CALGARY, Alberta -- Brief and to the Point ...
There can't be a better coach right now in the NHL than Mike Sullivan. There just can't.
When I spend any significant amount of time covering the Penguins, as I have over the past week in four games spanning Western Canada that concluded with a 4-3 shootout loss to the Flames here Monday night that might have marked their peak performance of a seriously uplifting 3-0-1 trip, I'm struck by nothing quite like the impact of their head coach.
Simply put, the man's in complete command.
When a drill isn't drilling right, as happened early in the Monday morning skate at the Saddledome, he'll shut the whole thing down and start it all over.
"Do it right!" he'll shout but with no discernible nastiness.
When one of his players during a practice in Edmonton wasn't grasping his instructions, even though no activity had yet begun, Sullivan noticed the facial expression, halted what he'd been saying and started over. This time enunciating each syllable. The player wasn't embarrassed, and the purpose was still served.
When a group of reporters surrounded him in Winnipeg and he was asked to explain why the Penguins would call up an enforcer for that game, of all games, he calmly, coolly and candidly explained that some of his veteran players like having Tom Sestito around, then added that the Jets can be a rough opponent.
And after this game Monday night, when his team was tired, depleted and then lost Mark Streit to a lower-body injury in the first period, Sullivan struck all the right chords when I asked if his team was, through all this adversity, finally finding that commitment to defense he's been seeking since training camp, he replied this way:
✓ Too many lateral passes
✓ Liked the team's passion
✓ Yeah, we're hurt ... we've responded well
✓ Two points tonight would have been awesome, but the other guys were really good
✓ Did I mention too many lateral passes?
Even when he strays from the message, he's being legitimately forthcoming and truthful, and yet he still steers back to the message. He'll recognize all reasonable circumstances, he'll push within the proper context, but he still expects -- no, demands -- that the dynamics of the game are performed his way.
Now check out this one from Monday morning, when I asked how and why the Penguins don't exactly seem obsessed with the standings in spite of potentially significant consequences:
