Mike Sullivan Is Making All The Right Moves

By: Josh Boulton (@ToughCallBlog)

Mike Sullivan has been a positive influence on the Penguins without question. Everyone has significantly higher production, the team is back in a playoff spot, and optimism is no longer the cautious kind.

But what specifically has he done to help his top guys? Aside from not being afraid to shift his combinations around to get the big guns firing, he's allowing his entire roster to be involved.

Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Phil Kessel are the top three Penguins forwards in even strength ice time per game, and all three are under 16 minutes per game for a season average. Malkin and Kessel are barely over 15 minutes. Compare that to other stars such as Patrick Kane, Evander Kane, Taylor Hall, and Pavel Datsyuk. They have over or close to 17 minutes per game at even strength. Most of the major stars (Johnny Gaudreau, Alexander Ovechkin, John Tavares, etc) are all over 16 minutes. That discrepancy isn't necessarily that drastic, but this mentality in roster management adds up as you go down the line.

When we get to fourth line players, the Penguins workhorses are getting 10 minutes plus of playing time and 15 or more shifts to work with per game. While the actual numbers

deviation isn't significant looking at fourth line league average, what it

translates to is situational experience.

Where other teams are automatically

putting their top guys out, Sullivan is allowing some grace. For instance, with a 4-2 lead in Buffalo, just over a minute left, and a defensive zone face off, Sullivan used Carl Hagelin with Bryan Rust (23 games played, 11

minutes average ice time) and Matt Cullen (10:30 average ice time).

In a recent win over Detroit, Rust had over 13 minutes, Connor Sheary had 13 minutes (including two minutes of power play time), and Scott Wilson had almost 11 minutes.

With Sullivan getting the most out of all four lines, it's making Pittsburgh much harder to play against. Being unpredictable with who gets put on the ice and when makes it harder for opposing coaches to plan out their line matching shift to shift. Plus, the third and fourth lines have done an amazing job hemming opposing teams in their own zone, throwing enough jabs to soften them up for the big guys to deliver the knock out

blows.

As a bonus, Sullivan is being rewarded with the bottom two lines contributing offensively as well.

Depth is always huge when making a long run in the playoff, but having the depth players means nothing without the right coach reading how and when to use them.

So far, Mike Sullivan gets full marks.