On Saturday, the Pittsburgh Penguins fired head coach Mike Johnston and assistant coach Gary Agnew. Johnston, who was relieved with a 58-37-15 record as the Penguins’ bench boss, was the fourth head coach in the Sidney Crosby era. Mike Sullivan, formerly of the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, will take over as coach number five since Crosby’s rookie season, a coach who brings 170 games of NHL head coaching experience with the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks to the Pens… but that is not why we lead off a Washington Capitals blog with a discussion of Pittsburgh Penguin management decisions.
In its own curious way, it is yet another instance of the careers of Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby being intertwined. Their experience with coaches – and specifically, first time NHL head coaches – is similar:
The similarities extend to the individual coaches each player has served under. Ovechkin and Crosby started their respective careers under coaches who were former players who broke in as NHL head coaches in the year preceding the 2004-05 lockout, Glen Hanlon in the case of Ovechkin and Ed Olczyk in the case of Crosby. Both played the largest portions of their careers under first time coaches who had success in the AHL before taking over as bench boss in season – for Ovechkin, it was Bruce Boudreau (who would coach 329 regular season and 37 postseason games with the Caps) and for Crosby, it was Dan Bylsma (who would go on to coach in 400 regular season and 78 post-season games with the Penguins, leading them to a Stanley Cup in his rookie season in 2009).
Ovechkin and Crosby are certainly in different places than they were a half-dozen years ago.
At this time in 2009 the Penguins were fresh off a Stanley Cup victory, and the Capitals were embarking on what would be the biggest regular season in their history and their biggest post-season disappointment. Today, the Capitals have the look of a legitimate Stanley Cup contender, while the Penguins are in search of continuity and better health as they try to climb back into postseason picture.
Mike Sullivan will make his debut as Penguins’ head coach tonight against Washington in what will be his first game without an interim label attached in almost a decade (he served in an interim capacity for the Vancouver Canucks for six games during their 2013-14 season, while head coach John Tortorella was serving a suspension). Meanwhile, Barry Trotz will be coaching in his 1,307th regular season NHL game and 111th behind the Capitals’ bench.
Alex Ovechkin endured a persistent theme of being a “coach killer” earlier in this decade. He has found, however, a comfortable place in Trotz’s scheme of things. It might now be Crosby’s turn to endure the accusations of being a “coach killer.”
Was it fair in Ovechkin’s case? Would it be fair in Crosby’s? Or is it all just a byproduct of playing for a long period of time, in organizations with high expectations, in an industry where coaches are hired to be fired? Regardless, this is just the latest thing that seems to link the careers of these two superstars.