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WILKES-BARRE TWP. — It seemed like a matter of time before something happened.
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins began the season on a torrid pace sporting the best record in all of professional hockey for a time. Meanwhile, the parent Pittsburgh Penguins have been in a tailspin of late losing nine of their last 15 games.
On Saturday, Pittsburgh made the move of firing head coach Mike Johnston after 18 months and promoting Wilkes-Barre/Scranton coach Mike Sullivan to head coach.
That left WBS searching for a new leader, and the team turned to assistant coach Jay Leach on an interim basis and Mark Recchi, the Pittsburgh Penguins Player Development Coach for Saturday night’s home game against the Albany Devils at the Mohegan Sun Arena.
Recchi will not remain assistant coach for the rest of the season. Other personnel from the Pittsburgh organization will also serve in the role. WBS general manager Jason Botterill said Leach will be an interim coach for at least a few weeks until a decision on Sullivan’s replacement is made definite.
“It’s going to be a situation that we’ll evaluate the process over the next couple weeks here,” Botterill said. “Jay’s come into our organization and has done a fabulous job working beside Mike Sullivan. I think he has developed a great relationship with the players having been a player himself just a few years ago.
“But we’ve also been happy with other people in our organization such as Clark Donatelli down in Wheeling, he’s done an excellent job the last few years. And we’ll continue to look at outside candidates as well and will make a decision in the next couple weeks, look to see what’s best for our players.”
Leach, who is in his first season as a coach in North America after leading Germany’s Alder Mannheim to a title in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga last season, coached his first game against the Devils, the team he last played for in the 2012-13 season.
Though Leach brings a solid resume, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton lost a coach in Sullivan, who led the team to an 18-5-0 start with 36 points, which is good for tops in the Atlantic Division and second in the entire AHL. Under Sullivan, the Penguins set a franchise record for 11 straight wins propelling them to a 12-2 start.
“It doesn’t surprise me at all,” Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins assistant captain Steve Olesky said. “Being around him the early part of the season, in my experience he is the best coach I’ve had in hockey. He demands a lot and holds everyone accountable, but does it in a manner that makes it fun.”
Oleksy has been in the AHL since 2010 and has played on the Lake Erie Monsters, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and the Hershey Bears.
“He’s done a great job of bringing everyone together in a family-like atmosphere,” he said. “A moment that sticks out to me is when we played Hartford and we were down 5-1 after the first period. He didn’t yell and scream in the locker room but he challenged us and we responded.”
Teammate Conor Sheary who has been with the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins for three seasons, is also not surprised by the move.
“His time here has helped me tremendously as a player and I believe he will do well up in Pittsburgh,” he said. “With the way we’re playing down here, it’s unfortunate for us, but it’s a great opportunity for his coaching career and I hope all the best for him.”
Sullivan has 13 years of coaching experience in the NHL, AHL and international levels. He served two seasons as the Boston Bruins head coach from 2003-06. Sullivan also spent 11 years as an NHL player with four different clubs from 1991-2002, appearing in over 700 games.
Sullivan, who was hired as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton coach in June after John Hynes was plucked from the organization to be the new coach of the New Jersey Devils, is the third head coach in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton history to be promoted to head coach in Pittsburgh. The first two were Michel Therrien (2005) and Dan Bylsma (2009).
Hynes, meanwhile, is leading the Devils to a 15-10-4 record with 34 points; Pittsburgh’s current mark entering Saturday was 15-10-3 with 33 points.
Johnston was fired, along with assistant coach Gary Agnew on Saturday morning after the Penguins lost to the Los Angeles Kings in a 3-2 shootout on Friday night to fall to fifth in the Metropolitan Division standings behind New Jersey. Sullivan will run his first practice with the Penguins on Sunday. Pittsburgh hosts Washington on Monday night.
Pittsburgh will hope that Sullivan will give the team a needed boost. As a coach, Sullivan has a 70-56-15 mark during his two-year stint with the Bruins. He spent most of the last 10 years bouncing around as an assistant coach.
He spent the 2014-15 season as player development coach for the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks before arriving in Wilkes-Barre.
“It’s a bitter-sweet day for the entire organization,” Botterill said. “I say that with Mike Johnston and Gary Agnew, they are very good coaches and very good people. It’s a very, very difficult business sometimes. There’s a lot of fun days, especially after wins, but there’s also difficulties like this.
“From a standpoint, when you do have to make a change I’m very glad that we looked inside the organization. I’m very excited that we looked to Mike Sullivan. He has done everything that was asked of him down here.”
Reports from the Associated Press were also used in this story.
