When Mike Sullivan took over as the Pittsburgh Penguins’ coach in December 2015, the team was, in veteran Matt Cullen’s words, “kind of a mess.”
The Penguins were 15-10-3, a point out of a playoff spot, and had just fired coach Mike Johnston. Superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were both averaging less than a point per game.
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To lead Pittsburgh out of the malaise, the team’s then-general manager, Jim Rutherford, turned to Sullivan, who had been coaching the franchise’s AHL club. The results weren’t immediate — the Penguins lost their first four games under Sullivan — but as hoped, the coach’s confidence, message and attention to detail resonated.
“When you’re walking into a room with Sidney Crosby and Malkin and (Kris) Letang and (Marc-Andre) Fleury, it’s a long list of guys who have some big reputations,” Cullen said. “He was super direct, and it didn’t matter if you were Sid or a guy on the fourth line, the expectations were super clear. It was something guys really responded to.”
Indeed, Pittsburgh righted the ship and went on to win the Stanley Cup both that season and the next.
Nowadays, Cullen calls Sullivan “as good a coach as I’ve ever been around and as good a coach as there is in the game.”
That’s quite an endorsement from someone who played more than 1,500 games in the NHL.
Sullivan is now walking into a new job for the first time since taking over the Penguins. The New York Rangers, for whom Sullivan was an assistant under John Tortorella from 2009 to ’13, officially announced him as head coach Friday.
Sullivan, who has 479 career wins with the Boston Bruins and the Penguins, replaces Peter Laviolette, who led New York to a Presidents’ Trophy and Eastern Conference final berth in 2023-24 but failed to make the playoffs in 2024-25 — a massive disappointment given the team’s expectations.
“It’s probably not unlike what he walked into in Pittsburgh,” Cullen said. “A team that’s awfully close to being really good, high expectations — it’s a perfect scenario for him to come into. I can’t think of a better coach and person to come in and lead the ship.”
The 2015-16 Penguins and current Rangers comparison might not be one-for-one. The Rangers don’t have a core as capable as one with Crosby, Malkin and Letang. But New York certainly has more ability than it showed this past season, and team president and general manager Chris Drury is counting on Sullivan to bring it out.
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“It’s a talented roster that somehow lost their way,” said Mike Rupp, who played for the Rangers when Sullivan was an assistant and now works as an analyst on the Penguins’ SportsNet Pittsburgh broadcasts, which gave him a look at Sullivan as a head coach. “I think it’s really important that you have a coach come in and challenge the guys, but also breathes some confidence back in the group, too. Sully is good with that.”
“He puts players in positions to succeed,” added Brian Boyle, who played for the Penguins in 2021-22 and had Sullivan as an assistant coach with the Rangers. “If you have a creative group, he lets you be creative. If you have a physical group, he wants to bring that out of you. He certainly wants everyone to defend, no matter what. He wants to play a puck-pursuit game no matter what.”
Cullen called Sullivan a good teacher. When he took over with the Penguins, he honed in on details, and the results spoke for themselves.
“The clearer and more disciplined we got with how we wanted to play, the more it allowed you to play freely,” Cullen said. “You had guys like Malkin and Sid and Kris Letang that play on instinct so well. … All (0f) the sudden, you could see these guys with really unique instincts offensively just start to really flourish.”
Crosby, who had only 19 points in the first 28 games in 2015-16 under Johnston, finished with 85, then won the first of his back-to-back Conn Smythe trophies. Malkin scored at more than a point-per-game clip after Sullivan took over, and Letang finished fourth in Norris Trophy voting.
Rupp noted the Sullivan is not afraid to coach, and players — from future Hall of Famers on down — respond to that. Sullivan holds them accountable, and Rupp pointed to an instance late in the 2015-16 season as an example. Malkin was complaining to officials, and Sullivan yelled at him to “shut the f— up.”
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“He’s not a guy that goes to the well all the time and keeps ripping,” Rupp said. “But if he needs to, he’ll get your attention. Those guys love him for it. The Rangers need some accountability that it hasn’t really felt like they’ve (had) the last year.”
Boyle praised Sullivan’s preparation and also appreciated his consistent demeanor. The former forward said that he was the same in Penguins’ meetings, whether the team was playing well or poorly. He didn’t deviate from his message.
Brian Boyle says new Rangers coach Mike Sullivan “will be very forthright on what he expects from everybody.” (Justin K. Aller / Getty Images)
Boyle also credited him with communicating constantly.
“He will be very forthright on what he expects from everybody,” he said, adding that the players need to “look in the mirror a little bit” after 2024-25 and come into camp in good shape. “He’s going to have a really difficult training camp, as far as I remember, but for the right reasons and in the right way. He’s not just going to skate them into the ground for the sake of it.”
New York is a pressure-filled market, but Sullivan’s former players didn’t think that’d be much of an issue for him. Boyle said he dealt with pressure during Pittsburgh’s deep playoff runs, as well as at the 4 Nations Face-Off. Former goalie Martin Biron, who was with the Rangers when Sullivan was an assistant, noted his previous experience in the city.
“I think it’s going to be a great transition,” he said.
“He has a great way with handling and helping the players handle all the distractions in the media and the certain things you have to deal with in a bigger city,” Cullen added. “He’s dealt with a million different situations. You feel like (he’s) a guy who, as a coach, is in the prime of his career and at the very top of his game.”
(Top photo: Charles LeClaire / USA Today)
This news was originally published on this post .
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