PITTSBURGH — If the Penguins' bar gets any lower, Valtteri Puustinen will be able to hop it from a standing position. We've seen it go from winning Cups to making the playoffs to trying real hard at the end of the season and watching the other fringe playoff teams win all of one first-round playoff game.

Did you actually listen to coach Mike Sullivan at his season-ending news conference two weeks ago?

I would imagine, as a fan, you wanted some outrage. You wanted the fiery Sully who arrived in Pittsburgh all those years ago, the drill sergeant who put the stars in their place and seemingly did not smile once until the Penguins won it all.

That Sully might have stepped to the podium, after missing the playoffs for the second straight season, and begun by telling fans — the real audience at those types of gatherings — that he was beyond disgusted and would exhaust every last ounce of energy to make it right. That Sully might have said something like, "This is unacceptable, and it begins with me. Given our talent, our good health and the golden opportunity our opponents gave us, missing the playoffs again is simply intolerable. We failed. I failed. This cannot happen again."

Instead, we got this from a kinder, gentler Sully: "I've said on a couple of occasions we're proud of the group for the performance down the stretch. ... There were a lot of excuses out there to go in a different direction, and they chose not to. And I think that speaks volumes for the character of the people in the room, the leadership we have, the professionalism of the group and their care factor. And we couldn't be more proud of the effort and the investment they all put in to drag ourselves back in the fight. ... I can't say enough about the character of the people in our dressing room."

Come again? Isn't trying hard the least a professional athlete can do? And why did the Penguins leave the fight in the first place? Oh, and where was the "care factor" when the team basically quit upon learning longtime teammate Jake Guentzel would be traded? The night the Penguins found out, they lost at home to the Capitals, 6-0, and remained in a funk, basically costing themselves a playoff spot. I don't think that speaks volumes for the "professionalism of the group," quite frankly, although at least defenseman Kris Letang told the truth after the Capitals debacle.

"As a group," Letang said, "we didn't show up."

Veteran centerman Lars Eller later said he was surprised at how the Penguins slumbered around the time of the Guentzel deal. It was embarrassing, really, and let's be honest: The main reason the Penguins even came close to making the playoffs was that at one point or another, all the teams around them imploded, failing to win games for weeks at a time.

Now comes a report that Sullivan is chafing at possible staff changes, which most of us thought were a given after the power play sunk to unfathomable lows. Frank Seravalli, on "The Daily Faceoff Live," said: "My understanding is there's a bit of a power struggle ongoing between (GM) Kyle Dubas and Mike Sullivan. Kyle Dubas would like to make changes to the coaching staff in the assistants, and Mike Sullivan has been resistant (to) that."

Resistant on what basis? Even if you believe the power-play disaster was mostly the players' fault, there has to be accountability. Todd Reirden runs the power play. Sullivan oversees it. The power play destroyed this Penguins team. It was mediocre two years ago and got worse. If the coaches can't get their message across, that's at least partly on them, as are the Penguins' overtime failures and their continued inability to protect leads. This staff wasted one of the great seasons of Sidney Crosby's career.

...continued

(c)2024 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.