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Sullivan Angrily Stops Practice; Clarifies Jarry Status

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Pittsburgh Penguins practice. Mike Sullivan. Sidney Crosby

CALGARY, Alberta — Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan isn’t playing around through the Penguins’ early season struggles. Monday, Sullivan angrily stopped practice during more than one drill.



He stopped both the power play and a five-on-five drill meant to drive home the concept of playing low to high. It was clear that Sullivan was frustrated by his team’s lackadaisical attitude.

“It’s safe to say I just didn’t think we executed very well,” said Sullivan. “We just didn’t have the focus or the intentions that we needed to have to be at our best.”

For the record, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby seemed to enjoy the coach dropping the hammer. Crosby, whose work ethic and focus is unparalleled, seemed to delight in Sullivan’s stern team admonishment.

“Obviously, (Sullivan) wants us to execute well. We had some pucks and bobbles and didn’t make a couple of good passes,” Crosby said. “So I think that’s what you want. You want to practice with purpose. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as crisp as we’d like today. But, you’ve got to work at it.”

Sullivan was imploring his team to recognize low-to-high opportunities in the offensive zone and to protect the puck. Before he stopped the practice to deliver a little tough love, he also scolded Jesse Puljujarvi for not following through on the drill’s purpose.

The Penguins’ lines were a combination of the new pairs and the original, as Michael Bunting was a primary participant. Bunting appeared to be back in his usual spot, with Evgeni Malkin on the second line. However, Sullivan put Jesse Puljujarvi on the fourth line with Noel Acciari and Kevin Hayes.

Puljujarvi played on the Penguins’ second line Sunday with Malkin.

Cody Glass has been a fourth-liner, but Sullivan elevated him to Eller’s line. It appears Valtteri Puustinen will return to the press box.

Penguins Lines

Drew O’Connor-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust

Michael Bunting-Evgeni Malkin-Rickard Rakell

Anthony Beauvillier-Lars Eller-Cody Glass

Kevin Hayes-Noel Acciari-Jesse Puljujarvi

Defense

Matt Grzelcyk-Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson-Erik Karlsson

Ryan Graves-Ryan Shea

Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic, Joel Blomqvist.

Tristan Jarry

The Penguins are carrying three goalies, and it sounds like they could do it for a while. Sullivan refuted that Jarry was a healthy scratch Sunday (technically, he was), but Sullivan used a different term.

“He handled (the scratch) fine. And it wasn’t a scratch. It was a comprehensive game plan that we put together to try to help Tristan capture his very best, Sullivan said. “And if we’re asking him to back up, it’s hard for him to get the work done in practice with Andy Chiodo, our goalie coach, to help him get his game back on track where we need it to be.”

Jarry has an .836 save percentage this season in three starts, though he did not finish his last start against the Buffalo Sabres. Sullivan pulled him in the first period for Joel Blomqvist. Alex Nedeljkovic started Sunday against the Winnipeg Jets, and Blomqvist served as the backup.

Jarry is in the second year of a five-year deal with an average annual value of $5.375 million.

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Jeff Young
Jeff Young
12 days ago

Are there limits to the amount of time a coach (Chiodo) can spend with a player? IOW, why is it “hard for him” to get time with the coach? Was a figure skating practice scheduled right afterwards? 😕

Ujn Hunter
Ujn Hunter
11 days ago
Reply to  Jeff Young

Wishful thinking that we’d have gotten Jeff Skinner as a winger for Sid?

DMR
DMR
12 days ago

It’s very disappointing that some of the players needed a stoppage of practice and a chewing out by the coach after the games they’ve recently lost. You would think professional athletes would be mature enough to know their work effort should be at the top today! Sounds like it’s been a country club atmosphere for far too long.

GBG
GBG
12 days ago
Reply to  DMR

I’m astonished that the new players / young players needed that. My hope was the infusion of younger hungrier players would boost the play of the entire team. Sounds like it’s actually the reverse, the older players are making the younger ones lazy.
And it’s time to acknowledge that EK can’t play defense and move him off a defensively responsible pairing to one that plays only offense. I don’t know if he was ever a decent defensive player but he is horrific as a Pen.

Last edited 12 days ago by jsarnoldlaw@gmail.com
Deppert
Deppert
12 days ago
Reply to  GBG

Hopefully Dan’s tech guy will see that an email got leaked out in that message post and fix it!

teamquebec
teamquebec
12 days ago
Reply to  GBG

He never was. Even in Ottawa. I was watching Senators games more often back then and he always been a defensive liability. It was less noticeable because Ottawa had a very good team during that period. Also, he made 101 points in his last session in San Jose because there was no expectation at all! That club was going nowhere! It’s easy to go to the offense when you don’t care about the defense or because you know you will lose most of the time. He finished that year at -26!!! And the guy won the Norris as the best… Read more »

isrdude
isrdude
12 days ago
Reply to  GBG

I watch EK play and scratch my head wondering, “how did he not get switched to forward early in his career?” He has lights out O skills but playing a team orended D just alludes him. Is it lack of ability? Lack of desire? Arrogance? All of above? I mean, how hard is it to just get in the opponents way? He doesn’t seem interested in just doing that! Sadly, EK and the Grave-Digger are a big part of the D issue. But watching the Pegger game, I thought, “what the heck is Tanger doing?” Sometimes I think he has… Read more »

Bobby D
Bobby D
12 days ago
Reply to  GBG

Two bad comtracts EK and TJ.
Should have spent the 10M on a #1goalie and the 5M on D.

Justin
Justin
12 days ago
Reply to  GBG

He was never good but if he’s responsible for 60 goals against and he’s also responsible for producing 85-100. It’s a net positive. That hasn’t been the case in his tenure with the Pens. Move him to right wing or trade him for a serviceable d-man

Mel Reichenbaugh
Mel Reichenbaugh
11 days ago
Reply to  GBG

Younger??? They did not bring in anyone 25 or under!!!

Eri
Eri
12 days ago

Idk what’s going on with the primarily veteran squad and the extreme lapse d-coverage. I wasn’t worried about it against CAR but it seems to rear it’s ugly headed at the worst possible moments. It’s a shame that this is costing the Pens games as the powerplay is clicking, scoring is coming from the 3rd and 4th lines and they’re getting decent goaltending. I also don’t know why you would mix-up Eller and Puljujarvi or move Acciari to center, he’s much better on the wing.

howard
howard
12 days ago

Nobody’s listening to Sullivan, that’s as obvious as it gets. Lost season again. New coach please.

Jeff Young
Jeff Young
11 days ago
Reply to  howard

Sutter. Heh.

Clyde
Clyde
12 days ago

This team is a joke and the core is the problem. They should not put up with lackluster play from anyone even themselves. EK stinks.

Matthew Caddy
Matthew Caddy
12 days ago

Sad to say but this is what happens when a team has tuned out its coach. No amount of yelling is going to change that. At this point it means either change the players or change the coach.

Greg
Greg
11 days ago
Reply to  Matthew Caddy

Nothing personal with Sullivan. He needs a new challenge and I have been saying for a while, the team may respect him to a good degree, however, they simply are no longer buying into his philosophy. It’s the same picture. New players same issues remain. Goal tending overall remains an issue.

Rich81
Rich81
11 days ago

At any point during the scolding, did a player make a mocking hand gesture, imitating someone talking? Just asking for Quinn, the next coach of the Pens 🙂

TLB
TLB
11 days ago

who else noticed the misspelling of Rickard?

Ujn Hunter
Ujn Hunter
11 days ago

This article made me picture Sid saying “Thank you sir, may I have another!” which is funny since the “lackadaisical attitude” seems appropriate for the way Sid’s started the season. 11 giveaways?!

Jimmy Walker
Jimmy Walker
11 days ago

They’ll trade Jarry and he’ll go on to win the vezina