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Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan shouts instructions during the Penguins game against the Detroit Red Wings.
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Nearing one year with Penguins, Mike Sullivan proves he was born for this

Peter Diana/Post-Gazette

Nearing one year with Penguins, Mike Sullivan proves he was born for this

It didn’t take long for Mike Sullivan to impress Matt Murray.

A few minutes, tops.

“As soon as I met him, I thought, ‘This guy was born to be a hockey coach,’ “ Murray said of Sullivan, whom he met at the Penguins development camp last July. Sullivan was hired one month earlier to coach Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to oversee the organization’s top prospects, a group that at the time included Murray. “It showed with how he communicates, how he thinks the game and how he’s literally always trying to find ways to give us an advantage.”

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One year ago Monday, Mike Johnston was fired, and Sullivan replaced him as head coach of the Penguins. Their Stanley Cup-winning journey was nothing short of magical, reconnecting a city with its hockey team. For Murray, it became an affirmation of what he thought all along.

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If the past year has proven anything, it’s that Michael Barry Sullivan, a 48-year-old Boston boy with a thick accent, a thicker belief system and sense of duty, is doing exactly what he’s supposed to be doing in life.

“What I like about coaching is that it’s not unlike being a schoolteacher,” Sullivan said during an interview in his office at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex last week. “It’s a teaching profession. It’s managing people. It’s trying to break the game down in a way that individuals and the group can comprehend.”

It’s a challenge Sullivan has mastered, all while relying on a direct style that has endeared him to his players. Play a bad game? Sullivan will tell you. Play a good one? He’ll tell you that, too. Spend even a smidgen of time around the team, and you start to pick up the fact that what “Sully” says goes.

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Johnston faltered because he couldn’t connect with the Penguins’ stars and coax the best out of them. Sullivan has done that and more while creating a clear identity of how the Penguins want to play, the same style that many NHL teams are now trying to emulate.

“The direction of this team was changed when he got here,” general manager Jim Rutherford said. “His leadership, his view of how to play the game and his communication with the players is second to none.”


“When I went to college, I thought I knew a lot about hockey,” Sullivan said. “Then I got there, and I realized how little I knew about hockey.” (Peter Diana/Post-Gazette)

‘I love the teaching aspect’

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Perhaps former Boston University coach Jack Parker saw this one coming. After all, he had a good inclination when it came to Sullivan’s college career.

“I remember recruiting him and thinking, ‘Not only is this kid a good player, but if comes here, he’ll wind up being the captain of the team,” Parker recalled.

Sullivan became that captain Parker expected, and a good one at that.

“One of the best I’ve ever had, no question about it,” said Parker, 71, who was head coach of the Terriers for 40 years before retiring after the 2012-13 season.

Although Sullivan knew he wanted to reach the game’s highest level as a player — he was drafted in the fourth round in 1987 by the New York Rangers and played 709 games for four NHL teams — coaching was always in the back of his mind. Parker was a huge reason for that.

“Jack had the biggest impression on me as a player and as a person,” Sullivan said. “Part of it might have been my age; that’s an impressionable age. But he was a very good teacher. He’s very articulate. He ran great practices. I learned a lot when I was there.

“When I went to college, I thought I knew a lot about hockey. Then I got there, and I realized how little I knew about hockey.”

As Sullivan’s playing career reached its third decade, and with a couple of young kids at home, his attention started to shift to the process of preparation. How practices were structured. Specific drills. The volume of information coaches are counted upon to process.

An affinity for the most basic elements of coaching is one of the things that separates Sullivan, said Jim Johannson, assistant executive director of hockey operations for USA Hockey, which is considering Sullivan to coach its Olympic team. Some guys are enthralled by playoff victories, the Stanley Cup and money. Sullivan could be coaching players half the age of his current ones, and he’d be thrilled.

“I would be excited to be a high school hockey coach and coach 15- and 16-year-olds,” Sullivan said. “I’d be excited to be a college coach.

“I love the teaching aspect. I love breaking down film and having a one-on-one conversation with a player, helping him with the details of his game.”


“Look at our ‘Big Four,’ “ Sullivan said of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel and Kris Letang. “They all want to skate. They all want to play fast. They don’t want to slow the game down. We tried to simplify the game in a way that we could play to that strength.” (Peter Diana/Post-Gazette)

Connecting outside the office

A few days after he replaced Johnston, Sullivan went to dinner by himself at Meat & Potatoes on Penn Avenue, Downtown. His tenure here did not have a fairytale beginning. Kris Letang was awful. Sidney Crosby was worse. The Penguins welcomed Sullivan with four consecutive losses while scoring a total of four goals.

As Sullivan sat in the restaurant, Letang walked through the front door. It turned out to be one of a few serendipitous encounters with the Penguins’ most important players that helped turn the season around.

“We talked for probably 25 minutes,” Sullivan said. “I shared some of my thoughts. He shared some of his. I think ‘Tanger’ and I in that conversation, we connected.”

Letang was a minus-14 with one goal and 14 points in 25 games under Johnston. With Sullivan, Letang was a plus-23 with 15 goals and 53 points in 46 games during the 2015-16 regular season.

Before Sullivan arrived, Letang was a frustrated mess. Once Sullivan figured out how to let his best defenseman play to his strengths, Letang responded in such a way that he played like one of top defensemen in the league.

“You see how passionate he is, how he loves the game,” Letang said. “He brought his passion and intensity to our team.”

A few days later, Sullivan was at another restaurant — he doesn’t remember which one — and Letang, Sidney Crosby and Pascal Dupuis showed up.

Another impromptu meeting. Another lengthy conversation about life and the state of the Penguins, wobbly as it was at the time. More trust was built.

“What’s great about those moments is that everybody’s guard’s down because you’re not coming to work,” Sullivan said. “You just happened to bump into each other, and the conversation evolves.

“It didn’t start on hockey, but it turned into hockey. Before you know it, a half-hour goes by, you’ve talked 20 of those 30 minutes about your team.

“Both sides get a chance to share their thoughts and their insights. It gave me an opportunity to get to know them a little bit and maybe what their concerns were and how they felt. I think that helped me try to help them. I think they got a real good opportunity to get to know me and how I operate or what my personality is like. I think that’s important.”

Crosby’s game also flourished, and this season he’s the favorite for a heap of NHL hardware. Sullivan has played a big part in that.

“He’s very detailed, whether that’s being on time or as far as details of our game, work habits and practices, things like that,” Crosby said. “He takes details really serious. I think he expects a lot out of us, and I think that’s a good thing.”

“Look at our ‘Big Four,’ “ Sullivan said of Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel and Letang. “They all want to skate. They all want to play fast. They don’t want to slow the game down. We tried to simplify the game in a way that we could play to that strength.”

Keeping key veterans, let alone coaching them, has been a change for Sullivan. In his first NHL head coaching stint, Sullivan helped the Boston Bruins win the 2003-04 Northeast Division title with 104 points.

After the 2004-05 lockout, though, the Bruins failed to sign several key players, and Sullivan was fired following a 74-point season in 2005-06.

Working as an assistant coach alongside John Tortorella with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Rangers and Vancouver Canucks afforded Sullivan the chance to coach elite talents such as Vinny Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis, Marian Gaborik and Daniel and Henrik Sedin.

What he learned along the way helped Sullivan evolve in his approach, Tortorella said.

“He’s so sound with Xs and Os,” Tortorella said of Sullivan this past March. “But where I think he has grown is that I think he understands how to handle the top players, which is a very important part of our business, and you have a number of them [in Pittsburgh] that are high-echelon players that he needs to mold and play under a team concept. You got the right guy there.”


Sullivan takes the stage during the Penguins Stanley Cup championship parade, Downtown, in June. (Rebecca Droke/Post-Gazette)

Away from the rink

Taking complex ideas and explaining them in an easy-to-understand way comes naturally to Sullivan. Unplugging, however, does not.

“I take it home,” Sullivan admitted. “I wish I didn’t as much as I do. I think it’s just part of my DNA.”

To manage, Sullivan relies a lot on his wife, Kate. “She’s my best friend and my confidant,” he said.

Walks with Kate and their two Labrador retrievers, Hank and Stanley, are one of the few ways Sullivan relaxes. That and catching up with his college-aged kids Kaitlin, Kiley and Matt over the phone.

“My family helps me unwind,” Sullivan said.

But even that, Sullivan will admit, doesn’t happen much. He works this much because it doesn’t feel anything like work.

“On our off days I’ll break down film, wondering how to help a certain player or get the power play going,” Sullivan said. “In the summertime, there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about our team or our coaching staff or how we can get better.

“It’s hard for me to turn it off. I love it. I love what I do. I don’t feel like it’s a job. I get to go to the rink every day and do something I love.”

Sullivan reads a lot and believes wholeheartedly in finding sources of inspiration outside of hockey. He’s consumed several books on Bill Belichick — relax, he grew up less than an hour from Boston — and calls Tom Brady’s story of beating the odds at Michigan and in the NFL “inspiring.”

Stories of pro athletes who’ve beaten the odds or done more as a collective group than individuals are two of the things that he loves sharing with his players.

“I think some of our best teaching opportunities are outside of hockey,” Sullivan said. “Our guys get so much of that every day. Sometimes I think we can spark their interest by bringing them or introducing them to something outside their world.”


Penguins defenseman Steven Oleksy hands the Stanley Cup to Mike Sullivan after Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The Penguins beat the San Jose Sharks in the series, 4-2, to win their first championship since 2009. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

‘He’s a fair coach’

When things aren’t going well, Sullivan sometimes has a hard time hiding his frustration.

During a practice in late October, he ripped into his players. David Warsofsky, who apparently took too much time tugging on a new sweater, got an earful from Sullivan.

“I didn’t know it took that long to change jerseys,” Sullivan shouted.

This past Wednesday, Sullivan rode Malkin during a power play drill, questioning his effort along the half-wall.

When players struggle, no matter which ones, and no matter the setting, they’re told about it in no uncertain terms.

“He tells you exactly how he sees it,” defenseman Ian Cole said. “It’s not personal, but it’s honest.”

And it’s appreciated.

“He’s a fair coach,” Carl Hagelin said. “He’s going to say what he thinks. If you’re playing bad, he’s going to let you know. If you’re playing well, he’s going to let you know. That’s the type of coach you want.”

Told that the majority of his players feel this way, that his brutal honesty is appreciated, Sullivan cracks a rare smile, like a dad whose son just brought home straight A’s. Sullivan isn’t the coddling type, but he always wants his players to know that he cares.

“I think my relationships with these guys are critically important to our ability to have success,” Sullivan said. “I push them hard. I think the only way I’m able to push them hard, and they respond the right way, is because they know I care.”

Parker said he kept a sign in his office at BU that might explain how Sullivan deals with his players. It reads: “Kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Sullivan tries to live by those words.

“We’re a transparent coaching staff,” Sullivan said. “We don’t believe in sweeping anything under the rug. We’re not always warm and fuzzy. That’s just part of my personality.

“My hope is that the players get to know us, know me and understand that our motivation is simply to help them be at their best and help this team win.”

Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.

First Published: December 11, 2016, 5:00 a.m.

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