Mike Sullivan won’t have Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin to start the 2021-22 season. That’s a tough pill to swallow, but fortunately (or...probably unfortunately is a better word), this is not new ground for the Penguins. The team has had to make do without one or both of their best centers for way more than they would have liked to over the years due to various injuries and maladies.
Coach Mike Sullivan gave some insight to The Athletic’s “Hockey Show” podcast last week, and though he was talking at first about the US Olympic team that he will coach this winter, a lot of the following comments can easily applied and moved over to how he will have to manage in Pittsburgh early this season:
one of the most important jobs of the head coach, regardless of what team you’re coaching, is to steer the identity of the group, shape the identity of the group.