Ian Cole had some bad timing.
On the first practice the Pittsburgh Penguins conducted under new head coach Mike Sullivan on Dec. 13, 2015, Cole broke in some new skates and his feet were feeling the effects.
“Had a lot of skating,” said Cole, a defenseman with the team at the time. “It was a really high, up-tempo practice.
“I don’t think he was overly yelling or anything like that. But he made it very clear and enunciated how he wanted things done as far as these are the options we’re going to work.”
Sullivan was direct in what he instructed during that practice session at what was then called Consol Energy Center.
“I told them that hockey’s a hard game,” Sullivan said that day. “It’s a hard sport. It’s hard to win. We’ve got to embrace the struggle here. We’ve got to embrace the process. And I think if we do that, we’ve got the best chance to win.”
That approach under Sullivan — fast-paced and with a defined purpose — had the intended effect, as six months later, the Pittsburgh Penguins won the franchise’s fourth Stanley Cup title.
One year later, they repeated the accomplishment and became the NHL’s first back-to-back champions in nearly two decades.
Nearly one decade later, Sullivan — the greatest coach in franchise history by almost any measure — has stepped away.
On Monday, the Penguins announced that the team and Sullivan had “agreed to part ways.” A search for a replacement would begin immediately.
The union was dissolved with two years remaining on a three-year contract extension that Sullivan initially signed in 2022.
Sullivan will presumably have no shortage of suitors looking to fill vacancies behind the bench.
Speculation on Sullivan’s future with the team had become a seemingly annual offseason occurrence but as recently as April 18, Sullivan stated, ‘“My intentions are to be the head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins.”
Three days later, Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas was directly asked if Sullivan would be back as coach and stopped short of guaranteeing it but offered a hearty endorsement.
“He’s an elite level coach as he’s shown through his time here and as well as for Team USA (with the 4 Nations Face-Off). There’s always the point that very few coaches who are in that realm often want to see a team through this, but he’s been very open about this is what he wants to do so we’ll just continue to reaffirm that and as long as he’s on that side of it, we will roll with that.”
Sullivan was initially hired by the Penguins on June 18, 2015 to serve as head coach of their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
When the Pittsburgh Penguins struggled at the start of the 2015-16 season, Mike Johnston was fired as head coach and replaced by Sullivan on Dec. 12.
In addition to being the only coach in franchise history to claim back-to-back championships, Sullivan is the Penguins’ all-time winningest coach with a record of 409-255-89.
Much of that success happened during the early stages of Sullivan’s tenure, however.
The Penguins have not won a playoff series since 2018 and have not qualified for the postseason over the past three campaigns.
Regardless, he was held in high esteem by the team’s ownership, Fenway Sports Group.
“We think that he’s one of the two or three best coaches in hockey,” Fenway chairman Tom Werner said in October.
Despite slumping results and the generally tenuous nature of his vocation, Sullivan indicated he harbored no concerns over his job security during an interview with TribLive in September.
“The answer to your question is no,” Sullivan said. “The focus I have every single day is doing my job to the very best of my ability. That’s what I try to do. I talk to the players all the time about controlling the controllables and focusing on those things. I do the same thing.
“I understand what I signed up for. I understand what pro sports is all about. It’s a result-oriented business. I’m going to do my job to the very best of my ability. I love what I do. I get excited about coming to work every single day. It’s an incredible privilege to coach the Pittsburgh Penguins. That’s the way I look at it. I don’t take one day of it for granted.”
There was no word as to the status of assistant coaches David Quinn or Mike Vellucci as well as goaltending coach Andy Chiodo or any other member of the coaching staff.
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