When the Pittsburgh Penguins hired Mike Johnston as the franchise’s newest head coach, you could feel a collective rumbling in Pittsburgh from the Pens’ faithful typing viciously to find details on the unproven leader.
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Johnston was an unknown. He was a junior coach with the Portland Winterhawks tasked to build a rapport with two of the game’s biggest stars in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. He was asked to take over a perennial playoff team that has failed to reach the promise land and suffered disappointing exits in five consecutive years.