Sorry for a Finnish aspect, but as two of your players are from my home team I've been following them more closely.
So far Blomqvist has obviously been the best goalie and his save% is clearly higher and actually surprisingly good (0.911%) under this situation. I wonder why he was played in the game they were scheduled to lose anyway and rested in the game where points could've been available.
Another thing is Puljujarvi. I don't remember another time when someone has been healthy scratched or demoted to the 4th line after such a promising start to the season. Not saying it has never happened, but it must be very rare.
Then again, it seems there's not a single fan that doesn't want Sullivan fired so all the questionable moves he keeps making might (finally) be working towards this goal.
Your points are logical, so obviously they run counter to Mike Sullivan's point of view.
The Puljujarvi thing makes zero sense. Like there are a ton of things that Sullivan decides to do that make no sense, but it quite clearly seems that Puljujarvi is being punished for producing! There is no other explanation. He is the gangly Phil Kessel. The more you produce, the less you play.
Once Sullivan decides that he does not like your game, it is over. In Sullivan's pee brain, Puljujarvi has to play on the fourth line because he lacks the quickness of an Anthony Beauvillier. Ignore the fact that his top-end speed is likely top-2 on this team, Puljujarvi LOOKS slow. That is all Mike Sullivan needs. Forget the fact that no other winger on this team has the brain to keep up with the Malkin's and Crosby's of this world. That does not matter!
If you are not a Mike Sullivan type of hockey player, meaning quite literally play like Mike Sullivan, then you obviously have flaws. Mike Sullivan is the prototype by which all decisions are made by Mike Sullivan.
Also, when is Sidney Crosby going to look interested in playing hockey again? February at the 4 Nations? Why sign an extension then if you are going to play like ass for a team that desperately needs you? Every winger that moves to Malkin's line looks better, and every winger that is bumped up to Crosby's line looks significantly worse. At this point, they look better with Eller than Crosby, too. Even Noel Acciari is playing better hockey at the center position than Sidney Crosby right now.
There seems to be such a laughable disconnect between GM, coach and captain. Nobody seems to be on the same page. Crosby wants out by his play on the ice, but he just re-upped. We traded away his LW and replaced him with junkyard scraps. We traded our top prospect for someone else's top prospect as a potential resolution to the whole Crosby winger, Penguins can compete while getting younger issue, so naturally the head coach buries the kid to the point where he is now just another minor leaguer trying to find his game.
What is plan B? Kyle, Mike, whoever is in charge. What is the plan now that plan A has failed miserably? The plan of trying to compete while getting younger has backfired like a 1970s Ford Pinto! We cannot compete with anyone other than San Jose and Chicago, and we are not younger other than the retirement of a 39-year-old fourth liner. We still cannot develop a top-six forward to save ourselves (which falls largely on Sullivan, to be fair), and the only player showing any promise at all right now is a young keeper that is getting barraged to death nightly. Blomqvist is being given the Patrick Roy of the Granby Bison (QMJHL) treatment. The more rubber you stop, the better you become. Oh there was Harrison Brunicke in training camp, too. Forgot about him. He was so good that they were scared to keep him up with the team for nine games, apparently.
So I ask you, mssrs Dubas and Sullivan...what is the plan NOW?
