Congratulations in advance to Mike Sullivan for winning a Stanley Cup with the New York Rangers.<\/p>\n
I mean, I don\u2019t know that such a thing will ever happen \u2014 especially in Year 1 of his tenure at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n
But I just want to get out ahead and preemptively congratulate him on the accomplishment in case it does.<\/p>\n
Because if that event does occur, and Sullivan is the guy who brings the Rangers their first NHL title since 1994 and just their second since the end of World War II, it still doesn\u2019t mean that moving on from him was the wrong choice for the Pittsburgh Penguins.<\/p>\n
Everything that has happened since he departed has underscored that belief.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Penguins have kept two teenagers on their roster in Ben Kindel and Harrison Brunicke.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The franchise did next to nothing externally through free agency or the trade market to bolster this year\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
\u2022 President of hockey operations Kyle Dubas used all three of his first-round picks instead of packaging them for any help this year.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Sidney Crosby\u2019s agent started priming the pump about his client potentially wanting to leave town if the team wasn\u2019t in a competitive situation before the trade deadline.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Sullivan\u2019s own replacement, Dan Muse, seems to be of a mind to play more structured and systematic hockey. Given the roster assembled, that appears to be more of Dubas\u2019 liking.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The only NHL goalie acquired to be an option to Tristan Jarry following the departure of Alex Nedeljkovic is Art\u016brs \u0160ilovs.<\/p>\n
How in the world do you think Sullivan would\u2019ve handled all of that?!<\/p>\n
Let me rephrase: How in the world do you think Sullivan would\u2019ve handled any of that?<\/p>\n
For as much as the Penguins are leaning into the living nostalgia element of having Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang still here from a marketing standpoint, bobblehead nights and Stanley Cup anniversary celebrations<\/a> only go so far.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the exterior paint. The inside of the house is undergoing major renovations, and I\u2019m pretty sure ol\u2019 Sully would\u2019ve been driven crazy by the construction delays and mistakes made by the contractors.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s not kid ourselves. Sullivan never would\u2019ve had the patience for this. Dubas and the rest of the front office have steered into exactly what they planned on doing:<\/p>\n Get the club younger. Create financial flexibility. Construct a roster that might be really good in a few years, instead of one that\u2019s going to be perpetually mediocre for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n Sullivan\u2019s head would\u2019ve exploded by Halloween if he had stayed. He wanted the puncher\u2019s chance at a playoff berth. Dubas wanted an entire organizational rebirth.<\/p>\n Dubas is not there yet (in part because of some of his own missteps), but he\u2019s getting there.<\/p>\n I keep going back to Dubas\u2019 words in late April<\/a> when the team announced Sullivan would be leaving.<\/p>\n \u201cHe and I met (April 22) about where we\u2019re at, where we\u2019re going \u2014 the road that we see to get there, the challenges that lie ahead,\u201d Dubas said. \u201cI left there \u2014 and there have been a few times during the year where I felt this as well after certain stretches, or after certain games \u2014 where I started to feel that maybe it was just time.<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone can be a great coach, and it might be time for them to go elsewhere and reapply that. \u2026 Sometimes the class needs a new professor, and sometimes the professor needs a new class.\u201d<\/p>\n As for Prof. Sully, maybe he can turn around a team with plenty of veteran pupils that underachieved last year.<\/p>\n Sound familiar? Let him do that again in New York \u2014 to whatever degree he possibly can.<\/p>\n OK, maybe not two Cups as he did in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n Be happy for him \u2014 to whatever degree you possibly can, given that these are the Rangers we\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n And let the Penguins be who they need to be this year so they can (to use a Sullyism) \u201cmove forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Because as often as Sullivan used to spin that phrase, it was no longer possible for that to happen here under him.<\/p>\n LISTEN: Tim Benz posts his first hockey podcast of the regular season with Pens Radio Network host Brian Metzer.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com<\/a> or via X<\/a>. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.<\/p>\n