The Rise And Fall Of Mike Sullivan...

[PaulD]

Agreed. In coopers defence, Tampa lost a lot of good depth players recently which has led to back to back 1st rd exits.

Vasilevsky looks like an average goalie since their last visit to the finals in 2022.

 

[PaulD]

When your top core players are 38, 37, 37 and 34, and then a bunch of crap after that, it must be the coaches fault.

This team has sucked ass since 2019.
They've changed players, goalies, GMs, Presidents.......Sullivan should have been gone long ago.

 

[kerrabria]

People are shitting way too hard on the roster. Crosby is the sixth best center in the league. Malkin is still a 1C. Eller has been great, and Hayes is a luxury at 4C. They don’t have any elite wingers, but they have a decent stable to compliment their center depth. The D is very poorly constructed, but overall it’s par for the league. Jarry sucks but they’ve been getting okay goaltending from others.

Sullivan should be getting more out of them.

 

[HockeyVirus]

Honest question, is there a coach in the league who is taking that roster and making them a playoff team this year? It's core is almost all 35+ and they have no goaltending, barely any defense who can both move the puck and defend with consistency, or depth scoring.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

He's past his shelf life in that organization but that doesn't make him a bad coach.

 

[Jeune Poulet]

That roster is just awfull and so badly build& has been for some time

But the coach is the easiest one to blame in Pitt instead of going after the real issues

Dubas has set that team back so much already

The roster had issues before Dubas got there.

Crosby is a special player and as long as he is plays well, whoever is GM will be mandated to keep the competitive but that's a tall order when you've drafted low for 16 years in a row, are in a salary cap league and your core players are 37, 38 years old.

 

[Le Magnifique 66]

This team has sucked ass since 2019.
They've changed players, goalies, GMs, Presidents.......Sullivan should have been gone long ago.

At the end of the day this is the answer IMO, no coach should be lasting this long regardless.. It's been 2 seasons of missing the playoffs and another 3 of not passing the 1st round previously, we changed a few GMS and even ownership, he needs to go and a fresh start is needed for the players and the younger ones that will be here going forward.

 

[Stickpucker]

He wants to play a fast up tempo game but the GM gives him a bunch of old and slow players.

He's a great coach to have for the way the game is played today but wasted in Pittsburgh.

He has a middle of the pack roster and he gets middle of the pack results. Not bad since the roster isn't suited for his system.

From the outside it looks like Pittsburgh is talking out of both sides of their mouth. Crosby and Malkin need to retire as Pens and try and get another kick at the can now matter how bad the odds. Then they're angry that a middling roster gets middling results.

All the meanwhile younger teams will continue to improve and gain on or surpass them making it harder and harder to compete with the current roster.

Tdlr. Coach is good. Roster gets worse every year while teams around them get better.

 

[crab]

People are shitting way too hard on the roster. Crosby is the sixth best center in the league. Malkin is still a 1C. Eller has been great, and Hayes is a luxury at 4C. They don’t have any elite wingers, but they have a decent stable to compliment their center depth. The D is very poorly constructed, but overall it’s par for the league. Jarry sucks but they’ve been getting okay goaltending from others.

Sullivan should be getting more out of them.

The only thing decent are the centers. But they are old and can’t carry the team anymore. The rest of the roster is abysmal.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Idk what you want him to do when management won’t face reality and accept that it’s over

 

[sonic92]

I like how everyone seems to forget Sullivan's stint with the Bruins in the mid-2000's.

 

[sr edler]

People are shitting way too hard on the roster. Crosby is the sixth best center in the league. Malkin is still a 1C.

Offensively perhaps, but they suck on D at this point, both of them.

 

[SomeDude]

To sum it up, he’s well past his expiration date with the Pens. He’s been told he’s amazing for too long by too many people and he refused to adapt his speed based system to the roster and aging core. The results are a terrible on ice product that requires one or both of Sid and Malkin going into hero mode in order to win.

If he went to a younger team with actual speed, he’d probably do fine. He and the organization are just too stubborn/stupid to see this relationship has run its course.