Sullivan not on final list
Coaching award eludes him again
When the NHL Broadcasters Association revealed its three finalists for the Jack Adams Awards, there were many in Western Pennsylvania who were surprised that Mike Sullivan’s name wasn’t on the list. Count Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford among them.
“My congratulations to the three finalists,” Rutherford told the Pittsburgh PostGazette. “They all did an exceptional job this year.”
But, “I feel very strongly that Mike should have been one of the finalists,” he continued. “Even more so when you look at the circumstances this year. The keys players that were out of the lineup and the adjustments that he had to make. He still went on to have a winning percentage of over .600. It was a very impressive job that he did.”
Give credit where credit is due. The three finalists — Bruce Cassidy (Boston), John Tortorella (Columbus) and Alain Vigneault
(Philadelphia — are deserving in their own right.
Cassidy, a finalist for the second time since 2017-18, coached the Bruins to the best record in the NHL (44-14-12). Vigneault helped the Flyers become arguably the hottest team before the pause, winning nine in a row from Feb. 18 to March 7. Both clubs will be guaranteed a spot in the round of 16, finishing with the first and fourth-best records, respectively, in the Eastern Conference.
As for Tortorella, no one expected much out of Columbus, considering they lost Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky and others in the offseason. Then, they lost more players to injury, including forward Cam Atkinson, defensemen Seth Jones and Zach Werenski and All-Star goalie Joonas Korpisalo. But Tortorella has them in the qualifying round.
“I have so much respect for the fraternity of coaches that work so hard to try to help their team accomplish the ultimate goal,” Sullivan said. “These guys are very deserving. They’ve done a tremendous job with their respective teams.”
All good candidates. All good cases.
But Sullivan — who led the Penguins to a 40-23-6 record, best of any team playing in the Qualifying Round— has one, too
Rutherford noted that when it comes to individual awards, sometimes Sullivan can get overlooked because, well, these are the Penguins we’re talking about. Sidney Crosby. Evgeni Malkin. Kris Letang. Jake Guentzel. When they’re at the top of the standings, good, that’s what’s supposed to happen. When they aren’t? That’s when coaches get canned.
Sometimes, these expectations work against Sullivan for individual awards.
“You go back to ’16,” Rutherford said. “We wouldn’t have won the Cup if he hadn’t come in and done the coaching job that he did. It’s another year that he probably could have won it.”
That’s why this year could have been different.
For a huge chunk of the season, the Penguins didn’t have Crosby or Malkine or Letang or Patric Hornqvist … the list goes on.
In total, they lost 298-man games to injury, third most in the league, including Brian Dumoulin (41 games), Guentzel (30), Crosby (28), Hornqvist (17), Malkin (14), Bryan Rust (14), John Marino (13), Justin Schultz (13), Zach Aston-Reese (12) and Letang (8).
Those stats are painful just to read. But they do not fully encapsulate the situation. There were points this year, with so many stars missing, the Penguins looked more like the Wilkes-Barre/Pittsburgh Penguins.
Remember when defenseman Juuso Riikola played forward? Or when Guentzel slid to center for the first time in years? Or how Joseph
Blandisi became a household name?
Had the vote been taken Feb. 18, Sullivan might have not only been one of the three finalists, it would have been hard to argue he shouldn’t have been the outright winner. The Penguins, after posting the NHL’s best record during the first six weeks without the NHL’s best player (Crosby), had surged into first place in the Metro Division.
Then, things came unglued. The Penguins had lost eight of their past 11 games before the NHL paused its season. It was a significant slump and surely a factor for voters.
But there are also holes in the other candidates’ cases. Tortorella’s Blue Jackets might not have made the postseason had it not been expanded, as they were right on the fringe when the season was paused. Boston had the best record, but why doesn’t Bill Belichick win coach of the year every year in the NFL? And the Flyers were hot, but until a week before the pause, the Penguins were still ahead of them in the standings.
In the end, it’s an individual award in a team sport. While it’s a good topic to fill space in the newspaper or eardrums on talk-radio, the Penguins will continue to focus on another trophy — you know, the one you can drink out of.
“At the end of the day, he’s got a couple of Stanley Cups in a short period of time,” Rutherford said. “In my opinion, he’s the best coach in the game today.”