Since taking over the coaching reins two years ago, Mike Sullivan's no-nonsense, "just play" approach has worked miracles in Pittsburgh. The two large Stanley Cup championship banners that hang from the rafters at PPG Paints Arena can attest to that.
But Year 3 of the Sullivan Era has brought significant challenges that no one quite foresaw when this most inconsistent season started. Due to defections in free agency, a lack of secondary scoring and his team's poor play at even strength, Sullivan's Penguins are looking less like the Islanders of the 1980s and more like the Kings of 2014-15.
Only five teams have gone from lifting Lord Stanley's mug one year to missing the playoffs the next in the post-1967 expansion era. Before those Kings, there were the ill-fated 2007 Hurricanes, a team managed by Jim Rutherford.
Obviously, this development hasn't sat well with Sullivan. Then again, losing hasn't sat well with the coach whether it's in December or June.
"He's just a very vocal guy," Brian Dumoulin was telling me about his coach. "He wears his emotions on his sleeve. He'll let you know what he thinks at all times. I wouldn't say it's more this year or more than any years in the past, it's just something that comes with Sully."
The only difference this year has been the number of losses. A year ago, the Penguins (18-16-3) didn't pick up their 16th loss until game No. 62 on March 1. Sullivan's demeanor behind the bench or in practice hasn't changed at all, according to Bryan Rust.
"He reads situations and he handles situations really well," Rust told me. "If there's a time to be angry, there's a time to be angry. If there's a time to be a motivator, there's a time to be a motivator. If there's a time to kind of just let off, and let the guys play, I think he's very good at being able to know what kind of situation is which and be able to handle that."
If Sullivan's Penguins are to avoid a similar fate to Darryl Sutter's 2015 Kings or Peter Laviolette's 2007 Hurricanes, a turnaround is required and soon, beginning with Wednesday night's game against the Blue Jackets at PPG Paints Arena. The Penguins sit three points out of a wild card spot, but just one point out of the Metropolitan Division basement.
In perhaps a precursor of things to come, Rutherford made a pair of small moves last week, one of which netted hulking defenseman Jamie Olesksiak from Dallas. But if that move had the desired effect of finally waking up the Penguins from their season-long slumber, it didn't work. Not for long, anyway.
Last Thursday, the Penguins and Blue Jackets combined for 24 penalty minutes in Pittsburgh's 3-2 shootout win at PPG Paints Arena. It was the most PIMs in a single game this season for the Penguins that was decided by less than four goals. The game featured Evgeni Malkin's eighth career fight (see below) while fellow non-pugilists Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang both dropped the gloves. It was just the kind of emotion and sense of urgency that Sullivan said had been lacking in the Penguins' game.
Then, true to inconsistent form, the Penguins followed it up with a complete dud of a performance against Anaheim going into the three-day Christmas break. That brutal, turnover-prone 4-0 loss to the Ducks, following five losses in the seven games before it, has only intensified rumors of even more changes that could be coming the Penguins' way.
"I think knowing the business and knowing that this is a business, if your team isn't playing well and things are not going right, there may be moves that happen, things done to help the team," said Rust. "Everyone is aware of that and I think it kind of does motivate the guys in here."
But Rutherford can only do so much to the roster. The salary cap, the device that allowed the Penguins to stay in Pittsburgh a decade ago and win the past two Stanley Cups, might also be keeping them from a third. The Penguins are hard up against the cap limit with just a league-low $566,581 to spare, according to Spotrac.com.
Surely some changes will be made, but the answers to the biggest questions about the Penguins will have to come from within the room. Sullivan can only yell so much. Coaches don't score goals.
"Sully is right, expectation is high and it should be," Olli Maatta said.
Two years ago, the Penguins started out 0-4 under Sullivan and won the Cup. Last year, the Penguins lost Letang to a back injury and still won it without their top defenseman. To a man, the Penguins believe their experiences in overcoming adversity can help them.
"Last year, we had our challenges, too," Dumoulin said. "We were going through a similar process as a team. Obviously, Sully does a good job of being honest and letting us know where we're at. It's no different this year. Obviously, to three-peat is quite a challenge. Sully's done a good job of keeping us focused on our goals. The focus is on the task at hand and the game in front of us."
Fortunately for the Penguins, the focus on Wednesday is again on the Blue Jackets, a Metro rival that brings out the best and the worst -- depending on one's perspective -- in the Penguins. The Blue Jackets are one of just three teams currently in a playoff position that the Penguins have beaten since Oct. 26 (Dec. 7 vs. the Islanders and Nov. 25 vs. the Lightning are the others).
Any game between the Penguins and Blue Jackets is going to be an up-tempo, physical, emotional affair. Though Sullivan would rather not see his best players engaged in fights and the inherent risk, it's the kind of intensity the Penguins will need to summon more consistently.
"I think its kind of come and gone," Rust said of the Penguins' intensity. "There has been times where we've lacked that energy, haven't been fully committed. Then there are times where we have. I think for us, finding that consistency is the key to us moving forward."
Strangely enough, the Penguins have a fan in Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella. Well, sort of. Torts isn't pulling for the Penguins to win Wednesday, but he is pulling for Sullivan, his former top assistant and a close confidant. The two have been hired and fired together in previous stints together with the Lightning, Rangers and Canucks.
Tortorella believes that if Sullivan was good enough to shepherd the Penguins to two Cups, he's plenty good enough to get them back.
"The greatest thing about Sully is that, first of all, he wasn't an assistant coach with me, it was co-coaches because he has the personality and the skin and the confidence to say, 'You know what, that's wrong, we need to try it this way.' and 'Torts, you've got to leave him alone,' whatever it may be," Tortorella said before last week's game in Pittsburgh.
"He's not going to sit on the fence where some guys, I guess you call them assistant or associate coaches, may think it, but they don't bring it to the head coach. That's wrong. Mike Sullivan's personality and the strength he has as coach would never allow that, right from the get-go. When we started working together, and we worked together a lot of years, he would never allow that. If he had a thought, he was going to tell me whether I liked it or not. Out of any coach I've worked with, I've learned more from him than any of them."
