Saturday morning, I was surprised to hear that the Pittsburgh Penguins had fired their coach, Mike Johnston. Oh, I figured he was a ‘goner’ sooner or later, but the timing – coming off a good win at Colorado followed by a gutty, 3-2 shootout loss Friday – seemed odd. How many coaches get fired after two good games?
However, this was about more than the outcome or effort in those games – it was about the long-term lack of offense, and I believe more importantly the coach’s disconnect with GM Jim Rutherford.
Last Monday, the GM took the highly unusual step of publicly criticizing his coach’s lineup choices – particularly the continued benching of 18-year-old prospect Daniel Sprong, along with the benching of defenseman Adam Clendening in favor of Rob Scuderi. Most fans and local media were as perplexed as the GM about these moves, but by going public the GM made it clear that the coach was not following management directives in any way.
In Sprong’s case, that was already painfully obvious – when the GM keeps an 18 year old on the roster rather than send him back to his junior team, you have to figure he expects the kid to play. That never happened – Johnston clearly didn’t trust the kid, he played him for a handful of games for as little ice time as he could, and then made him a ‘healthy scratch’ most of the last month. On a team ranked 26th of 28 NHL teams in goals scored, I felt Johnston’s handling of Sprong was inexcusable – and a fire-able offense by itself.
Scuderi vs. Clendening is a different case, one I blame the GM for in large part. By the time training camp ended, the Pens had 10 healthy defensemen. Letang, Maatta, Lovejoy, and Cole were locks to make the team. Derrick Pouliot was suppoed to be a lock, but he had a terrible camp and I agreed with the decision to send him down. Brian Doumolin had a great camp and rightfully stayed. That left the veteran Scuderi along with newcomers Clendening and Tim Erixon, both of whom were highly-youted young defensemen.
Keep in mind that at best, Scuderi is below-average at this point. He’s always been a zero offensively and he’s never had much speed, but his smarts and positioning allowed him to make up for that. It was clear last season that he could no longer adequately compensate. However, coaches are conservative by nature, ESPECIALLY when they are on the ‘hot seat’, and Scuderi was a ‘known quantity’. By leaving him available, the GM gave Johnston an excuse to pass over Clendening and Erixon. Scuderi has no trade value, but he’s also a sunk cost – an economic concept that most professional teams cannot grasp. In other words, the money is spent the minute the contract is signed – from that moment forward, allowing the salary to dictate playing time is foolish. Scuderi should have been cut, instead Rutherford doubled down on the mistake by keeping him around. Naturally, Johnston clung to the veteran.
So what happens now? Well, new coach Mike Sullivan is a much more demanding, in-your-face type of coach. He was John Tortorella’s right-hand man for years, which if you know ‘Torts’ tells you a lot. Many believe the Pens need an ‘in your face’, motivational type of coach. If that’s the case, the players have a BIG problem. These are pros – the core is all 8-10 year veterans at this point. If they need a coach to motivate them, something is wrong. Chuck Noll, Tony Dungy, and Scotty Bowman all believed that their job was to prepare players, not to motivate them. I 100% agree with that sentiment.
Having said that, it’s clear that the mix was not good. Johnston was the easy target, so he’s gone, and Sullivan has pledged a much more up-tempo game, freeing up the stars to create offensively. That all sounds great, and I do agree that such a style plays to the team’s strenghts. But here’s the thing – there are no more excuses available for this group. They’ve now run two coaches and a GM out of town, and the current GM has one foot out the door. You never hear excuses about the ‘system’ or ‘linemates’ for players like Kane or Ovechkin or Stamkos…or for Jagr and Lemieux back in the day. Great players are expected to excel no matter who the coach is – and 87 in particular has been in a slump for the past 12 months. The list of underachieving Penguins reads like an all-star team: Crosby, Kessel, Letang, Hornqvist, even Malkin was awful the first six weeks of the season. This team will go only as their stars take them, and at this point only Fleury is pulling his weight.
I said four years ago that signing Crosby to a huge extension was a mistake that would not end well. Long-term deals almost never do, and with Crosby’s style and concussion history it seemed a crazy gamble. I advocated trying to trade him two years ago when he was on fire, and again last year. Now, I honestly wonder what team would even take on his contract. I know he’s an amazing person, patient and kind with all fans, always under the microscope, and that he’s been an absolutely perfect ambassador for the team and the city. I also know that none of that will matter if he spends the last nine years of this contract performing like a third-line grinder. If he gets hot again, the team needs to think long and hard about exploring a trade – before it’s too late.
I said in my preview column that this was a crossroads season, and that there were dark times ahead. Both are still very true, and the next four months are unbelievably important to the core of this team. Let’s see how it goes from here, starting tonight against Ovechkin and the hated Capitals. I don’t know what’s going to happen with the new coach – I certainly HOPE he provides the leadership and spark the team needs – but if not, I won’t be blaming him. I’ll be blaming the players.
