Sullivan can bring accountability, identity to Rangers, former players say

There are two questions to ask, and attempt to answer, as part of the immediate reaction to Mike Sullivan being hired as coach of the New York Rangers on Friday.

What can Sullivan do for the Rangers, who failed to live up to expectations this season, missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs after winning the Presidents' Trophy and reaching the Eastern Conference Final last season?

What can the Rangers do for Sullivan, who for all of his success with the Pittsburgh Penguins, including back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and 2017, could not get them to the playoffs in his final three seasons before mutually parting ways Monday?

"If you have goaltending, which he does, that's one huge component of it," Brian Boyle told NHL.com. "If you make the life of the goaltender easier, then that's an important component too. You just need your top players to not disappear. That's a challenge."

Boyle's perspective matters here. He played for Sullivan when the coach was an assistant with the Rangers from 2009-13, and with the Penguins in 2021-22. Boyle works part-time as a Rangers analyst and broadcaster on MSG Networks. He also works for NHL Network.

He knows Sullivan. He knows the star players who have thrived under Sullivan, namely Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang with the Penguins. He knows what the Rangers didn't do last season. He knows what Sullivan will bring to them.

"'Sully' is still unbelievable of making sure everybody knows exactly what is expected of you," Boyle said. "If your role changes, he's great at communicating that. He is a demanding coach. He's an extremely fair coach, a very respectful coach of the players, but also still very demanding. I think that's what makes a coach successful; understanding your personnel and figuring out a plan for that group to have success is what he does best. All the coaches in the League know the game extremely well, but he knows his players extremely well and puts them in places where they're going to succeed and the team is going to succeed. That's his gift. That's what separates him. That's what has given him success."

So that answers the first question. At least partially.

There's also this:

"When we would go on win streaks or when we were on losing streaks or not playing our best, how he would approach meetings, it was all the same," Boyle said. "This is what our objective is today. This is what we're going to do today. We're not talking about yesterday. We're not talking about tomorrow. He is tremendous at staying on target all while having a plan. Now it's going to help him a lot if some of these stud guys are already in the gym trying to get better because there are some of them that, quite frankly, aren't. He's going to demand it because his camp is not easy at all."

All of that will be in line with Sullivan trying to bring the Rangers an identity, which they lost along the way this season under former coach Peter Laviolette.

"I think there's a lot of guys not playing with confidence and I feel like there's been a lack of accountability," former NHL forward Mike Rupp said. "Those are pretty major things and I think he's one of the most perfect guys for the job because of those things."

Rupp, like Boyle, played for the Rangers when Sullivan was an assistant in New York. He worked as a Penguins analyst and broadcaster, and in the same functions with the Rangers, as well as on NHL Network.

"When you go back to the 2015-16 season when he got hired in Pittsburgh, there was that clip of him yelling at Malkin on the bench, yelling, 'Shut the [expletive] up, shut the [expletive] up,' right to his face," Rupp said. "'Geno' is one of my favorite teammates. He's stubborn, hard-headed and that's what I love about him. 'Sully' had to do that once. I don't know, maybe he did that more in the room that we didn't see, but man, it worked with that group and the big guys loved him. If he's willing to do that to Evgeni Malkin, you have to think he's going to do it to me."

Now, about what the Rangers can do for Sullivan?

It starts, Boyle said, with being ready, willing and able to do what is asked. That, he said, was missing this season under Laviolette.

The Rangers started the season 12-4-1. Then they went 4-15-0 in their next 19 games. When they were in a playoff push down the stretch, they went 5-8-1 from March 15 until they were eliminated from playoff contention April 12.

Their power play sagged. Top-six forwards Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere all had worse seasons than they did in 2023-24. So did defensemen Adam Fox and K'Andre Miller. Goalie Igor Shesterkin's numbers dropped too.

Jacob Trouba, Kaapo Kakko and Ryan Lindgren all were traded as part of the Rangers attempting to reconfigure the core. J.T. Miller was acquired, but couldn't make up the difference with 35 points (13 goals, 22 assists) in 32 games after being acquired Jan. 31.

"'Lavi' is really loyal, and unfortunately for Lavi this year his top guys stopped playing," Boyle said.

Laviolette took the hit. More players could too. Sullivan will have a say in who stays and who goes, in who he wants to trust. He has coached against the Rangers enough in the Metropolitan Division to know the team as intimately as an opposing coach can.

Don't forget, too, that he coached Kreider, Miller, Trocheck and Fox as the United States coach at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February. He will be the U.S. coach for the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics. All four would love to play for him there.

But everyone who shows up on Day 1 of training camp has to believe and buy in to Sullivan the way the Penguins did for years.

That's what the Rangers can do for Sullivan.

There's zero doubt he'll attempt to do everything else mentioned above for them.

"We've seen too many years that the Rangers have been a power play and a goaltender," Rupp said. "They need an identity they can go back to every single night. That's what 'Sully' will bring."