Kingerski: It’s Either Sullivan or Make Big Moves, Something Has to Give

The Pittsburgh Penguins are falling apart.

The team that has seven wins in 23 games is devolving into a disorganized group of players whose poor defensive zone coverage only serves to mask a weak-willed team that has laid down for opponents so often that it seems like their natural position. It might be one thing to be outclassed or boat-raced by heavyweight teams such as the Dallas Stars or Winnipeg Jets, but it’s another entirely to give away three-goal leads to the likes of the lowly San Jose Sharks or cower meekly to the Utah Something Somethings, who employed a pair of aging former Penguins defensemen in their top-four (Ian Cole and Olli Maatta) and still sport a losing record.

Indeed, the Penguins’ melodrama continues to defy the belief that they’ve hit rock bottom by digging deeper with each passing game. An extended homestand with seven of eight games at PPG Paints Arena has only served to showcase exasperated fans and a disheartened team with a few disinterested players.

Something has to give. Either coach Mike Sullivan is relieved of duties, or general manager Kyle Dubas trades away a couple of incorrigible players.

Defenseman Erik Karlsson’s interest in the Penguins situation seems to be waning. The number of times in recent games that goals against are attributable to his effort or defensive mistakes is staggering. Our recent breakdown of the Penguins’ horrendous mistakes against Tampa Bay last Tuesday was not kind to Karlsson.

There were more examples yet to come against Winnipeg on Friday, and there are far too many examples of dreadful Karlsson performances this season.

The Karlsson situation seems to be careening toward a level not seen since Phil Kessel’s last days with the Penguins in 2019 when Kessel clashed with coaches and eventually teammates over his head-strong refusal of structure in favor of himself.

In fact, the entire Penguins’ blue line is beleaguered. Kris Letang is significantly off from his expected production. Marcus Pettersson is a bit overwhelmed from covering for Karlsson, while Ryan Graves and Jack St. Ivany haven’t been good (Graves was up, then way down before becoming a healthy scratch for several games). Matt Grzelcyk has been disappointing, as he has too often been caught puck-watching instead of defending.

Utah’s first goal Saturday was a prime example of the Penguins’ breakdowns. Grzelcyk left his post to help Graves who was chasing the puck, but neither did the job and left the net front open.

The defensemen’s issues only heighten the forwards’ struggles. The Penguins have ample forwards capable of sound defensive games, but each mistake is magnified, creating nothing short of chaos.

We’re left with goalie Alex Nedeljkovic challenging teammates—any teammate who is sick of feeling this way—to do something about it. Nedeljkovic said players have to pay the price to make a play.

Even casual observers can see that an attitude that has evaporated from the Penguins roster.

“It sucks … the only other way I can say it is if we want to stop feeling like this after games, if we want to stop getting embarrassed at home, do something about it,” Nedeljkovic said. “I don’t know. Pay a price. Do something else. Feel something else. Like, anything else.”

In a couple of weeks, Sullivan will have been on the job for 10 years, which is an eternity plus infinity for a hockey coach. Even a couple of weeks ago, it would have been incorrect to say he had lost the locker room. However, it’s becoming clear that the locker room has lost the locker room, and Sullivan doesn’t appear to be able to get it back. Disheartened and discouraged players no longer have answers as to how to fix this mess.

It would seem that more than a few players realize that Dubas’s roster was not good enough to win anything but participation trophies. Pride has gone away, too. After the team lost yet another 2-0 lead Tuesday against Tampa Bay, Sullivan ripped into his team.

“Because we have to compete harder. We need more guys to compete harder and pay more attention to detail,” Sullivan said. “And we need to take more pride in playing defense.”

It’s unfair to blame a coach for a poorly constructed roster, but it’s not unfair to lay blame for a team that is checking out or that lacks pride. The team should be much better than that and should have been good enough to remain on the periphery of the wild card race instead of the dubious race for the most ping-pong balls in the NHL Draft Lottery.

The public perceptions that Sullivan hasn’t made changes are wildly inaccurate. The public outcry that Sullivan won’t play young players has been debunked by evidence that has largely been ignored. However, none of those issues matter if the team routinely quits, as they did Friday and Saturday.

Life isn’t fair, and the Penguins badly need a jolt to salvage part of their season. It goes far beyond mere wins and losses, but to atmosphere, too. As part of the Penguins player development and thrust to get younger, it would be harmful to drop prospects into this souring stew of discontent and disappointment.

Dubas and ownership told captain Sidney Crosby things would be better this season, and the Penguins would maintain a competitive roster but also try to revamp it as quickly as possible. Crosby re-upped for two more years after this one.

Even Crosby’s voice is soft as he struggles to find words to describe what is going on.

While Dubas has tried to plan for the future without a full teardown, the results of his roster construction are identical as losses pile up. In fact, there are no solutions except significant roster changes or an attempt to change the locker room dynamic by changing the head coach.

“It’s not an easy experience to go through–what we’re going through. And so the biggest thing for me is to try to inspire these guys and make sure that we don’t we don’t give in to our emotions, that we’ve got to have some resilience to us,” Sullivan said on Saturday.

It seems that ship has already sailed. The Penguins have buckled, and the few players who need to be inspired have chosen against it.

No, life isn’t fair. A new coach would still have to deal with an inadequate defense corps and veterans losing faith. Changing coaches isn’t the panacea that many fans assume, and after the first 10 or 20 games, everything returns to normal. For the Penguins, that’s not good.

We’ve reached the point where fans are tuning out and not showing up. They’re beyond angry and reaching indifference, which is very bad for business. While attendance was solid on Saturday, it was a mere 15,232 on Friday, with even fewer fans actually in the building.

Read More: Penguins Fans Getting Angry; Dubas, Ownership MUST Communicate the Plan

Expect attendance to nosedive as people decide to spend their money elsewhere rather than invest their emotions into a team that isn’t doing the same.

So, to paraphrase Nedeljkovic, someone has to do something—anything. Changes need to be made if they don’t want to feel this way anymore.