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Penguins fire Mike Johnston, Mike Sullivan named new head coach

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Wtf mike sullivan? Torts old side-kick? Not scoring goals under johnston so hire defensive specialist who worked with torts.
 
FTR, the WBS Pens have been averaging 3.7 goals a game through like 20 games so far this year. The success of WBS is probably why Sullivan got the nod and not someone like Boucher (who is the coach I wanted).
 
Shawked said:
To be fair he brought them to the finals in 2002, then sucked for two seasons before coming back to the finals. But I wouldn't call it "lucky" the Canes were a well-built an oiled machine that year.

As for the OP, i think Desjardins would've made a big difference on the Pens but they wanted to force his hand and wouldn't let him hire his own staff so they missed out big time.
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Canes fan here. I agree Rutherford wasn't lucky the year the Canes won the cup they were one of the more consistent teams through the season. They were fortunate in the sense that they sometimes didn't face the best opposition but many Stanley Cup winners get lucky in that regard.

I do think Rutherford's and the Hurricane's success in 2006 was a direct result of the introduction of the salary cap and some of the off season rule changes. Rutherford positioned the Hurricanes to take advantage of a larger than usual FA crop and was able to scoop up Whitney and Stillman players who normally wouldn't have been available at their cost.
 
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mint said:
Disagree completely. Lovejoy, Perron, Winnik trades and now this hiring. This guy has lost it.
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The Lovejoy and Winnik trades were bad, definitely. The Perron trade remains to be seen, I don't think it's fair to judge a creative, offensive player based on how they looked under MJ. This hiring also remains to be seen, Sullivan did a great job with WBS this year (18-5, top-5 in all team stats). I'd say the hiring of MJ was a bad move, but that's completely in hindsight. MJ had the right ideas before coming in.
 
Anyway you slice it, this was a move that needed to happen. Rutherford is feeling the heat and had to react by trying to salvage the season as it's still fairly early. No doubt that he's partially responsible for this mess too but do Pens fans really want this guy making another desperation trade or two at the deadline?

Seems like this could still get a lot worse with Rutherford running the show. He's in such a "win now, all in" mentality that he'll do anything at this point to save face.
 
illpucks said:
All your posts have used "That's hilarious" and "your wrong"

People who are losing arguments have very similar dialogues, as they are frustrated that the other party is presenting things that they don't want to bring to fruition.

Johnston is a good coach. 34th best career winning percentage. But that is all inflated by Crosby, and Malkin. Am i rite? LOL

Just give him his due credit. You continue trying to minimize him because it fits your agenda as the piece "that is holding Crosby back".
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wrong
 
canadianguy77 said:
Yes. Disliking a coach is unique to Pen's fans. :laugh:
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It's not, but I've found Pens fans on here to have been generally excessively negative about their players/management for a few years, and harder on them than most other fans. Probably due to feeling like having Crosby and Malkin is being squandered, which is understandable.
 
DJENTLEMAN said:
The forwards are top-heavy (there wouldn't be "depth" if not for the amount of ELC or cheap 4th line contracts) the defense is non-existent, and the regular season stat machine goalie turns into a space cadet in the post season.
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What the. I'm not sure why you think you can discount depth based on ELCs and 4th line contracts. Does that somehow affect their on-ice performance?

As for Fleury, he's been one of the best Penguins and one of the better goalies in the league in the playoffs for the past 2 years, ever since he got his new goalie coach Mike Bales. Fleury deserved even more criticism than he got for his half-decade of godawful playoff performances before that, but if you think he's still a playoff dud, you haven't been paying attention.
 
Their first game with new coach is home against Washington. They could make a huge statement with that game
 
Empoleon8771 said:
The Lovejoy and Winnik trades were bad, definitely. The Perron trade remains to be seen, I don't think it's fair to judge a creative, offensive player based on how they looked under MJ. This hiring also remains to be seen, Sullivan did a great job with WBS this year (18-5, top-5 in all team stats). I'd say the hiring of MJ was a bad move, but that's completely in hindsight. MJ had the right ideas before coming in.
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He did preach an up-tempo puck possession style when he was first hired. Somewhere along the way he got scared and just started coaching the team into such a defensive shell that it made the Devils look like a high-flying team.
 
illpucks said:
Serious Question:

If Crosby and Malkin score in the shootout to win the game, is Johnston still fired?
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Serious Question:

If Johnston choose Kessel or Bennet or Horny over Bonino as his 4th shooter, do the Pens lost that shootout?

I'm pretty happy that choosing a grinder over some of the teams best offensive players is the last decision he made as HC. Pretty much tells you all you need to know about the guy.
 
Ragamuffin Gunner said:
Serious Question:

If Johnston choose Kessel or Bennet or Horny over Bonino as his 4th shooter, do the Pens lost that shootout?

I'm pretty happy that choosing a grinder over some of the teams best offensive players is the last decision he made as HC. Pretty much tells you all you need to know about the guy.
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Kessel sucks in the shootout. No creativity at all. Right call made there. Don't know enough about Hornqvist or Bennett to understand if Bonino was a better choice.
 
Pi said:
Kessel sucks in the shootout. No creativity at all. Right call made there.
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"Right call" seems like a stretch considering the result was the same.

FWIW I don't think the shootout had any effect on this decision, nor the game at large...the rumblings have been picking up steam that Johnston's days were numbered once the Pens got back from that lengthy road trip. Considering that Rutherford had become more and more public about his disastisfaction with Johnston's decisions the writing was on the wall and it was just a matter of sewing up the replacements (Jay Leach already has a win under his belt as interim WBS boss with player development coach Mark Recchi stepping up on an interim basis as assistant).
 
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Pi said:
Kessel sucks in the shootout. No creativity at all. Right call made there. Don't know enough about Hornqvist or Bennett to understand if Bonino was a better choice.
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If your job was on the line in a tied SO, do you honestly choose Nick Bonino over Kessel?
 
How did Tocchet survive the fallout? Pens fans are always saying the PP hasn't looked the greatest. He must be in tight with Mario or something. :laugh:
 
LetsGoIslanders said:
If I was Burkle and Lemieux, I'd fire Rutherford the second he muttered firing the coach.

A) I can't believe Rutherford got another job after running the Canes into the ground after a lucky Cup run.

B) Instead of adding defense, a weakness, Rutherford added Fat Phil.

What a **** show in Pittsburgh. It has nothing to do with Johnston. It's just a poorly constructed roster -- 15-10-4 is about where they should be.
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This is a rather ignorant post. It had everything to do with Johnston. :laugh:

Phil has been fine. He has not been an issue like many seem to think. At least try to act like you know what you're talking about?

The roster has issues, but the coach was the biggest problem, everyone could see it.
 
Koized said:
Yep and Hunter was hired basically with the plan he would only be a temporary coach.

I'll bet any Crosby fanboy that Ovechkin ends his career with less coach's.
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That has little to do with Ovechkin versus Crosby IMO and more to do with the fact that Trotz is a top-quality guy to keep while Sullivan is a stand-in who might get to stay longer.

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WarriorofTime said:
So the Pens are going with a Torts disciple? Should be interesting considering Torts hates the Penguins.
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Should also make future Jackets-Pens games a little more interesting. :D
 
Empoleon8771 said:
The Lovejoy and Winnik trades were bad, definitely. The Perron trade remains to be seen, I don't think it's fair to judge a creative, offensive player based on how they looked under MJ. This hiring also remains to be seen, Sullivan did a great job with WBS this year (18-5, top-5 in all team stats). I'd say the hiring of MJ was a bad move, but that's completely in hindsight. MJ had the right ideas before coming in.
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When you don't have many trade assets, spending a first round pick on a guy who hasn't done much for 1.5 seasons is bad asset management by itself.

Frankly, I think Perron's ceiling was too low to justify that move at the time because he didn't take offensive or defensive pressure off of Sid.
 
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