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There’s a lot of new faces walking around the Toyota Sportsplex these days, starting with head coach Mike Sullivan who assumes the post after five seasons with John Hynes at the helm.
But it doesn’t end there.
There’s a new assistant coach, Jay Leach, strength coach Doug Davidson and video coach Sean Andrake.
So do all these changes mean the 2015-16 Penguins will have a new look on the ice as well?
Yes.
Sullivan, 47, spent the bulk of his NHL career in the Western Conference, suiting up for San Jose, Calgary and Phoenix. He played from the early 1990’s to 2002, and during those years, hockey in the Western Conference was about speed, playmaking and games filled with coast-to-coast rushes.
It was an era where teams routinely scored 350-plus goals in a season, a feat that’s unlikely to be replicated by today’s hockey.
But the 2015-16 Penguins under Sullivan will play with elements of that era. They will be a team built around speed under a coach who will give his players the green light, at times, to be creative with the puck.
Sullivan said the emphasis on speed is an organizational philosophy beginning with Pittsburgh. Speed, he said, is an element that will persist with or without the puck.
“Whether we have the puck or not, we’re going to be a team that’s going to force the issue. We’re going to skate,” Sullivan said. “You want to play with the puck as much as you can, but when we don’t have it we’re going to put opponents under pressure to get it back.”
With a combination of speed and a willingness to use his entire bench, Sullivan said the system is one that can wear down opposing teams with constant pressure.
But the system won’t prevent the skilled players from doing what they do best – creating plays and scoring chances.
For Sullivan, there’s a fine line between sufficient structure and too much structure. It’s his responsibility to make sure his system is one that makes the Penguins a cohesive unit that’s hard to play against.
But if Sullivan becomes too strict with the structure aspect, he said it will get in the way of the creativity and offensive instincts of his skilled players.
That’s a line Sullivan doesn’t want to cross.
“I think it’s important that we allow players to express themselves offensively and use their creativity,” he said. “Now there’s a fine line between allowing them to use their instincts and going overboard and allowing them to play pond hockey, and my job is to define that line for them.”
The freedom to create is a welcomed philosophy by many of the Penguins offensive players.
“That’s good,” said center Jean-Sebastian Dea, who put up back-to-back 45 and 49-goal seasons in juniors before his rookie season last year where he registered 10 tallies while struggling to stay in the lineup. “I’m an offensive guy that can score goals and use my speed to create.”
While a bit of offensive freedom can produce highlight-reel plays and pretty goals, there’s a risk of mistakes and turnovers as well. Sullivan expects some of that early in the season as players grasp the green light, but also learn when to dangle and when to dump the puck.
As that decision-making process is better understood, the new coach expects his squad to become an even more difficult team to stop.
“That’s how players get better and improve, through that trial-and-error process,” Sullivan said.
A team built around skating, speed and with a bit of freedom offensively sounds quite different from the teams coach by Hynes that succeeded on stingy defense and low-scoring games.
This year’s Penguins squad may produce lofty goal totals and dare opponents to try to keep up, and it’s a team whose fans can expect to watch high-tempo, fast-paced hockey every night.
“We’re going to play hard but smart,” Sullivan said. “We’re going to be a team that plays with a purpose.”
