It’s way too early in the season to feel like giving up on the Pittsburgh Penguins, but the truth of the situation is that they have given up themselves. You can’t watch this year’s Penguins without experiencing several cringe-worthy moments or the constant pain of mediocrity. Thus far this season, unless their opponent is as inept as they are or worse, you can be sure to mark an “L” in the calendar and mentally move ahead to the next game. In fact I am writing this post before Friday’s game against the Washington Capitals, fairly confident that Pittsburgh will suffer their third straight loss, already their ninth in just sixteen games, as we all marvel in the wonder of a longtime rival still managing to be relevant in the twilight of Alex Ovechkin’s career. They may not be a legit Cup contender this season, but at least the Capitals are making things interesting for their fans.
The Penguins are very much the opposite in this regard. They have been too reliable in that you can look at a game on the calendar and assume how they’ll perform. They haven’t even pretended to try playing the spoiler against teams with serious playoff aspirations, as their goal differential in those games is shy of three goals. Their cavalier sort of hockey will only work if they are scoring in droves and/or their goaltenders are #1 in the NHL. They haven’t cracked the four goal mark in any of their losses while they have been unable to prevent their opponents from doing the same. It’s aggravatingly familiar because you are led the believe they might perform differently on any given night, but it’s getting stale. It’s not worth watching or even paying attention.
General manager Kyle Dubas has spent the last two seasons hedging his bets on low-risk/high-reward free agent acquisitions while making a big splash on defenseman Erik Karlsson. I still don’t hate the Karlsson trade, because once again we are looking at a player who was arguably worth his contract prior to his arrival in Pittsburgh, and then he just melted into a puddle of worse-than-uselessness. All arrows point to head coach Mike Sullivan being the root cause for this happening every single time, but I can’t put my finger on exactly why. All I can say is that, since 2017, I can count on one hand the number of trades Penguins GMs have made and won decisively (Marcus Pettersson for Daniel Sprong being one), and the rest have been disappointments of varying degrees. The common thread, besides the veterans on the roster, has been Sullivan.
The calls for firing Sullivan are growing, but I really don’t see the point right now. What would that achieve? Has there been anything about this Pittsburgh team thus far this season that has made you think they’re capable of winning the Stanley Cup this year? Or even a playoff series or two? Firing the head coach is often seen as a positive influence on a team, and yes, it is definitely possible the team could play better under new leadership. But the connection between Sullivan and the veterans is obviously very strong, to the point where the players could become further demoralized and disillusioned and play even worse. I could see the inverse happening also, where the team does in fact respond positively and play better, moving the Penguins up the standings, lowering the quality of their first-round draft pick, and likely landing the team another much-unwanted mediocre season rather than the success of a championship or the shot in the arm of a top-end draft pick.
At this point firing Sullivan will provide a chaotic element, whereas staying the course will probably continue the push towards the inevitable rebuild. It’s definitely not the palatable option for fans who considered an opportunity for a championship this season; for the rest of us, the prospect of a high-end pick makes the future more appetizing. It is too bad that we’ll have to endure these Penguins until April.
