BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Mike Sullivan was the guest on Thursday's episode of Elliotte Friedman's 31 Thoughts podcast.
The episode was recorded in Toronto on Feb. 19, before the Penguins' game in Toronto the following day.
Here are some of the highlights.
On Sidney Crosby:
He never ceases to amaze us. It becomes the new normal in Pittsburgh because he does it night in and night out for us. He's just one of those guys that has elite vision. He's a generational talent. Those guys don't come around that often. To have the opportunity to coach him and be around him every day and witness what he does on the ice is certainly, for my standpoint, a privilege to be around him. The one thing I will say is the advice that we give players when we put them with Sid is, 'Just play your game." Because he has the ability to adapt his game to the guys we put around him. One of the discussions I just had recently with Jason Zucker when we got him from Minnesota, in the first game or two, we put him right with Sid as you guys know. Our observation was a lot of time he's waiting for the puck. One of the things that I said to our coaching staff that we need to help Zucker with is he doesn't need to wait, because Sid will get him the puck.
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Sidney Crosby. -- MATT SUNDAY / DKPS[/caption]
On rumors that Evgeni Malkin was ever on the trading block this summer:
The first thing I would say is Jim and I don't concern ourselves with all the speculation and the rumor mill that you guys partake in on a daily basis. We know the truth and what's on the inside. We don't really have a lot of discussions around that because it's really not anything we can control. I will say that we do communicate with Geno, both Jim and I communicated with Geno throughout the summer, just our assessment of where we were at and how we were going to try to move forward and improve. Those discussions were had with Geno so he understood what the expectations were going into training camp. I give Geno credit because he's such a driven guy. It wasn't like Geno didn't have a good year last year. He has 80-something points, over a point-per-game. But he's capable of more. Most specifically, just his two-way game, right? His ability to influence outcomes in the win column for us more consistently. Geno and I had that discussion last summer, and he's well aware of it. And he takes ownership and responsibility for his own game, that's what I love about him. He was bound and determined to prove that he is still the generational talent that he has been for a decade-plus in this league. And he's shown it through his work ethic coming back to training camp, he's had a terrific year for us.
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Evgeni Malkin. -- MATT SUNDAY / DKPS[/caption]
On Crosby and Malkin stepping up when the other one is out of the lineup:
I think they embrace that challenge. They're so competitive. I think they thrive on it. It's happened on more than one occasion with both guys. They've shown an ability to elevate their game and take the whole team on their back so to speak, through their example. I just think it's an indication of how competitive both of those guys are.
On being hard to play against:
In my experience I've never seen a team score their way to a championship. You have to have the ability to be hard to play against. You don't have to always outscore teams. You have to outplay teams. Scoring is part of it, but keeping it out of your net is also part of it. If you have the puck coming through the neutral zone, maybe there isn't an opportunity to create because you don't have numbers or time or space, or it's late in a shift. You don't want to feed an opponent's transition game which may be very dangerous. That discipline is all a part of learning how to win. That's the challenge I think of coaching, is to try to convince your group to buy into that discipline, to know it's not all about scoring goals. It's about playing the game the right way.
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Mike Sullivan. -- MATT SUNDAY / DKPS[/caption]
On his growth as a head coach
I think I'm a very different coach today than I was back (with Boston). Obviously when you have 15, 16-plus years of experience and everything that I've gone through as a coach, it's just I've been through so many learning opportunities. I just think that's the evolution of being a coach. ... I look back on that experience and I would do some things differently for sure. I think once again the benefit of experience just offers me that perspective in how to deal with certain situations that arise that teams in this league are faced with. I look back on that experience a lot and think about what I liked that we did as a coaching staff, what I might do differently to get a different outcome. But once again I just think that's part of the evolution of coaching.
On Jack Parker, his coach at Boston University
I think of him a lot. I think Jack had such a huge impression on me, not only as a player but as a coach today. I still talk to Jack a few times a year. There have been situations over the years where I've called him just to seek his advice. There hasn't been too much that Jack hasn't gone through as a coach that we couldn't learn from him. He's always so gracious in taking my call and I know some of his other players that have gone onto coaching have done the same thing. I think of him a lot. He was a terrific coach. He wasn't warm and fuzzy by any stretch, he wasn't easy to play for. He was real demanding. One of the things I try and utilize in my coaching philosophy and in my coaching style is as hard as coach Parker was on us as players, I always walked away from the experience knowing that he cared about me as a player and he had my best interest in mind in trying to make me the best player I could be or the best teammate I could be. He was simply trying to help the Terriers be the best team they could be. I always felt that way. He wasn't always my favorite guy with some of the conversations that he had with me, but that's coaching. Sometimes you're going to tell players things that they don't want to hear and it's in their best interest. Jack never shied away from that stuff. But as a player you always felt like the sincerity that he brought. I always knew that he cared about me. I've tried to bring that to the way I coach with the guys that I interact with on a daily basis here.
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