Kovacevic: Sullivan runs the bench right

Brief and to the Point ...

Not much about Mike Sullivan's debut behind the Penguins' bench Monday looked terribly different from far too many games under Mike Johnston: They put up a ton of shots with 45, failed to put home 44 of those, engaged in a lot of lateral silliness on the power play, gave up a bunch of odd-man breaks, barely kept the crowd awake at Consol Energy Center ... and lost, 4-1, to the Capitals.

Even the systems and player selections looked largely the same.

And yet, from what a few players told me afterward, what mattered the most was all new.

"He ran a really good bench," David Perron was saying as part of a longer dissertation on the new coach. And once he was done, I couldn't help but ask him to expound on that.



"Everything just had a good flow to it," Perron continued. "Lines were changing quickly, everybody was involved and fresh ... there were times he had Sid and Geno double-shift when he felt we needed a push or needed someone to get on Alex Ovechkin ... everything had a purpose. It just felt like there was a machine going on behind us."

OK, do with that as you will. It's easy to guess where it'll go. But know that Perron was anything but alone in offering that observation, and that might be as close as anyone will come to openly criticizing Johnston. They loved the vibe of the bench, and it wasn't just, they insisted, that it was coming from a new voice.

One player told me it felt more authoritative.

Another appreciated the matchup aspect, especially as it related to Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, as Perron referenced.

"There was a plan, and it was laid out clearly for all of us before and after the game," one lettered veteran said. "It was impressive."

So was the poise, apparently.

Perron was the first off the ice following warmups and, upon spotting Sullivan in the locker room, he seized the chance at a personal moment with the new guy.

"You nervous at all?" Perron recalled asking.

Sullivan simply smiled.

"Totally cool," Perron wrapped it up. "You'd think he'd been here for years."

• If the Penguins had won by three, I'd say the same: Don't put much stock in this.

The other common thread from talking to players was that Sullivan changed almost nothing, from strategy to personnel to combos, other than the breakouts that were the focus of his only practice and morning skate. Those did look different and smoother, with a series of simple tape-to-tape passes. But the coach's plan is to use that as a foundation -- which Crosby told me he thought was "a smart way to start" -- then build from there.

The coach is off to a smart start. Don't let the score tell you otherwise.

• Beau Bennett got hurt.

If that was ever funny -- and I've taken my share of 'Brittle Beau' jabs -- it sure isn't anymore. And this injury, which looked to the eye like a broken collarbone, only reinforces why I often say, to the consternation of more than a few fans, that the Penguins can never put Bennett in a position of prominence. Not the first line. Not the top power play. Because any chemistry that gets built gets blown up just as quickly.

• No GM in modern professional sports history could have pulled off a greater heist than getting another NHL team, much less with an actual player returning, than what Jim Rutherford did late Monday night with Rob Scuderi.

How did that happen?

And the Blackhawks pick up two-thirds of his salary this season and next?

And to pick up a defenseman, Trevor Daley, who scored 16 goals last season in Dallas?



That coast-to-coast special up there was short-handed.

Rutherford's ledger isn't perfect, but he's got some very good trades on it, not to mention two highly productive drafts. He's still got it.

• From the let's-be-fair department: Chris Kunitz has played quality hockey of late. Good energy. Smart decisions. And man, did he step up for his teammates by crushing T.J. Oshie with a check after Oshie hurt Bennett.

• Don't sweat the negatives on Daley. From what I was told Monday, his only shortcoming in Chicago was that he didn't fit the Joel Quenneville mold in the defensive zone. Lindy Ruff's system with the Stars has the defensemen much more active.

• In the NFL, the quality of a contender is seldom weighed properly by looking at a body of work. It's about trajectory. It's about who's building up the most momentum. We see this winter after winter.

As such, the Steelers are the best team in the AFC.

That's something I haven't thought, much less written, in longer than I can remember. But it's a stance that's becoming increasingly difficult to counter: They're better than the Bengals, especially with Andy Dalton and/or Tyler Eifert out. They're better than the big-time banged-up Patriots. They're better than the Broncos, which they're about to prove Sunday. They're better than the Chiefs or Jets. The entirety of the AFC South is a tire fire.

But don't take my word for it. I asked DeAngelo Williams about this after the game in Cincinnati.

"Who in this conference is moving upward like we are?" he asked right back. "Who?"

• The MVP of the Steelers is Ben Roethlisberger. It's always Ben, actually, and it's far too cute to suggest anyone else.

But I'll take Williams as runner-up, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the team -- which votes on the award near season's end -- select him for all he's done to replace Le'Veon Bell.

• The defensive MVP will be whoever steps up to replace Antwon Blake.