Mike Sullivan will coach his first game with the New York Rangers in their regular-season opener on Tuesday night in
Mike Sullivan will coach his first game with the New York Rangers in their regular-season opener on Tuesday night in the odd circumstance of being much more familiar with the team he’s trying to defeat than the one he’s running.
Sullivan spent the past 10 seasons coaching the Pittsburgh Penguins, who will be trying to spoil opening night for their old coach when they step onto the ice at Madison Square Garden. His decade with the Penguins included the highs of winning the Stanley Cup in 2016 and 2017 – and the lows of missing the playoffs in each of his last three seasons.
He and the Penguins agreed to part ways April 28, and Rangers general manager Chris Drury struck quickly, signing him on May 2 and bringing him back to New York, where he had been an assistant more than a decade earlier. Unsurprisingly, the NHL decided that one of the three nationally televised games on the first night of the season would match Sullivan’s new team against his old one.
He admits starting his time behind the Rangers bench by trying to knock off his former team won’t be easy.
“I haven’t really thought about what it’s going to be like. I’m sure there will be a lot of mixed emotions,” he said last week. “The relationships I built with those guys were strong. We had the privilege of winning a couple of championships together with some of those guys, and I think when you go through experiences like that, it certainly galvanizes relationships that last a lifetime.”
The Penguins still have their “Big Three” – centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, as well as defenseman Kris Letang – who helped them win the back-to-back championships under Sullivan nearly a decade ago. Though Crosby is still among the elite players in the League at age 38, Malkin and Letang slowed markedly.
Sullivan has very good relationships with each, though his bond with Crosby is the strongest. That’ll add another layer to what takes place Tuesday at The Garden.
Mike Sullivan very familiar with opponent in Rangers coaching debut
But there’s no question that Sullivan is focused on his current team, not his old one. Sullivan and his staff are trying to right a franchise that went from winning the Presidents’ Trophy in 2023-24 to missing the playoffs last season. The defense and special teams fell apart, the compete level diminished as the season went on and a largely veteran team was rocked by trades – including one that sent captain Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks in early December.
Sullivan’s zone defensive system looks like a better match for the talent he has in New York than predecessor Peter Laviolette’s mostly man-on-man style of play. Center Vincent Trocheck said the new system gives players more energy to go on offense because they’re defending an area instead of chasing one man.
“It’s not a man-on-man system where you’re just chasing your guy the entire shift, which a lot of times whenever you are doing that it does take away energy for offense,” Trocheck told NHL.com. “Any time you do turn the puck over you might not have the legs to get to offense, whereas in this system it’s more reading and reacting. You’re in your area, basically.”
One thing that should help Sullivan and the Rangers is that they figure to be at full strength. Center J.T. Miller (lower body) and forward Artemi Panarin (lower- and upper-body injuries that kept him from playing in the preseason) practiced with full contact Monday and will be in the lineup.
Forward Conor Sheary, who was a member of both Cup-winning teams during Sullivan’s time with the Pittsburgh, signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Rangers on Monday after attending training camp on a PTO.
So, there’ll be some familiarity on the Rangers side for their new coach. Not that that matters, per se. Sullivan is locked in.
“What I will tell you is that my focus will be on the Rangers and doing our very best to set this group up for success,” he explained. “But I’m sure there will be emotions.”
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