Main reason Mike Sullivan is ‘perfect coach’ for Rangers, per Penguins longtime beat reporter
Every NHL coach has his blemishes — even two-time Stanley Cup champion Mike Sullivan. But there’s reason to believe that Sullivan is the right coach at the right time for the New York Rangers.
What appeals most to longtime Pittsburgh Penguins beat reporter Dan Kingerski about the Rangers latest coaching hire is that Sullivan’s previously been in a similar situation as the one he’s walking into now, and crushed the opportunity.
Talented team. Had prior success. Now underperforming and falling way short of expectations.
“That was Sullivan’s great challenge taking over the Penguins in December of 2015, they were an absolute unmitigated disaster at that point. There was even legitimate talk of Sidney Crosby leaving. Things were that bad,” Kingerski told Forever Blueshirts on the RINK RAP podcast. “But Sullivan very quickly, within a couple months of taking over, changed the systems, changed the mindset, changed everything to a platform that suited his team very well.
“If he can get back to that part of his coaching acumen, I would think that he is the perfect coach for the Rangers to sort out some of these problems.”
Sullivan replaced Mike Johnston as Penguins coach two months into the 2015-16 season. True, he inherited a lineup that included Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Marc-Andre Fleury, but Sullivan also had quite the mess to sort out and clean up.
It says here that “Sully” did a pretty good job on all fronts. The Penguins eventually came together, got hot down the stretch and went on to defeat the San Jose Sharks in six games to win the Stanley Cup in 2016.
He double-downed the next season, guiding the Penguins through some choppy waters again en-route to a second straight Stanley Cup championship.
“Sullivan is not the gregarious team builder, family sort of guy. He is a tactician, a disciplinarian — with some players. And he really is just a coach who is forever prepared,” said Kingerski, who covers the Penguins for Pittsburgh Hockey Now. “Having said that, any negativity is handled behind closed doors. He doesn’t alienate most players, certainly the core players. But players on the periphery, he has no problems putting them in the doghouse for mistakes often far less than those of his core players. … He gets his buy-in from his main guys and lets it spread from there.”
So, yes, some blemishes. But the results seem to make it all worth it. Certainly, the Rangers would sign up for that kind of turnaround after a turmoil-filled disappointing season that ended with them missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in four years and coach Peter Laviolette on the unemployment line.
Key Mike Sullivan challenge with Rangers is to ‘squeeze some juice’ from top players
It was a major deal that Sullivan had Crosby’s unquestioned backing and buy-in for 10 years in Pittsburgh. Sullivan also coaxed the best out of his top players, using a softer touch than with the rest of the roster, as Kingerski pointed out.
It can be argued that strategy worked until it didn’t. The Penguins have missed the playoffs each of the past three seasons, though one could pick apart their roster and talent level as much if not more than how Sullivan managed this recent group of players.
He’ll have his work cut out for him in New York, where Sullivan must figure out how to bring out the best in the likes of the mercurial Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin, especially in the postseason.
Kingerski believes Sullivan will find success with a talented Rangers roster on Broadway, though he does toss in a cautionary tale.
“Going back to when Sullivan was able to squeeze some juice out of Phil Kessel (from 2015-19) when other coaches really couldn’t and he figured out a way to get what he needed,” Kingerski explained. “In that case, I see kind of the same thing playing out with Artemi Panarin, where he’ll figure out a construct to get what he needs there.
“Zibanejad will be real curious. I cannot think of an accurate comparison to Sullivan’s time in Pittsburgh, when he had a player like that — sort of half-in, half-out, talented, but not exactly giving it his all, all the time. Maybe Erik Karlsson the past couple years might be in that same vein. And how Sullivan handled Karlsson, I don’t think he did very well, which is part of the reason the Penguins missed the playoffs last season and were so far out of the playoffs this season despite having some intentions to be in that race.”
Sullivan should have one player solidly in his corner, one whom he coached as an assistant with the Rangers in 2013 and again in February at the 4 Nations Face-Off as head coach for the United States.
“I see J.T. Miller almost as a quintessential Mike Sullivan player. They could not have a better Mike Sullivan guy than J.T. Miller,” Kingerski shared.
To listen to the complete interview with Dan Kingerski click here. Or you can watch the latest RINK RAP episode on the Forever Blueshirts YouTube page.
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