Pens Fire Mike Johnston!
- Thread starter Euell
- Start date
By now, everyone knows Mike Sullivan is being moved up from WB/S (and he has HC experience in the League).
My guess is that MJ will be a very small part of the extended discussion around the League over the next couple days. Most of that will focus on GMJR, who is clearly (and probably, justifiably) uncomfortable right now. Obviously when he came out publicly the other day regarding the fact he wanted Sprong playing was an indication this decision was definitely in play.
Whether this proves to be a good move obviously remains to be seen. Many......well, at least the increasingly-vocal group of extraordinarily-pleased anti-Penguins cement-heads around the League (and in the media).....believe most of the team's problems focus on Rutherford. He's certainly a component of it; allowing, for example, guys like Niskanen and Martin....who might have been signed with dollars ultimately paid to Kessel..... to walk is proving to be every bit as damaging as I previously feared.
But, many of the issues still must be focused on their best players, where we all know only Geno and Flower are earning their salaries this season. But if the roster is the problem, you simply can't make major changes in the middle of the season.
For that reason, I'm personally not all that upset with the decision; though I actually thought Todd Richards might have been considered for the job (and perhaps was). But Sullivan has at least been around the block; so, those who thought MJ's junior background (and philosophy) was a problem should be happier today.
Will be interested to see (and hear) the kind of system changes Sullivan wants to make; I know there has been a significant amount of dissatisfaction with MJ's 5-men-in-the-play philosophy, as well as his insistence that Sid and Geno go backward aggressively into the defensive zone.
I'll also be interested to see if the players hang MJ out to dry, or if they indicate any regret at his taking the gas on their behalf. Meanwhile, it also remains to be seen how much further GMJR's reputation with the team is negatively affected in the short term.
My guess is that MJ will be a very small part of the extended discussion around the League over the next couple days. Most of that will focus on GMJR, who is clearly (and probably, justifiably) uncomfortable right now. Obviously when he came out publicly the other day regarding the fact he wanted Sprong playing was an indication this decision was definitely in play.
Whether this proves to be a good move obviously remains to be seen. Many......well, at least the increasingly-vocal group of extraordinarily-pleased anti-Penguins cement-heads around the League (and in the media).....believe most of the team's problems focus on Rutherford. He's certainly a component of it; allowing, for example, guys like Niskanen and Martin....who might have been signed with dollars ultimately paid to Kessel..... to walk is proving to be every bit as damaging as I previously feared.
But, many of the issues still must be focused on their best players, where we all know only Geno and Flower are earning their salaries this season. But if the roster is the problem, you simply can't make major changes in the middle of the season.
For that reason, I'm personally not all that upset with the decision; though I actually thought Todd Richards might have been considered for the job (and perhaps was). But Sullivan has at least been around the block; so, those who thought MJ's junior background (and philosophy) was a problem should be happier today.
Will be interested to see (and hear) the kind of system changes Sullivan wants to make; I know there has been a significant amount of dissatisfaction with MJ's 5-men-in-the-play philosophy, as well as his insistence that Sid and Geno go backward aggressively into the defensive zone.
I'll also be interested to see if the players hang MJ out to dry, or if they indicate any regret at his taking the gas on their behalf. Meanwhile, it also remains to be seen how much further GMJR's reputation with the team is negatively affected in the short term.
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Well....just saw this news as I landed from a couple Leaf buddies texts trying to get me going with 'oh no a rebuild in Pittsburgh'...I gotta admit that one made me laugh!
It seems I've been at the end of the earth in Mendocino the last few days so I have seen little of the Pens apparent trials and tribulations since LA...What a beautiful yet somewhat strange town in northern Cali! I had no clue that many hippies even existed anymore lol...
I'll freely admit I figured MJ was the guy to lead this team into the future when they hired him from his rep in the W...and I'll freely admit it was a mistake in seeing the going's on over the last year...I see no true identity with this team right now, and under MJ they either weren't listening or he just didn't employ the right style for this team to succeed? !? Anyone else think they'd look completely disorganized out there more often than not? This tells me whatever he was preaching was falling on deaf ears. ...
GMJR writing on the wall as well? He sunk his eggs into the Kessel basket ( imo a huge error when I heard of the trade), And the new fella behind the bench better motivate him into 35 goals minimum by season end, or we've got significant trouble! I haven't seen the last couple games fellas, how has he looked, and how has the D looked as well?
The fourth line had looked great to me last week (not sure if this can be attributed to the fact they could all be third liners imo), but if your crew that's on for 10 mins a game max looks like your best one that's obviously a problem in other aspects. ....
It seems I've been at the end of the earth in Mendocino the last few days so I have seen little of the Pens apparent trials and tribulations since LA...What a beautiful yet somewhat strange town in northern Cali! I had no clue that many hippies even existed anymore lol...
I'll freely admit I figured MJ was the guy to lead this team into the future when they hired him from his rep in the W...and I'll freely admit it was a mistake in seeing the going's on over the last year...I see no true identity with this team right now, and under MJ they either weren't listening or he just didn't employ the right style for this team to succeed? !? Anyone else think they'd look completely disorganized out there more often than not? This tells me whatever he was preaching was falling on deaf ears. ...
GMJR writing on the wall as well? He sunk his eggs into the Kessel basket ( imo a huge error when I heard of the trade), And the new fella behind the bench better motivate him into 35 goals minimum by season end, or we've got significant trouble! I haven't seen the last couple games fellas, how has he looked, and how has the D looked as well?
The fourth line had looked great to me last week (not sure if this can be attributed to the fact they could all be third liners imo), but if your crew that's on for 10 mins a game max looks like your best one that's obviously a problem in other aspects. ....
Welcome back to Southern O, t.......be honest now, you and the Missus really never were very happy out there on the Left Coast with all that sun and surf, were you ??? :wink: Jokes aside, I do hope it was a nice trip for both of you; please let us know about some of the highlights.
Anyway, you'll recall my post a couple weeks ago when local scribe Rob Rossi bitch-slapped the franchise on NHLN Radio. Well, he finally put his personal gripes in this morning's paper; IMO, it's about time he did it locally rather talk about it on a satellite radio channel only a tiny fraction of Penguins fans actually listen to:
http://triblive.com/sports/robrossi/9618108-74/penguins-rutherford-lemieux#axzz3uCpfdHIQ
I don't agree with everything he says, but his generalized point about ownership is something nobody.....no matter how much one likes Mario.....can dispute in a real-world sense. Maybe history shows Rutherford was a terrible choice for GM; and current indicators do tend to point that direction (both with his head coach and personnel decisions). But I myself consider this a premature assessment.
Of course, with so much local criticism about MJ's coaching style (both system-wise and behind the bench) this year, it probably was important to make this change. So, now that one has been made, it's now squarely up to the players to prove it really was somebody else's fault.
In terms of short-term moves, I'm sort-of assuming one of the first will be to bring Pouliot back to Pittsburgh; in fact, perhaps as early as today in advance of their game tomorrow versus the Craps. You may not be aware, t, that Letang is out for at least a couple weeks.....after missing both California games last weekend.....with a UBI sustained against Colorado this past week (though I suspect he simply re-aggravated the same injury which caused him to sit out West).
But unless Mike Sullivan is mysteriously dying to watch/assess Warsofsky and Clendening personally, you'd have to think he might want to get DP back in the Pittsburgh lineup. You'll also note from GMJR's comments yesterday that he does recognize the personnel bind in which he placed the team defensively. I don't know what he does to address it......you might have seen my post the other day on that subject......but I'll give him credit for owning at least that much of the current problems.
But man, trading for solid defense help.....especially for puck movers (which I'm not sure is precisely what they need)...... is just so damned hard. There's been a fair amount of noise that Hornqvist is their best roster trade chip; and while I agree in theory, he hasn't had close to a good enough season to return what I consider to be something comparable in trade.
In the back of my mind, I've actually been thinking the past few weeks that Kessel may actually be GMJR's best bargaining chip for defense help.....let's face it, a fair amount of shine is now gone from his Penguins rose (even though he remains easily their best scoring winger). But he's obviously got the same problem as Hornqvist.
Oh well, guess we'll see soon enough......
