An Apology to Mike Sullivan

Mario_is_BACK!!

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Nov 29, 2003
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www.caseandpointsports.com
This all comes with a postseason caveat (if they’re swept in the first round I mean c’mon!) however I’m happy to eat some crow.

Right now this team is running like a steamroller. A let down today would have been understandable given their playing 24 hours ago. Instead they controlled play and never really let the Bruins in during what could be a 1st round preview.

What’s the biggest difference from prior years? Well... it seems like constantly turning over 1/4 of the team and allowing chemistry to form among everyone may be a good idea. Listening to Sullivan and forming a team around his needs? It works!

Mea culpa for now, Sully. Keep it up and bring home number six.
 
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Miro4Norris

Registered User
Jan 24, 2021
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What’s the biggest difference from prior years? Well... it seems like constantly turning over 1/4 of the team and allowing chemistry to form among everyone may be a good idea. Listening to Sullivan and forming a team around his needs? It works!

Speed. With additions of Kapanen, Matheson(, Carter) to replace slow players like Bjugs, Horny, Pens can play fast again.
 

BobCole

Registered User
May 21, 2014
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I won't claim to be enough of a tactician or a sports psychologist to properly evaluate Sullivan as a coach but obviously his results speak for themselves.

I'll tell you who should be eating crow: the mouth breathers who painted him as the worst coach in hockey no more than 12 weeks ago. Whenever this team is winning, it's praise be MS, and whenever we're losing, the chatter gets ratcheted up to 10, with every *single* lineup decision described as being so bone-headed that it warrants his immediate firing.

One thing I know is that every coach - no matter how good - has a shelf life. I think it was fair to ask whether Sullivan reached his with the Pens following some disappointing post-seasons and a slow start to this season. Thankfully, ownership appears to have made the right call by holding onto him. Here's to hoping another Cup run is in them this season!
 

Pens x

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Oct 8, 2016
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I’m impressed with his coaching ability against the Isles this year, but it’ll all come down to the playoff results this year. I thought no-neck Trotz would undress him during the regular season.

Our division kind of sucking helps a bit too.
 

eXile3

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Dec 12, 2020
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If we lose in round one, which is a possibility in this division, we'll see fire Sullivan threads.
 

cygnus47

Registered User
Sep 14, 2013
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This.

As good as our regular season has been, ultimately I'm waiting to see how this team performs when it counts before I'm going to praise the job Sullivan has done.

Exactly. It's a sign of our entitlement I guess, but it's not impressive to win games in the regular season unless the team looks like a juggernaut. And we don't yet. It's great that we can put in an effort like tonight, but when's the last time we did that even 3 or 4 games in a row?

If we make some noise in the playoffs I'll happily eat crow. We've had good streaks in the regular season every year since 2017 and we've done exactly nothing in the playoffs since then. I don't think playing passive defensive hockey is a good fit for our team and I have doubts about how it will work against top teams in the playoffs on a nightly basis. I want us to defend aggressively in our own zone, period, and I think it's the key to why we won 5 years ago and why we haven't won since 2017. We don't create enough rushes from our own end and we give the opponents too many chances to make plays without pressure in our zone. We still have horrible period-long lapses every other game.

I've laid compliments on those that deserve them all season, I'm not convinced Sully is one of them yet. If I'm wrong I'll happily say it when it's true.
 

Will Hunting

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Dec 14, 2011
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Encouraging season for sure. Impressive stuff, but it´s all about the playoffs. He is doing some really good work for sure but we will judge him after the playoffs, fair game or not.
 
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Andy99

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Jun 26, 2017
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It’s all about the POs...too early for this thread...

and can we please stop with the terrible, negative Malkin takes that he’s somehow going to singlehandedly not buy in and ruin team chemistry...
 
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Big Friggin Dummy

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Feb 22, 2019
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I don't think Sullivan's done anything to alter the course of this team, tbh. Sid's line has dominated enough to keep this team churning through injury, and guys like Letang having a Norris-caliber year and Ceci allowing Matheson to be as good as he's been aren't Sully things.

Nothing matters until the playoffs though. That goes for coaching as well as players.
 

madinsomniac

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Jul 3, 2012
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It’s totally plausible that JR ‘s abrupt departure served as a rallying point for the team much as coaches being fired in the past.... or perhaps fresh eyes on the roster allowed the right tweaks without some nuclear trade option
 

ronduguayshair

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Oct 23, 2017
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If Sullivan doesn't handle Malkin coming back right this whole thing goes off the rails.

Let's talk then.

Couldn’t that be the players fault if everyone of the other players are excelling under the same circumstances?
 

Fordy

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May 28, 2008
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i was dead wrong earlier in the season. i said it's nhl coach expiration time. i hope he embarrasses me with a deep playoff run
 
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Fordy

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May 28, 2008
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It’s totally plausible that JR ‘s abrupt departure served as a rallying point for the team much as coaches being fired in the past.... or perhaps fresh eyes on the roster allowed the right tweaks without some nuclear trade option
it sure didn't seem like that at the time
 

Fordy

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May 28, 2008
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It’s all about the POs...too early for this thread...

and can we please stop with the terrible, negative Malkin takes that he’s somehow going to singlehandedly not buy in and ruin team chemistry...
yeah i don't know if people are mad about the reality of aging and his career unfortunately being in the winding down stage and are coping by pretending he sucks. but good lord. it's so crazy to me, and they all aggressively ignore how good he was for weeks of this season
 
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Flying Dego

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Apr 30, 2013
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I will admit he has the team playing a great brand of hockey. But this is the regular season. My judgement is reserved for that upcoming playoff round. If we phone it in yet again...so long.
 

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