The Steelers’ signing of quarterback Russell Wilson seems to have made a lot of folks in Pittsburgh very happy.

Perhaps the two people who are the most excited about it are Penguins coach Mike Sullivan and Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas. Because with everyone talking about Wilson coming to Pittsburgh, no one is talking about how awful the Penguins are right now.

In terms of Sullivan, his team has lost seven of nine games and sits in seventh place of the eight-team Metropolitan Division.

Regarding Dubas, very few of the moves he has made in Year 1 on the job show any evidence that they will help him dig out from the rubble left behind by his predecessor Ron Hextall. Not to mention, most hockey observers in Pittsburgh are underwhelmed by the return from Carolina in the Jake Guentzel deal.

Another thing that is starting to rub some Pittsburghers the wrong way is Dubas’ unwavering support of Sullivan. It started on Day 1 of his tenure and has almost become more steadfast despite this disaster of a season where Sullivan has shown an utter inability to affect any change from his stumbling group of players.

That’s on top of missing the playoffs last year and failing to win a playoff series in 2019-22. Yet during a recent edition of his GM radio show with Penguins play-by-play man Josh Getzoff, Dubas reiterated his alliance with Sullivan.

“I’ve said a couple of times now, if you don’t have Sully, then you’re looking for Sully,” Dubas said. “If you have it, you should keep it, especially when there’s no salary cap when it comes to coaching. It’s much different than the decisions that you make with the roster.”

Right. Like, for instance, when you trade Jake Guentzel, you are instantly looking for Jake Guentzel. But I’ll yield to Dubas’ point about the free agent market and salary cap implications on that point.

However, I’m actually seizing on the other part of Dubas’ quote. Because when he says, “If you don’t have Sully, then you’re looking for Sully,” I’d argue the Penguins have been looking for that Sully since they lost to the Washington Capitals in the 2018 playoffs.

Because the guy who has been coaching the Penguins in the years since then is not the same guy who coached the Penguins that season or the two years prior to it.

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The guy that coached those Penguins adapted to in-game circumstances, trusted young players, broke through to established veteran players when they needed to be coached, had an innate knack to play the right goalie at the right time, and built a style of play that highlighted the type of players he had.

The version of Mike Sullivan who has been coaching here for the last five years has illustrated none of those traits. The same veteran players make the same ghastly mistakes every night with no repercussions. He refuses to trust young players in the same way he did Guentzel, Bryan Rust, Conor Sheary, Tom Kuhnhackl and Scott Wilson when they were newbies on the 2016 and 2017 Stanley Cup winners.

That’s to say nothing of his unabashed belief in a young Matt Murray who won two cups here before fading after that same 2018 season and how he shuffled playing time between him and Marc-Andre Fleury.

Perhaps most vexing is that Sullivan continues to roll out a system of play every night that tries to capture who his star players were seven years ago instead of working around what those players no longer have.

“This has not been an easy time for any of us,” Dubas continued. “Sully takes this very personally, and it’s deeply important to him. He’s just too good of a coach to just summarily put it all on when it doesn’t go perfectly. It’s on me, it’s on the players, it’s on all of us, and we’ll get through it together.”

Well, what they haven’t gotten to is the second round of the playoffs in what will soon be six straight years. That’s a lifetime for a hockey coach regardless of resume.

What Dubas should be looking for is a guy who can coach as Sullivan used to coach because the guy who has that job right now is doing a lousy impersonation.

For Dubas’ and Sullivan’s sakes, let’s just hope Wilson’s impersonation of Wilson is more like the guy who was in Seattle in 2013 as opposed to an impersonation of the guy who has been in Denver for the past two years.

If that’s the case and the Steelers actually look like a Super Bowl contender, the Penguins could start the year 0-20-0 before anyone puts any real heat on either of them.

Unfortunately, based on how this season is ending for the Pens, I’m not ruling out that record as a possibility.

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