Sullivan’s teams rely on their pace, speed
Mike Sullivan seemed to check every box when long-time Boston University coach Jack Parker was recruiting him in the mid1980s. Good size. Great leadership. Nice skill. Excellent grades. Well, almost every box. “We liked an awful lot about Mike,” Parker said. “But one of the things I thought was a flaw in Mike’s game was that he doesn’t get around the rink that well. … He was a good-looking skater but he wasn’t that fast.”
That quickly changed. Sullivan spent four years with BU’s strength and condition coach Michael Boyle, working on core stability and lower-body strength. By the time Sullivan entered the NHL, he had redefined himself to the point that he represented his teams in the NHL’s fastest-skater competition.
“He took what I thought might be a problem in his game and made it a big asset,” Parker said.
Now as a coach, the transformation Sullivan performed on the Penguins has been no less profound. By prioritizing pace, Sullivan took an under-performing group of stars and turned them into back-to-back Stanley Cup champs. When something works twice, the league starts to notice.
“It seems like every year, every team takes the same page,” Patric Hornqvist said.
“They want to get faster. That’s the way the league is going right now.”
Now, as the Penguins begin a five-game series Saturday night against the Montreal Canadiens, with an eye on their third Stanley Cup in the five years, speed is once again at the center of the conversation.
In any playoff game, the intensity ramps up and a high-definition TV becomes essential. But, in this series in particular, both teams consider one of their greatest strengths to be their speed.
“They have tons of skill and speed,” Kris Letang said a few weeks back when asked about his first impressions of the Canadiens.
“That’s probably something people don’t really appreciate enough from them.”
From a Penguins perspective, they doubled down on the recipe that produced two Cup titles by making a series of personnel changes over the the past calendar year.
They signed Brandon Tanev, one of the NHL’s fastest players, in free agency. Another speed demon the Penguins long coveted, Jason Zucker, came from the Minnesota Wild in general manager Jim Rutherford’s big move of the trade season.
When Zucker is paired with the fleet-footed Bryan Rust, it gives Evgeni Malkin two of the quickest wingers he has been on the ice with, something that was obvious on at least one dump-andchase goal in a scrimmage.
Conor Sheary came back from Buffalo on deadline day and found quick chemistry with Sid and that other kid, Jake Guentzel.
Even when 40-year-old Patrick Marleau was acquired from San Jose, one of the first things Rutherford said was to ignore the wear on the tires. The veteran still had the wheels. (Paraphrasing, of course).
“I just think speed is the ultimate competitive advantage,” Sullivan said Friday.
The coach pointed out there are a number of different ways to define this characteristic.
“There’s physical foot speed,” he said. “But there’s also team speed, your ability to move the puck and change the point of attack. There’s mind speed, your ability to process the game and anticipate and take advantage of windows of opportunity.”
Of all those different definitions, Sullivan believes the Penguins “biggest strength” is their ability to think the game quickly and make sound decisions. Crosby, Guentzel and even the young John Marino stand out in this regard.
“We have some guys with some pretty high hockey IQs who can move the puck, change the point of attack and anticipate extremely well,” Sullivan said.
Now, it’s time to show it against another one of the NHL’s more fleet-footed clubs.
The Canadiens forward corps is more fast than skilled, moving the puck quickly and — more than anything — preying on opponents’ mistakes to strike quickly on the counter attack.
While the Penguins can keep pace with any club, thinking quickly and making smart decisions on the fly will be the kind of speed that will win this series.
“We need to make sure we take care of the puck and get it deep and not feed into their transition game,” defenseman Marcus Pettersson said.
“That’s where they’re a real dangerous team. They’re fast forwards. Skilled forwards. We need to make sure we keep the play in front of us all the time.”
‘Important conversations’
The Penguins and Flyers shared a moment of solidarity before their exhibition Tuesday when they stood shoulder to shoulder, with orange and white jerseys alternating with the black and gold, as a symbol of unity.
Crosby said after the exhibition that “a lot has happened” since the Penguins previously played and he wants to be “part of the solution.”
Friday, the Penguins captain was pressed on what specifically NHL players should be doing to fight racial injustice and police brutality while encouraging more minority inclusion in the game.
“Obviously, we’re role models first and foremost,” he said. “We understand that. We understand what’s going on in the world and we’re important when it comes to being part of change.
“I just think there’s important conversations that you have to have. I know personally, I’ve had some of those. I still need to continue to do that.”
Safety in the bubble
As COVID-19 continues to spread throughout Major League Baseball, causing a full-fledged outbreak in the Miami Marlins organization, the way that the NHL and NBA have handled their return-to-play decision is being praised.
Not only is a bubble the best way. It might be the only way, as MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said the league might have to once again shut down its season if trends continue.
Crosby said the NHL took a number of measures to ensure the safety of players, including testing, quarantining and contact tracing. The Penguins, in particular, held out players such as Patric Hornqvist and Juuso Riikola as a precaution during training camp after a possible secondary exposure to COVID-19.
“I do feel safe,” Crosby said. “This is something that has become our new normal, with testing and social distancing and all those things.
“If anything, playing meaningful hockey brings some of that back a little bit. I’m excited to be able to get going here.”
Last word on goalies
One more time Sullivan was asked about his goalies. One more time, he declined to answer.
“I will make that decision and share that on game day,” he said.