Penguins’ Sullivan Wants Fight, Mental Toughness

Without the emotion that comes right after a game, Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan on Wednesday offered a fairly thorough, thoughtful evaluation of how his team is handling this disappointing season and what he needs from the team.

The Penguins are five games under .500, have lost all three games since the NHL’s break for the 4 Nations Face-off and sit 15th in the 16-team Eastern Conference. The playoffs don’t seem to be close a realistic goal at this point.

In answering a couple different questions after practice at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, Sullivan offered a glimpse of what it’s been like behind the scenes.

“When  you’re in situations like we’re in, it’s not easy. It’s not easy for any one of us,” Sullivan said. “These guys have a lot of pride. They care an awful lot about what’s going on. We all do. The coaching staff does as well.

“But if you’re asking me if we’re going to hang our heads because we’re in a tough spot, the answer’s no. We’re going to dig in. We’re going to fight. We’re going to try to get better. We’re going to take the game in front of us and we’re going to try to put our best game on the ice and see where it goes. That’s the only solution. That’s the only approach. There’s no other alternative.

“It requires a certain level of resilience and a certain attitude in order to make that happen. The good news about that is that that is completely within all of our control. That’s a conscious choice we can make. That’s the conversation we had with our group. And quite honestly, that’s what the expectation is.”

Sullivan noted that his team has wilted at times, and called for a little more mental toughness.

“We get hurt in certain instances, small blocks of time where one goal ends up in our net, and shortly thereafter we break down again,” he said. “I think that’s the resilience I’m talking about that’s required. We’ve got to develop more of a hardness to our mindset that we don’t allow the ebbs and flows of the game to affect our ability to go over the boards and play the game the right way — play on our toes, play with a certain amount of swagger, a certain amount of confidence. That’s what’s required. We’ve got to help each other through that process. … We’ve just got to dig in. That’s really the conversation we had with our group today.”

The Penguins seemingly have a good way to put that all to the test pretty quickly. They have a rematch Thursday at home against the Philadelphia Flyers after a game Tuesday in Philadelphia fell apart, with the Flyers taking a 6-1 win.