After a 15-10-3 start to the season – good for fifth place in the Metropolitan Division – the Pittsburgh Penguins parted ways with head coach Mike Johnston.
Johnston lasted 18 months behind the Penguins bench, but was let go after a middling start with a roster that includes superstar forwards Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel. Despite all this high-end scoring talent, the Penguins have averaged just 2.36 goals per game – 27th in the NHL.
When GM Jim Rutherford spoke to the media, he said he had to make the move because he believes, like many, that this team is better than what it’s shown so far.
“I felt with where we are right now and how we’ve played over the first part of the season that this team has more to give,” Rutherford said. “We have some areas that we have to be a lot better with. We have to have more will to win. Our power play has to be better.”
It’s the second time this week Rutherford has spoke about the need to improve on the power play. On Prime Time Sports this past Tuesday, Rutherford told Bob McCown that the star-laden team didn’t have enough “will and determination” to take their game to the level where it should be.
“They’re capable of scoring more. Make no mistake, it’s not easy scoring goals in this league but some teams are figuring it out,” Rutherford told McCown. “We have the guys who can do it. The power play has hurt that goal total. It has not done nearly as well as we needed it to.”
Even though the Penguins have lost five of their past seven – including a 2-1 shootout loss to the Kings Friday night – Rutherford is optimistic that things are getting better.
“Really over the last couple of games I saw a team that did have more fight in their game and did have more will to win,” he said. “But I look at this snap shot over the first 27 games and felt that we’ve underachieved.”
Replacing Johnston behind the bench will be Mike Sullivan, who was last an NHL head coach with the Boston Bruins in 2003-04 and 2005-06. He lost in the first round of the playoffs in his first season behind that bench, but was let go after his team missed the playoffs after the lockout. While Sullivan hasn’t been an NHL head coach since, he’s spent time behind benches in New York, Tampa Bay and Vancouver, and was serving as head coach of Pittsburgh’s AHL team in Wilkes-Barre Scranton.
Said Rutherford: “I’ve got to know him a little bit better and I believe he’s the guy that can come in and really take control and really make some guys more accountable when we’re not performing at the level I think we should be.”
