I know that Rust is not playing well. He deserves criticism. But to dump him from the TOP6 for Tanev and ERod staying next to Sid and playing 19 minutes tells you a lot about Mike Sullivan. And Kapanen looking crazy dangerous in every single shift and staying pinned to the 4th line. It was such a big game too and Sullivan´s stubborness easily could´ve cost them that game. Not to mention structural deficiences and players probably not giving 100% for him anymore. What was that start btw? Embarrassing. It took some miraculous 3 on 5 goal to woke them up and they finally played some legit hockey after that for the first time in forever. But it was not because of Mike Sullivan. He needs to go. To me, this is reaching Mike Johnston´s level of toxics.
Yeah, exactly this. 100%
People want to explicitly blame JR for the roster and not giving Sullivan enough, well Sullivan had enough when they fell to the Caps, injuries were an excuse there whereas I really think if you’re in the playoffs after 82 games, you should have figured out how to use your damn farm system to keep the team fresh which he did try to do and succeed with in the back 2 back cups but then suddenly strayed further and further away from that usage.
Then the year after that, his lack of creativity with the roster and the butting of heads with Malkin and Kessel and then the trade of Hagelin because JR can’t/won’t openly criticize the coach, who was also beefing with Ian Cole prior to all of this as well. That’s some serious petty shit. JR is a f***ing clown, sure, throws bad contracts here and there, but even with that idiocy, he’s not complacent. Sullivan is. His entire lack of strategy advancement since the cup is proof of his lack of evolving his system to the new ways. Teams with far lesser rosters beat the shit out of his team. People seriously can’t f***ing sit there and tell me the Islanders and Habs had a better f***ing roster than the Pens. If anyone does, they’re likely f***ing idiots. Rutherford definitely could have provided even better players, but better coaches have done far more with less.
Right now, he’s not exactly sitting with a shit roster, absolutely not. He’s using it absolutely piss poor and it’s so f***ing clear to see it but people still have a hard time saying it because they feel like they gotta say “Yeah, but JR...”
The usage of Rodrigues, Kapanen, Rust, etc is not JR’s doing behind the bench. Same for the last couple of seasons with the bizarre and stupid usage of Jack Johnson.
I also call f***ing bullshit on his contract being an issue. SO the team is ok trading for and signing players but are afraid of paying a coach that is ruining that window with the aging core? Really? That’s the f***ing go to answer for “Oh they don’t want to pay him to sit” well f***, do you want to see JR keep trading for better options, spending to the cap and having Sullivan mis-use the shit out of it? That costs more than money, that costs you a window for your cores prime. Sullivan would likely get scooped up by some team as an Assistant Coach, possibly even the Jackets as Torts is his mentor and all that bollocks. Seattle loves Ex Pens, so maybe he’d get that job, mostly don’t give a shit where he ends up.
Penguins didn’t win because of Sullivan’s brilliant coaching the last 2 games, they won 1 because the Caps were absolutely shittier than the Pens and then couldn’t score worth shit in the shootout and were an embarrassment in OT, then the 2nd game, glue guys stepped up and made it happen and some fight back from players that needed to show up, but the underlying issues were still very present.
6yrs in, he’s won back 2 back cups, then the last 3 seasons he’s basically squandered that dominance and set the team back heavily, JR with the 3ASS = 1G of of support.
He reminds me of this bloke that I used to know, he’d transfer to departments after each fiscal year, do well that year, then he’d transfer to another one because he could never replicate or continue that level of success as he didn’t know how to evolve his own methods with the next year with a clean slate and now a set of numbers he has to top. That’s Sullivan, he found success with more than likely an Assistant Coach that took his methods and used his own ideology and had incredible success, but since that person left, it’s been a clear shit show.
THIS DUMB MOTHER f***ER AND GONCHAR LITERALLY VOUCHED FOR JACK JOHNSON.
Like even Jack Johnson would tell you he sucks.
I will never get over that.
