Changes are a must for Penguins
Evgeni Malkin tumbles to the ice to tie the Kings late in the third period Friday night.
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
The Penguins have under-performed under head coach Mike Johnston. General Manager, Jim Rutherford, relieved Mike Johnston and Gary Agnew of their coaching duties to reign in the performance issues. Wilkes Barre/Scranton's head coach, Mike Sullivan, has been hired to take over for Pittsburgh.
Last season the Penguins struggled with penalties and were knocked out of the playoffs due to missed opportunities. This season the Penguins seem to have picked up where they left off, misfiring. The Penguins played the Los Angeles Kings for the second time this week on Friday night and big names missed big opportunities. The Penguins caught the Kings on odd man rushes multiple times last night and every open net chance either missed wide, over the net, or hit a post. Misfire indeed. The only player on the ice last night who fought every shift to get the Penguins in the game after they went down 1-0 early was Evgeni Malkin. Malkin's tenacity showed as he got in a scrum with Jeff Carter, barreled his way to the King's net, and scored laying on the ice in the crease to tie the game at the end of the third period. It has been clear for some time the power play needs an overhaul because it has been ineffective. The Assistant Coach, Rick Tocchet, was said to be in charge of running the power play but "Tocchet was overruled at times by Mike Johnston, especially this season, but the Penguins still formally said that Tocchet ran the power play. No more."
The Penguins play the Washington Capitals tonight, their first game with Mike Sullivan at the helm. From the time Sullivan was drafted in 1987 by the New York Rangers but he never had the chance to play for the team which drafted him. Sullivan played for four different NHL teams until he retired after 11 years. Once he retired from playing he began coaching in 2002, and he was hired as the Wilkes Barre/Scranton coach in June 2015. Sullivan is going to not let the stars of the team slack. We will see. A new coach in the middle of the season is going to shake the locker room up and create tension but the Penguins are professionals and they want to win. At the rate they have been losing the Penguins are in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since Crosby's rookie year. The shake up in coaching has come just in time to try and get the Penguins back on track and Crosby off the snide.
Excitement will be brewing tonight in Pittsburgh to see how the Penguins will react under the new Mike Sullivan regime. The Capitals and the Penguins do not like each other which always makes for an entertaining game. However, the Penguins need to stay out of penalty trouble and press the play inside the offensive zone. One of the most popular plays in today's NHL is to dump the puck in the offensive zone to make a change, I would count that as a turnover. With Pittsburgh's talent they should consider taking the puck behind their net, change the forwards on the fly then press the play forward quickly because possession is key. Do you think the Soviets would have lost possession of the puck on purpose? A dump and chase style of hockey can be effective playing against the right teams. When the Penguins play bigger teams, like the Kings, they have the ability to use their speed to win the race to the puck; however, against the Capitals the need to make crisp leading passes to get into the offensive zone, not lateral passes along the blue line which take away momentum.
Tonight will be exciting to watch and hopefully Sullivan's intensity will transfer to the top players on the team who have been misfiring lately. Sullivan will start incorporating all 5 skaters in the offense because you need to use all of the weapons at your disposal to be effective. The players have always said the coach is not the only one to blame. The coach puts forth the game plan and the players have to execute and execution has been poor to this point. With a new coach, a new system, and a new attitude, Mike Johnston can no longer be blamed.
