Today it was announced that the Pittsburgh Penguins relieved head coach Mike Johnston of his head coaching duties. He will be replaced by Mike Sullivan, who is as of this moment the new full time head coach. In addition to Mike Johnston’s firing, they also let assistant coach Gary Agnew go.
Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had a slew of tweets from the post firing press conference that paint a much clearer picture. In the following tweets Rutherford refers to General Manager Jim Rutherford.
Rutherford: Johnston is "a very good and smart hockey guy."
— Dave Molinari (@MolinariPGH) December 12, 2015
Rutherford: "We never know what a coaching change is going to do. … We do need to get some more production out of some guys."
— Dave Molinari (@MolinariPGH) December 12, 2015
Rutherford: "In fairness to our coach, part of this falls on me because I didn't get the defensemen who were necessary."
— Dave Molinari (@MolinariPGH) December 12, 2015
Rutherford: "We're not far from the top of the division, but we're not far from the bottom, either."
— Dave Molinari (@MolinariPGH) December 12, 2015
Rutherford said the idea of making a coaching change dates to mid-November, when they lost to Columbus and New Jersey.
— Dave Molinari (@MolinariPGH) December 12, 2015
It looks like from this news that the idea had been percolating for a while and now finally came to a head. The honesty displayed by Rutherford is both refreshing and disconcerting for fans of the Penguins. He knows where his shortcomings as a team are and he knows that they must be approved upon. Overall, the offense has more depth but the defense is an unmitigated disaster. Players like Olli Maatta and Kris Letang are the most noteworthy of the bunch but players like Rob Scuderi and Ben Lovejoy aren’t cutting it.
While the handling of players and usage has been confusing, it seemed like the writing was on the wall once GM Jim Rutherford made mention of Daniel Sprong – the team’s shiny young prospect and the lack of ice time he got. When asked at the press conference if Sprong’s usage had any impact on the firing, Rutherford said that it wasn’t a factor.
Mike Sullivan will have his hands full with this team. They believe that he will be up to the task, but it seems like this is a no-win situation for the former NHLer. He was most recently a head coach from 2003 to 2006 with the Boston Bruins. Last season he served as the player development coach of the Chicago Blackhawks.
The bottom line is that there is too much talent invested in the forwards for this team to fail, but if the defense isn’t tended to quickly, Rutherford may be the next person on the chopping block.