Johnston fired by Pens, replaced by Sullivan

Mike Johnston has been fired by the Pittsburgh Penguins and replaced with their AHL coach in Wilkes-Barre Scranton,  Mike Sullivan. The moves comes as a surprise even with news that Johnston was being heavily scrutinised by Jim Rutherford, the Penguins General Manager. The general consensus was that he would be given a bit more time, probably until the new year when the NHL abandons its compensation scheme for coaches.

The Penguins hired Johnston before the start of the 14-15 season and after successes at the start things soon went sour. The powerplay which had looked so bright became exposed and with it, it showed the Penguins poor Even Strength performances which were affecting the clubs performances. Some of the games most incredible players have seen their offensive outputs decrease thanks to Johnston's defence first system.

With the depth that the Penguins it should not be possible to coach a team to be as passive going forward as this team looks right now. The biggest problem was that Johnston tried to play it out of defence but with incorrect lines and poor play the forwards didn't receive the puck in areas where they could create chances. A lot of play was pushed out to the sides where it is a lot easier to prevent things from happening.

One of Johnston's biggest problems this season was his player usage. Daniel Sprong had a superb camp and was kept up with the promise of him being given adequate ice-time for him to start his career and adapt to the game at an NHL level. However, Sprong was scratched for prolonged periods under Johnston who seemed reluctant to play him or Plotnikov. This was a sticking point for Rutherford judging by the comments heard in the media.

There was also a seemingly obvious lack of accountability within the team. Scuderi had a stretch of really bad games in November yet instead of playing someone with real desire to prove a point and do well in Clendening, he continued to play him. If players are playing that poorly and they're not instrumental to the team, like Crosby, then they need to be scratched at times.

I think that to be fair it should be pointed out that the Penguins did seem to concede fewer goals but that again could be down to Fleury just being a better goalie than he was two years ago. He has bailed the team out far too much and he needs help in front of him.

Sullivan's Wilkes-Barre team are currently first in the AHL, just ahead of the Toronto Marlies. The team is evidently a strong one going forward with 83 goals in just 23 games, good for 3.6 a game. They're also the third strongest defensive team with 49 goals going against them. The Penguins have been blessed with superb goaltending and that should be one constant at least that transfers across. If Sullivan can get the Penguins scoring up to similar levels then that would be a great success. Sullivan will be given the season and his first game is the Caps on Monday night.