Sidney Crosby and Mike Sullivan have formed a pretty productive partnership for the better part of six years.
The Penguins have won two Stanley Cups and a few hundred games during their time together -- mind you, lots of other people also have contributed to the franchise's successes during that span -- and they are trying to extend the team's league-best streak of playoff appearances to 16 this season.
But in a little more than three months, they'll be rivals on one of their sport''s biggest stages.
Crosby is the favorite to be Canada's captain for the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, while Sullivan will be the head coach of Team USA.
Sullivan has watched Crosby in games and practices since Dec., 2015, so he obviously has a good sense of all that Crosby can do.
At the same time, Crosby has been absorbing the nuances of Sullivan's coaching tactics and tendencies for the same period, so it's unlikely that either will have a significant advantage when their teams collide in a Group 1 preliminary-round game Feb. 12.
"We both know each other really well," Crosby said. "At that point, it's tough. As a coach, he would know from watching me every day in practice. Seeing things, he would know a lot about me, as a player. Knowing how he coaches and what he expects, I know a lot, too. It's kind of a funny dynamic that way. There shouldn't be too much that we wouldn't know about each other."
Not everything about coaching in the Games will be so familiar to Sullivan, though.
He is accustomed to preparing a team for an extended regular season and playoff run; in Beijing, he'll be overseeing a club assembled on relatively short notice in a tournament with little more than a handful of games.
Final rosters won't have to be submitted for a couple of months and, while Sullivan said Team USA staffers "have assembled a list of (prospective) players and we've had roster discussions about players," there have not been any substantial conversations yet about the makeup of forward lines or defense pairings.
And even after those decisions are made, players won't have much of an opportunity to get acclimated to the finer points of their temporary teammates' games.
"The biggest difference is, you're trying to get a group of guys together in short order," Sullivan said. "It's my understanding that we might have somewhere between three and four practices before game competition. When you think of it in those terms, we've got to try to implement a game plan, a team game plan, so that we're predictable for one another, yet unpredictable for our opponent in a really short period of time.
"(The coaching staff has) put a game plan together and we're going to prioritize that. We've talked about that a lot. We met as a staff, an Olympic staff, for three or four days here in Pittsburgh in late August before we went to our respective training camps. We had these very conversations, and we prepared ourselves for this process and how we're going to roll it out.
"That's the biggest challenge: How do you assemble a hockey team with a group of 20-something players and then get them all on the same page in such a short period of time for high-stakes competition in the Olympics? In the NHL, we've got a three- to four-week training camp and then an 82-game regular season to continue to evolve and get better. So some of the detail that we're able to go into with respect to our team game plan just isn't feasible in an Olympic environment."
MORE PENGUINS
• Mark Recchi, one of three Sullivan assistants to be fired after Montreal upset the Penguins in a qualifying round for the 2020 playoffs, still is surprised he lost his job, but insists he isn't bitter about it. "Not at all," he said. "We all know that it's part of the game. You get hired to get fired, it seems like, in hockey. Did I understand it? Not really. But it is what it is." Recchi didn't take long to secure a job as an assistant to Devils coach Lindy Ruff with duties similar to those he had with the Penguins, but a decidedly different type of player than he worked with on the Penguins. "It's different, in the sense that (New Jersey is) way younger," Recchi said. "The veterans, they knew how to play the game. They played the right way. When I was there and helping on the power play, it was just showing them how to beat teams, what (opponents') weaknesses on the penalty-kill were. Here, you have to teach from the ground up. Power play, just different avenues of the game: Getting to the net, getting inside, doing a lot of those things. They're awesome to work with. They all want to be great so, obviously, that helps. They all want to be great players. They want to be impactful. It's really fun for me. It's been really enjoyable. It's fun watching these young guys get better and better." The Penguins will get a look at the Devils' promising young talent when New Jersey visits PPG Paints Arena Saturday at 7:08 p.m. -- Molinari
• Remember what a shock it was when Vegas traded Marc-Andre Fleury to Chicago during the offseason? Well, don't be surprised if Fleury is on the move again before this season is over, especially if the Blackhawks' sputtering start continues. A longtime acquaintance of Fleury's said the goalie has an agreement with management that it will investigate the possibility of moving him around midseason if Fleury requests it. Much can change over the next few months, of course, but the acquaintance said Fleury "just doesn't look happy" to this point. That's understandable, considering Chicago got off to an 0-5-1 start, with Fleury absorbing four regulation losses in his first four decisions. -- Molinari
STEELERS
• It's my understanding the Melvin Ingram "trade" rumors started because the Chiefs called to inquire about the availability of the outside linebacker, the Steelers listened and then politely turned down the offer. The Steelers aren't necessarily interested in parting with the veteran -- particularly not to another AFC team and one they play later this season. But they're also not in the habit of slamming the phone down. The Chiefs called. The Steelers listened. That's all. In fact, if anything, the Steelers could be buyers at the deadline. Defensive line help is tops on the list. The Steelers are making some inquiries ahead of the Nov. 2 trade deadline regarding defensive tackle types. They had been hoping that Carlos Davis might be able to help boost their line, but his knee injury wasn't getting any better and he was placed on injured reserve earlier this week. Things are so thin up front, they've used Ingram as a defensive tackle in the dime package. Ingram has played 246 defensive snaps. T.J. Watt leads the outside linebackers with 252 and Alex Highsmith has 236. That doesn't sound like a player the Steelers should be interested in moving on from. -- Dale Lolley on the South Side
• The search for defensive line help doesn't necessarily signal anything regarding the status of Stephon Tuitt. The Steelers could use another NFL-caliber defensive linemen, even with Tuitt on the field. Cam Heyward is playing nearly 80 percent of the defensive snaps. With Heyward now 32, the idea coming into the season was to play Heyward less, not more, snaps to better keep him from wearing down. Obviously, that's not been possible. It wouldn't do the Steelers any good to get Tuitt back at some point later this season, only to have Heyward go down or be a shell of himself. And the young guys have been inconsistent. But keep an eye on Isaiahh Loudermilk. This was supposed to be a scholarship season for the fifth-round draft pick, but he's been getting better each week. -- Lolley
• The Steelers have an interesting decision to make at offensive tackle with Zach Banner now fully back. Banner might not have quite been ready to play when he was activated off injured reserve a couple of weeks ago. It's one thing to go through a few practices. It's another to step in and play 60 snaps in a game. But Joe Haeg also has been OK in his time filling in, as well. So, they've gone from having two passable offensive tackles to four. The issue is that the line has played better of late -- outside of rookie left tackle Dan Moore struggling against the Seahawks before leaving with a minor injury. Moore isn't listed on the team's injury report this week and he's the team's potential future at left tackle, but do the Steelers want to throw him to the dogs -- no Cleveland pun intended -- and they might not want to have him facing Myles Garrett for 60 snaps on Sunday. And Banner still might not quite be ready to play 60 snaps yet, either. Their two most experienced tackles are Haig and Chuks Okorafor. It wouldn't surprise me in what promises to be a very hostile environment if the Steelers go with that pairing this week and then reassess before their next game the following Monday night at home against the Bears. -- Lolley
PIRATES
• Members of the Greensboro Grasshoppers team were recognized often during the Pirates minor-league awards this week, ending with outfielder Matt Fraizer winning the Honus Wagner Player of the Year award. It’s a tight-knit group that includes some of the top prospects, including Nick Gonzales, Quinn Priester and Liover Peguero, all of whom are regarded as top 100 prospects. Fraizer forced the Pirates’ hand by just tearing up Class High A ball, but his promotion to Altoona was surprisingly a bit bitter sweet. “We had a dinner for me going away,” Fraizer said. “It kind of felt like it was a funeral or something, because it was almost sad that I was getting promoted.” Talking with Fraizer at the end of his regular season, he said didn’t pay much attention to what’s going on with the rest of the organization, wanting to focus on his game and the Curve, but he did check the Greensboro boxscore each night. -- Alex Stumpf
• The Pirates are currently looking at internal options to potentially replace Joey Cora as third base coach. While the Pirates led the National League at outs at home, playing a part in the dismissal, he is a respected infield coach that will need to be replaced. Kevin Newman stayed in contact with him this past offseason to help him improve that first step, and Newman had a major defensive turnaround and was nominated for his first Gold Glove. The Pirates have a talented defensive infield, but they will still need a good coach, too. -- Stumpf
• Jacob Stallings is going to win his first Gold Glove. It would be a huge upset if he doesn't. Credit to Jordan Comadena, the bullpen catcher, for being among the first -- if not the first -- to recognize Stallings had that potential, telling me that in Bradenton back in 2020. Comadena and Stallings were the ones who developed the pitch framing program that helped make Stallings into more than a Quad-A catcher. -- Stumpf
• Talking with Pirate legend Omar Moreno, the baserunning and outfield guru expressed his desire to return to coaching with the Pirates. Moreno helped during spring training and instructional ball when Clint Hurdle and Neal Huntington were in charge, playing a role in helping many young players -- especially Latin players like Lolo Sanchez, Rodolfo Castro and Oneil Cruz -- improve on the bases. He wasn’t asked to return by the new leadership. “I love this game. I want to be involved in baseball, because I know I can help,” Moreno said. -- Stumpf
