouldn’t be in the positoon that we are currently in
you mean 11th ? LOL
NPL you and I had one unsettled item to discuss in person some time. Keep hiding behind your NPL and name changes it wont work all the time good bye.
Just block that clown as I said before only matter of tiime more people will realize that fat fuckk is a waste of time . And brings nothing to this site .other than his stupidity. Only people who enjoys him here are ou812 gaydogg and his lover stan
Right – block him. Not your useless fat ass.
You still mad about Nam?
So far the only exciting news is that CBauer ignored NPL and is threatening to leave… how about the Pens this evening? Is there any word on who is starting tonight? Hopefully we get a look at Murray. Do we have specifics on what HCMS has the guys working on any further? Do we know if they will be rolling three lines, one of each with one of the three big guys?
not threatening to leave but if this is just going to turn into a site of gross stupid pics why pay for it. Just want some damn discussion of ideas and views not gross displays of childish attempts at humor. You are right that there should be something as there are many points to be discussed about the coaching change. No Pen even attempting to stand up for another pen even two injuries resulted from borderline plays. Hell MAF should be wearing a hit me sign on his back with our defense. Those are all areas of possible little articles.
Which two injuries? Kunitz took a healthy run at Oshie and Dumo got into a fight… if the second is MAFs concussion, well that happened in practice as Kunitz caught him with an inadvertent elbow.
Sorry it was Bonino, Dumo took his 1st penalty against Oshie
Enough with the gifs/videos its getting gross for the first time ever I ignored someone. if it has to go with sports fine but its getting out bounds. Since I am one that actually pays I just take my business else where. Over the years liked the sometimes absurd debates but now this crap is gross.
You do realize we all pay for this site right??
Awe muffin, we are collectively sorry the page isnt run for you and only you. We will miss your spot on contributions and the fact that you feel the need to share your poor hurt feelings over some nonsense
http://i.giphy.com/Qdk7jQBfBK6je.gif
Npl and his American arrogance thinks when he pays he can do anything he wants
Your gay Prophecy continues.
I gave you a thumbs down because 11th place pisses me off!
http://i.giphy.com/r2puuhrnjG7vy.gif
http://i.giphy.com/vMnuZGHJfFSTe.gif
Pens fell to 11th place tonight. This sucks.
Way to go Scuderi! He jinxed Kane!
And was -1
Markov been a player this season so far with Habs except fo tonight -3 and 4 giveaways. You know what happened clowns he got benched few shifts and didn’t play the following power play. This is called balls from the coach something that this organization ha failed to bring in since MT left. I yet we had Clowns like DB and MJ that were scared to take dessions
Francis is crazy lol
https://38.media.tumblr.com/d8a59960d43d20099115c1e6d057f029/tumblr_nvvrfhVeL71rvn2ylo1_500.gif
Go Nutting wallet
Pens should have signed him 🙂 he least comes to the aid of team mates.
I didnt read this article. What did i miss not learning?
No body expect you to read or follow the pens during the season fatty. Winter season is made for you to eat and ge fat so you can empress the girls come summer. I mean Chase away the girls
Empress, lol. Your English as a Second Language teacher has quite the sense of humor.
That Benz is a bad writer.
murry is coming up. i hope they give him a few games. i’m curious to see what he can do. if he does well, rutherford will definitley trade him at the deadline.
Fuck off
Any word on who they’re calling up?
rust will replace BB since he is out for 6 weeks
I meant to backup Zatkoff. LIke possibly Murray.
Hoping Murray just starts – he’s the future – not Zatkoff.
UPDATE from Josh at 4:40 p.m.: Just spoke with Jim Rutherford. He confirmed that Fleury does indeed have a concussion. He’s out at least a week, maybe longer.
The Penguins will be going with the duo of Zatkoff and Murray.
When did they reacquire Rust? I thought they were still suffering from dealing him to Toronto in the Winnik deal.
this team shouldve tanked last year and got Mcdavid
Too bad he ended up in Vancouver (per you)
if fleury didint play wow in the begining of the season the pens easily wouldve been 1-9 to start the season all thanks to fleury team is still hanging on today.but according to Jas logic a win is a win. i hope you enjoy your wins now that fleury is down
I think we would enjoy the wins regardless of if fleury is down or not…your insult doesnt make sense
I played wow at work today. People were impressed.
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=792748&navid=nhl:topheads enjoy fleury haters
this team is on a verge of a major Collapse and they have nothing up coming in the future.
MAF out with possible concussion. So who are we looking to draft in the top 5?
yeah 1 to 2 weeks
BOOM! Sean Rodriguez! #championship
Go Nutting wallet go Nutting wallet
hey clown MR. Stan
todays practice lines looked liked
14-87-57
61-71-72
81-16-41
7-13-
Yeah – like i said – I think that first line is probably your third line – bunch of checkers that can’t score.
And don’t ever insult the people who read here by listing 87 above 71 on the depth chart ever again.
yup fleury will be out 1 to 2 weeks guys .This calls for a celebration for Yoda
between your star wars movie coming out and fleury out for 2 weeks which one is more exiting mr.Yoda ?
Our porcelain Boy Bennett will be out 6 weeks ahaha i guess he had his longest run for being the line up come to an end .how many games did he play in a row 10? 15 ? he will break Salo’s record and have his own record that no other nhl player can break. he is young and been injured already 10 times or more told you guys this clown shouldve been traded long time ago
Maybe he’s trying to emulate Letang. That french piece of shit.
BB has been injured more than letang
Who gives a shit? One guy is a third liner with no impact on your cap, and the other is barely worth is giant contract on the off chance he DOES dress.
yoda you must be happy there is a good news for u Fleury might have concussion
Dear god hopefully fleury doesn’t start playing like he did after Martin rattled his bell back a few years ago.
even though the pens have been miserable overall this year, at least scuderi is gone and dupuis is retired. too old guys way past their prime who weren’t contributing much. hopefully it’s a start.
Too old guys
Won too three???
i know you bias people will think i am racist and something agains americans but i hope some are not blind. ive notcied kessel is a cancer every team that he goes also i have noticed he cant handle passes easily its easy to say corsby cant produce points but horny and kessel are misssing alot of quality passing by crosby
PK has been playing with Malkin – cough cough
was watching sportsnet radio and malkin,crosby and kessel apparently were on separate lines this morning
Maybe a good thing… I am alarmed at how poorly Kessel handles moving pucks. Maybe Bozak worked well with him in TO due to the fact it kept the puck on Kessels stick more.
i think the problem is kessel used to carry the puck ofthen with pens malkin,crosby letang and soon to be daily will do that and kessel is being stayed and waiting for the puck same in powerplay usualy he skates around then releases his wrist shot while with pens pp he is waiting for a shot most of the time
if you guys also noticed kessel line has the most offsides which kills momentum often for the team and the following lines to come on
Maybe they finally have sid on the third line where he belongs.
Fire RT already
I know we are concerned about all the “too much of the same” but when you have had a new coach all of 3 days and the only piece they worked on was the break out… its hard to assess the rest of the teams issues fairly. Too many people are already hitting the panic switch here. If by mid January we have seen no changes in anything we are concerned about then jump, by all means jump. Until then, lets see what kind of changes will come under Sullivan. He got the guys to work hard in their 1st… Read more »
PS… opening up vs a team that is 8-1-1 in the last 10… ya thats a hard night for most teams FFS
Agreed.
The struggle to score is concerning. Team is based on being the best in the NHL at finishing. We didn’t put money into our defense so we are not going to present chances. This team to be elite needs to be tops in converting chances and get above average goaltending
While I agree it’s unfair to judge on such a small sample size but I’m not sure this team can realistically what until mid Jan to reassess and judge things, the game against Montreal on Jan 9th is the mid point of the season and if things are still not right by then there may not be enough time to salvage the season without making a historic end of year run. It may not be fair but if the problems so so easily fixed as most fans claim they are then we should see immediate dividens.
Problem is if they havent yet worked on these other issues how can we expect a change? I gave to mid Jan simply because its 10 – 13 games from now… that should be the time we see the full scale change. In the meantime we should see the subtle changes on a game by game basis. I am not thinking the team can continue to fail nightly to that point but some people are far to unreasonable in their expectation pertaining to the turn around.
No way this is the only move old man makes
the pens will be in 11th at the deadline, the old man is going to trade a bunch of 1st round picks and the pens will finish 10th.
Yoda, why do you even watch the pens? Honest question
i love the pens, i just know they are a trainwreck right now and it makes me miserable.
I don’t think they can move this years 1st round pick
FIRST! WOOOHOOOOOO! SHOWER ME WITH UPVOTES!!!!
The force awakens