No NHL team has won back-to-back Stanley Cups since Scotty Bowman’s Detroit Red Wings of the mid-1990s.
Bowman was at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday, part of the Penguins’ honoring of their consecutive Cup-winning teams from 1991-92, but a conversation with Bowman from earlier this summer could carry more weight.
Coach Mike Sullivan, who worked with Bowman doing advanced scouting and player development for the Blackhawks in 2014-15, sought out Bowman this summer to talk about the challenges of repeating.
“With what he’s been able to accomplish in the game, I think all of us who are aspiring coaches look to guys like Scotty as role models and mentors to try and learn from,” Sullivan said. “I had a long conversation this summer with Scotty about how to repeat and some of his insights. He’s the last guy to do it. That probably is an example of how highly I think of him as a hockey coach and as a person.”
Bowman, who has won nine Cups and an NHL-record 1,244 games, has a similar respect for Sullivan and the job he did last season turning the Penguins into Stanley Cup champions.
“You have to have the right people in the right jobs, and they proved that last year,” Bowman said. “They accepted him coming in. He put in a great system and impressed everyone.”
Bowman wasn't the only coach Sullivan spoke about on Saturday. He also said he had a tremendous amount of respect for "Badger Bob" Johnson, who won the first of those two Cups.
"I didn’t have the privilege of knowing Bob Johnson," Sullivan said. "But we all know of him because of his reputation and how highly people speak of him and the influence that he’s had on hockey people in the game itself.
"He’s obviously a great person first and foremost. When some of his former players speak about him, that’s the thing that jumps out at me most: Before they talk about Bob Johnson the coach, they talk about him as a person and how much he cared about the players that he coached.
"He had such a positive impact on the team’s that he coached. He was able to get the most out of his players."
What would you do?
Current Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford faces a tough decision with what to do with Marc-Andre Fleury.
As of now, because of Fleury's no-movement clause, he must be protected in the upcoming expansion draft. Matt Murray surely would get claimed.
Former GM Craig Patrick never had to deal with salary cap constraints, and Patrick isn’t exactly eager to figure out Rutherford’s current conundrum.
“I’m afraid to,” Patrick answered when asked whether he had put himself in Rutherford’s shoes. “That’s a challenge because you have two really good goaltenders. It’s hard to find enough playing time for both.”
Inconsistent results could be good
The Penguins haven’t exactly been the most consistent team through the first 24 games. Lose big one night, win big the next. Lots of peaks and valleys. They've haven't had the same result in back-to-back games since two wins Nov. 5-8.
Troy Loney, one of the many honored Saturday, thinks such an up-and-down start isn't the worst thing.
So long as it evens out eventually.
“I kind of like the fact that they’re not necessarily clicking on all cylinders right now,” Loney said. “Now’s not the time to be clicking. You’d like to. Do that a little bit later in the year. Sullivan won’t want to hear that, but that’s what I think.”
Taking notes, long flights
Another one of the attendees Saturday was former defenseman Jim Paek, who flew here from Seoul where he coaches the South Korean national team.
Paek said he was taking some notes but wasn’t going to get overly concerned with crafting schemes for his players to stop Sidney Crosby.
“If you focus on these guys here too much, you’re just going to get depressed,” Paek said. “You watch Sid out there, and it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, you have to play against this guy?’
“We focus on ourselves, and I think that’s what I’m concentrating most on – giving them the belief that they can play and teach them the process to get better every day.”
Whether NHL players will appear in South Korea for the 2018 Winter Games is up in the air; the NHLPA recently rejected an offer to go in exchange for adding years onto the current collective bargaining agreement.
Paek would like to see NHL players go. It would help boost hockey in his home country, but Paek also thinks it's the appropriate thing.
“The Olympics is about sending the best athletes from your country,” Paek said. “That’s the Olympic spirit. People deserve that. They want that. They want to see the best hockey, the best athletes.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: December 3, 2016, 8:30 p.m.
