Penguins

Kovacevic: About Cole, Sullivan and bighorns

Nov 29, 2017 • 1:59 am

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Ian Cole's a fiery competitor, but he's also a free spirit.

It's an eclectic mix, the kind that can lead one from Stanley Cup glory to willfully eating a Roman Josi slap shot in October, and onward to savoring every second of his waking hours away from the rink.

Mike Sullivan's a fiery competitor, but forget about a free spirit, to put it mildly.

His is a passionate laser-like focus that drives the man from the moment his first eyelid is lifted until after he's finished living his day "the right way."

These gentlemen have matching rings and matching goals to prove their commonality, but they're also as different as can be. And this latest, and by far the largest, episode underscoring that has been, beyond a doubt in my mind, principally responsible for Cole being a healthy scratch for the Penguins' past three games and counting.

I don't write that lightly. Actually, I couldn't write anything lightly concerning these two, as they've both got my respect from ice level to the rafters. They're champions. They're winners in life. They're brutally honest. They each engage people magnetically.

But magnets have opposites, too. And for reasons I've never fully understood -- I still don't, in all candor -- there's always been an edge between the two.

In December of 2015, during a game in Boston, Sullivan became visibly furious on the bench. The Bruins had just scored off a breakdown, it was the head coach's second game on the job, his new team had been outscored by 7-1 at that point of his tenure, and he let everyone have it. The appearance, certainly on the TV broadcast, was that his wrath was aimed at Cole, though Cole denied that afterward, and he might have been right upon close inspection:

Regardless, fair or not, a pattern was born.

In February of 2016, I reported from another game in Boston for our Friday Insider that Sullivan had dressed down a player in the locker room in front of his teammates. I didn't identify the player, though I knew who it was, at least from the way the tale was told to me. I was contacted by a team official after that to dispute the story, though I won't identify that individual, either.

Suffice it to say the two-sided nature of the story still applies.

Because on Tuesday in Cranberry Township, Sullivan showed bona fide bitterness toward the reporters in the locker room over the various reports that the Penguins are shopping Cole for a trade, saying, "I think sometimes you guys make it up as you go. I don’t know where this stuff comes from.”

It came across as very familiar.

Sullivan is furiously -- and fairly -- protective of his reputation, particularly when it comes to his coaching. He admires and respects his friend and decade-long mentor John Tortorella, but he's adamant about being his own man, his own coach. He genuinely embraces input from those around him, treating Jacques Martin, Rick Tocchet and now Mark Recchi the same way he wanted to be treated as an assistant, but he never leaves a doubt who's in charge.

All kinds of theories are floating as to what's happened, a few of them outright wacky. Throw them out. Cole's "a good teammate," as Sidney Crosby openly pronounced Tuesday, so nothing's gone awry there. And it certainly isn't Cole's overall play, or some hidden performance aspect we're all missing. He's been really good, just as he always has been, and that's that.

Bighorns will butt heads. No need to overthink it.

Sullivan basically blurted out as much Monday morning, though it seems to have been largely ignored: " ‘Colesy’ and I have had a number of conversations over the past few weeks about his game and the coaches’ assessment and specific areas where we think he can help us and help improve his game. We’ve spoken about that. The specifics of those conversations, I think, are between him and the coaching staff, but certainly he is a guy that we think can really help us.”

Bluntly speaking, I'll be surprised if this isn't all solved, and soon. The Penguins don't have a top-four defenseman to spare. If Jim Rutherford trades Cole for the most glaring need, a third-line center, they'll still need to get a top-four defenseman at some point down the road.

WHAT'S BREWING

• Dale Lolley's first Midweek Reader takes a deep dive into the quality of quarterback play in the NFL and what, if anything, the league can do to improve it. This was fun and a little different, since Christopher Carter, Dale and I had been debating this for a while amongst ourselves and decided to air it out in this form.

• Matt Gajtka and Chris Bradford have extensive coverage of the Penguins' many doings Tuesday. Chris' work was his first for us, so I'd like to welcome him yet again. If you missed it last week, this was his own intro to the readers.

VIDEO

DK and CB go all hockey on Morning Java: