Madden Monday: 'Sully has got to go. I'm tired of saying, 'He's a great coach, but ...''

Last week, Todd Reirden was fired as one of Mike Sullivan’s assistant coaches with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Given that one of his duties was overseeing the Penguins’ shockingly disappointing 30th-ranked power-play unit (15.3%), that shouldn’t come as a surprise.

During this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, Mark Madden of 105.9 The X and TribLive suggested that, on the surface, this may look like scapegoating. However, he sees it as a move that still had to be made.

After all, since his contract extension is just kicking in, Sullivan isn’t going to get fired, and many of the players on the power play are coming back on big-ticket contracts. Those will be hard to move, even if ownership allows them to be traded.

So, some change had to happen.

“Todd Reirden had to go. Not because it’s his fault, but the Penguins couldn’t do … nothing,” Madden said. “They couldn’t have the power play be as bad as it was — 30th in the league — and just retain Todd Reirden. But does anybody think that the power play was bad because Reirden told them to do all the wrong things? Heck, no. Erik Karlsson — like (general manager Kyle) Dubas said at the end of the year — the nonstop attempt to ‘slap pass through five guys’? The constant rotation that just produced nothing but confusion? So somebody had to go. In this case, it was Todd Reirden.”

Unfortunately, though, Madden says even with Reirden gone, he isn’t expecting the man-up group to improve. The reason for that is he isn’t expecting Sullivan to institute any changes with whoever fills that spot on the bench.

“Next year, I don’t know if the power play will change at all. I think it’ll do the same things and be just as bad,” Madden continued. “When the power play was that bad, that long, most head coaches would have stepped up and taken over the unit themselves. And Mike Sullivan didn’t. Not a real big show of testicular fortitude on his part, because he didn’t want to get involved with something that was failing. And he didn’t want to have to be the guy to tell these (players) to actually execute as requested.”

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After missing the playoffs the last two years and failing to advance beyond the first round every year since the start of the 2019 postseason, Madden says his patience with Sullivan has worn out.

“Sully has got to go. I’m tired of saying, ‘He’s a great coach, but …,’” Madden said. “His resume is front loaded, just like Mike Tomlin’s. And these guys aren’t responding. They’re playing as they like. And the power play was the biggest example of that.”

Madden has one simple solution for the power play: Have it run through Sidney Crosby in 2024-25.

“Sid, next year has got to take control,” Madden said. “The best method for that power play is Sid on the right half-wall. Period. Quarterbacking. Not rotating. Not letting Geno (Malkin) displace him. But the puck being reset with him all the time, and him running the show.

“I saw Mario Lemieux stand in one spot his whole career on the left half-wall. And he’s the best power-play guy I ever saw. I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. I know what will work here. When it comes to the power play, I am right, and they are wrong — and I will be right again this year, and they will be wrong.”

Also in this week’s podcast, Madden and I discuss if there is a disconnect between Sullivan and Dubas. We also kick around the trend of Pittsburgh sports teams constantly ditching assistants, but never having the motivation to fire the head coaches/managers. Plus we get into the hitting issues for the Pirates and the Steelers’ decision to pass on Najee Harris’ fifth-year option.