ON MIKE SULLIVAN’S FIRST DAY AT THE HELM

If you listen to John Tortorella much since taking over in Columbus, it was a lot of similar talk from Mike Sullivan today on his first day of the job as Penguins head coach.

Trusting the process, creating an identity, playing the right way, among key points of interest for Sullivan.

“For me I’ve always had an honest straight forward approach,” Sullivan said today after practice. “I hope I can aspire these guys to play a certain way. For me only way I know how to do it is an honest candid assessment.”

One of Mike Johnston’s biggest downfalls and some of this also falls on the construction of the team is the Penguins lack of identity over the last year.

Last season one month they wanted to be a skilled/dynamic team, next month they wanted to be a gritty team. This season no identity has emerged and part of that falls on a disconnect throughout from management to the coach to the players.

Inside the Penguins room there’s a problem with one side of the room believing the Penguins need to play a certain way and the other side of the room wanting to play another way. Finding a way to create an identity is going to be Sullivan’s biggest challenge and an area he knows the Penguins have to develop.

“I talked to them about creating an identity as a group,” Sullivan said. “I challenged them to embrace the process. We have to embrace the struggle here. No secret Pittsburgh Penguins are built by speed and skill.” On What Sullivan is looking for the Penguins to evolve into — “Team that is difficult to play against. Team that doesn’t defeat itself. Lots that go into an identity aside from style of play,” Sullivan said.

“What I’m going to try to do with this group is define a team game, play the right way….. Unwavering commitment to the process,” Sullivan said.

PRACTICE NOTES, BUZZ ON POULIOT

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Sullivan opened up practice today with a 3-on-3 drill down low and the bulk of practice had a lot of focus on breaking the puck out. Sullivan doesn’t have a good feel of this group yet but knows where the obvious flaws are.

“It’s an important aspect of being a good team,” Sullivan said of breaking the puck out clean. “Important to come out of your own end as clean as you can. Certainly there’s a reason we worked on coming out of our end zone today. That will be point of emphasis.”

Sullivan was asked about Derrick Pouliot by Jim Colony of 937 The Fan and at this point the organization has no immediate plans of calling Pouliot up. Sullivan, though, had high praise for Pouliot and feels young defensemen developing in the AHL is great for them as it’s a tougher league to play in for d-men.

“Derrick’s been a big part of the team success down there to this point,” Sullivan said. “Most nights he plays against American League’s top players, running power play. American league is a great development [league]. “Might be a more difficult league to play in for defensemen. I think that the experience he is going through, the investment in his career is worth it. I don’t look at it as a negative that he didn’t make the Pittsburgh Penguins out of training camp. He’s going through a process that in my mind is well worth it.”

— The Penguins did not make any line changes. [/hide]

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