CRANBERRY, Pa. -- The Penguins will be short one coach behind the bench for the foreseeable future.
Assistant coach Todd Reirden was absent from the Penguins' practice at the Lemieux Complex on Saturday. Mike Sullivan announced after practice that Reirden would be undergoing knee surgery on Monday and will be "away from the team for a little bit" while he recovers.
Reirden injured the knee over the All-Star break, when he slipped and fell on ice in his driveway while trying to shovel his car out of the snow.
"We've all been there," Sullivan said of Reirden's tough luck.
Reirden initially wanted to put the surgery off until after the season ended so he could avoid missing any time, but Sullivan said that the nature of Reirden's injury dictated the timing of the surgery.
In Reirden's absence, assistant coach Mike Vellucci will take over the responsibility of managing the defensemen on the bench during games. Player development coach Matt Cullen will fly into Pittsburgh on Monday and handle some of the on-ice practice responsibilities, as well as pre-scouting opponents for games.
"We'll divide and conquer as a coaching staff as far as all our own personal workflows," Sullivan said. "We all have responsibilities with respect to the different aspects of our team game that we're all responsible for. So we'll have to pick up some slack with respect to some of the important stuff that Todd does."
Sullivan added that they plan to keep Reirden engaged with the team through video conferences and other virtual means.
"He's still going to do a lot of things behind the scenes, even though he's not going to be visible with you guys, so to speak," Sullivan explained.
The Penguins enter Sunday's game with a power play that ranks 11th in the league with a 21.8 percent success rate. The power play has been red-hot over the last month, with a 31.1 percent success rate since Jan. 11, good enough for third in the league in that span.
Sullivan said that the challenge will be to "try to sustain that standard" on the man advantage in Reirden's absence.
"He's done a terrific job with our power play, and just getting our group on the same page and implementing or installing a foundation or a scheme that I think our group is very, very familiar with at this point," Sullivan said of Reirden.
While the Penguins will surely miss Reirden during his absence, Sullivan said that he thinks this will be the hardest on Reirden himself just because of the passion he has for the job.
"This is a guy that that loves what he does," Sullivan said. "He brings so much energy to the rink every day. He just truly loves being a hockey coach. He loves helping players maximize their potential. He's a really smart hockey man. You know, he challenges me as a head coach with his thoughts and ideas. He challenges our coaching staff, he makes us all better. But what I love about Todd is just his passion for what he does. ... I feel for him because I know how much he cares."
