Lol what?
When Mikey J was fired, Tocchet was still there and collaborated heavily with Mike Sullivan. It was something that we all know as it was documented heavily around that time how much Sullivan leaned on Tocchet to get to know the team, help with the line-up, coaching the powerplay, and then even more the 2nd year and also how much work Gonchar was doing with the D (as a Developmental coach and the later as an Assistant coach after the cups, Martin and Sarge did a lot of good work in the 2nd cup with the D).
The warts with Sullivan, his first year without having that strong Assistant coach is when you see the wheels start to fall off and the issues with him coming up. He was idiotic with the usage of Kessel and Hagelin, he kept forcing them with Malkin and he kept f***ing around with Hagelin so much that JR stupidly traded him. Then Sullivan felt he didn’t need to scout new players coming in and stated he would use them where he thinks they would fit best, lol, which of course had Tanner Pearson play confused for him. The team also wanted toughness (Sid specifically) and added Reaves and he pouted with the usage of him, which is absolutely hilarious because later in his tenure he would constantly play bigger plugs continuously, but he also openly beefed with Ian Cole because he was friendly with the media about topics and he had an issue with that. Instead of being a f***ing adult about it, he chose to bench him at times and then finally started to play him again when he had no choice. Then he openly pined for Big Game BrAss and JR went and got him the bloke only got Sullivan to completely misuse him too. That trade was one of the single most damaging thing because it established one very important thing for Mike Sullivan.
It showed him the power he held with the team. He could argue with Kessel, Cole, and even Malkin and would get his way no matter what. A Gm usually goes out and says “I am not going to make a trade, they need to figure it out.” But JR bent over backwards for him instead, epic mistake. He also just kept doing stupid shit with Simon, ZAR, McCann, Bjugstad, the list f***ing goes on and on. He was propped up with hot streaks, but those seasons he had a lot of inconsistent stretches as well and there were times very good play by players got him out of those funks. But eventually those players couldn’t do it anymore. The goalies thing I think he has a large part of that because he absolutely has no clue how to f***ing manage a rotation if his life depended on it. He would ride the goalies into the ground and then be pissy about it. I remember when Murray lost his father and was starting to show some issues, Sullivan didn’t challenge him, he treated him like a child and threw him easy lobs for matchups, which I mean Murray was arrogant and yeah sure, he won 2 cups and was f***ing elite as shit, he had a right to be at that point, but he was also coming off an injury and a major loss and the coach starts to treat him like a child and play him against these weaker opponents. He didn’t bother challenging Murray that first year as the defacto starter, he got shit on by the Blues and the Hawks in the first two games, then he would get thrown into games vs the Ducks and Jackets, etc. Poor Niemi that year, he had to come in to relieve Murray when the Hawks put up 9 vs the Pens and then had Tampa in his next two games, scapegoated out of town but at least he rebounded the next year with the Habs.
f*** Mike Sullivan and his ignorant bullshit. These tossers just going off and celebrating him like some coaching god in the Pens media can also go f*** themselves, I hope some players call out some of the shit he did, or start talking shit when they’re playing a lot better for a new coach and say shit like “Well its easy to play well when you’re not worried about being benched for a small mistake while others can make more glaring ones and aren’t held accountable in the same way.”
f*** Mike and his Boston roots, he can go eat shit. I hope he does end up in NY and f***s that team up and then he’s replaced for the Olympics, I f***ing look forward to his downfall all across the board.
