If freshly minted Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan has his way, a lot is going to change for the Penguins without his actually having to do much. Of course, things will be different under Sullivan - Sullivan told reporters on Monday that he believes morning skates are an outdated practice - but what the new Penguins bench boss really wants is for the Penguins players to take ownership of the team and, through that ownership, forge an identity for the franchise.
"The players have to take ownership of their team," Sullivan said, per the team's website. "It's their team. It's not mine. It's our job to help them and challenge them to reach their potential.
"For me, that's my challenge."
Really, there isn't all that much Sullivan should have to change, just like there didn't seem to be all that much that his recently deposed predecessor, Mike Johnston, had to do to get the Penguins to winning. A team that boasts talents like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel should, by all rights, be an offensive powerhouse. And in a league increasingly dependent on speed and skill, a trio of talents like that shouldn't be struggling to produce points.
Sullivan, perhaps in an effort to lift some of the weight off Malkin, Kessel and Crosby's shoulders in particular, wants the group to focus on team effort.
"We're going to try to define a team game," Sullivan said. "We're going to try to define what it means to play the right way down to the details. We'll work on that daily. We'll come to the rink every day and try to get better."
Unfortunately, the already depleted Penguins defensive group will be even more short-handed for the next couple of weeks. Penguins GM Jim Rutherford, speaking with Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, indicated that Letang is likely to miss about two weeks' time.
GM Jim Rutherford said a report that Kris Letang will miss two weeks is basically correct. "Maybe a little longer or shorter," he said.
— Jonathan Bombulie (@BombulieTrib) December 12, 2015
That's bad news for a Pens team that, while they've been strong in terms of defensive play in their own zone, has been shortchanged when it comes to offensive assistance from the backend. In today's NHL, blueliners that can make strong outlet passes and work the puck out of their own zone without overburdening the forwards - not to mention chip in offensively - are crucial.
The Penguins have been struggling because of a dearth of players with this skillset and Letang, one of the few Pittsburgh defenders who can play this kind of game, is now set to spend the early portion of the Mike Sullivan era watching from the press box.
