Pittsburgh Penguins Fire Mike Johnston
The Pittsburgh Penguins fired Head Coach Mike Johnston on Saturday. He will be replaced by Mike Sullivan who was the head coach of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the AHL.
Pittsburgh Penguins General Manager Jim Rutherford announced this morning that he was relieving Head Coach Mike Johnston of his duties. The announcement also noted the firing of Assistant Coach Gary Agnew.
The Penguins will replace Johnston with Mike Sullivan. Sullivan was serving as the head coach of the Penguins American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Jacques Martin will return to the bench as an assistant to Sullivan.
Assistant Coach Rick Tocchet will stay behind the bench with the Penguins.
“I felt it was time for a coaching change because our team has underachieved. Our expectations are much higher with this group of players.” – Jim Rutherford
“I felt it was time for a coaching change because our team has underachieved,” Rutherford said. “Our expectations are much higher with this group of players.”
The news comes on the tail of a particularly unimpressive stretch of games where the Pittsburgh Penguins had lost five of their last seven and the offense had continued to be listless. It also followed a rather public upbraiding of Johnston by general manager Jim Rutherford about the ice time or lack thereof of rookie Daniel Sprong.
Despite Rutherford’s protestations and the retirement of Pascal Dupuis, Daniel Sprong has only managed 6:06 and 5:01 of ice time in his first two games since being a healthy scratch. He also hasn’t stepped foot on the ice in the third period of either game.
Mike Johnston finishes his tenure as Pittsburgh Penguins head coach with a record of 58-37-15.
Speaking of new Head Coach Mike Sullivan, Jim Rutherford said, “Mike Sullivan has been a head coach and an assistant coach in the NHL and we’ve been very fortunate to have him with our AHL club this season. He’s done an outstanding job in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and he’s ready to step in.”
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His previous head coaching stint with the Boston Bruins saw Sullivan accumulate a record of 41-19-15-7 and win the Northeast Division in his first season behind the bench. The next year didn’t go as swimmingly and Mike Sullivan was replaced.
He finished up in Boston with a 70-56-31 record.
This season Sullivan’s Wilkes-Barres/Scranton team has had a very strong start, beginning the season with an 18-5 record good for first place in the Atlantic Division.
The coaching change is not unexpected from the Pens perspective, though the timing was a tad abrupt.
As Rutherford suggested, the team has severely underperformed and has seemed particularly stifled offensively by Mike Johnston’s defensive emphasis.
While several had speculated that a coaching change may occur if there was no turnaround by the Columbus Blue Jackets game on December 21st, the trigger was pulled early and likely would have been pulled in Colorado had the Penguins lost that night.
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The Pittsburgh Penguins should be all the better for it.
Hiring Mike Sullivan will not solve all of the Penguins woes in an instant. There are still holes on this team from top to bottom.
It will give Rutherford and fans a chance to see if this high-end offensive talent was truly being stifled, or if the window is closing early.