Just like people blame Sullivan for the players not doing their jobs, I'd easily throw blame at the owners for giving Sullivan the insane level of job security he has and seemingly buying into the media hype about how he's this amazing coach. I'm not excusing or defending Sullivan's traits, but you don't develop the stubbornness he has without being in an environment that enables it.
The owners and GMs of this team, not just the ones now but the ones since 2016, have completely drank the Kool-Aid for how amazing of a coach Mike Sullivan is. He gets no pushback from the organization because the organization views him like they view Crosby. He needs to be challenged, he needs to be questioned because no coach can ever survive in a league without evolving. But I just don't get the impression that the team does that.
I dunno, man. If the competitive desire to win isn't enough, then what's pressure going to do? They fire him? So what? he gets paid anyway (unless he gets another job, which he almost surely would). What's the downside for him?
I think it's more likely he just doesn't recognize the issues and/or doesn't know how to address them.
Maybe he believes that his system is the best way to win though, and he just feels like he's being let down by his players.
I think the issue here is that he fundamentally does not think that there is any chance they fire him, so he'll keep doing what he thinks is best. He doesn't feel any sort of drive to make changes because the people above him keep telling him how amazing he is.
