Dubas Addresses Questions and Criticism Surrounding Pittsburgh’s Up and Down Start

* When asked if he could analyze the job Pittsburgh’s coaching staff has done, and if their message is being delivered properly and being received by the players, Dubas put his full support behind Mike Sullivan. He believes the Penguins head coach is the best person to help the team get going in the right direction.

Dubas said he feels that more recently, it seems like as soon as a team isn’t playing to its potential, the focus shifts to coaching. But that’s not the case for him personally, especially after getting to know Sullivan through being with him every day and seeing his attention to detail with both the art and science of coaching.

“I think we’re very fortunate to have Mike. So, do I think that he’s the right person for this job now and far into the future? I absolutely do,” Dubas said. “It’s on me to continue to help support the coaching staff as best I can, and help get us going in the right direction.”

What’s been particularly encouraging for Dubas is that the coaching staff hasn’t been stuck in their ways and trying to utilize systems that worked during the 2016 and ’17 Stanley Cup championship runs.

“They know that we have to continue to adapt, and they’re trying to every single day, every hour of the day, to find those (solutions),” Dubas said. “They’re not beholden to what worked in the past. They’re trying to figure out what’s going to work moving ahead.”

* Dubas shared his thoughts on the team’s current injury situation. 

Sullivan said today that Bryan Rust, who has 10 goals and 20 points in 20 games, is week-to-week with an upper-body injury. Fellow top-six winger Rickard Rakell is on long-term injured reserve with an upper-body injury and has missed nine straight games. Bottom-six forwards Noel Acciari and Matt Nieto are also out, while defensemen P.O Joseph and Chad Ruhwedel are working their way back after both being out longer-term.

So, while there’s certainly some key players missing, Dubas doesn’t think injuries can be any type of excuse, as every team in the league deals with them to some degree. For him, injuries are a chance for guys who have always wanted an opportunity and are here for that opportunity.

“We want guys to run right through the door and take it and go. That’s what we’re waiting for with a lot of our depth guys right now,” Dubas said. “The opportunity is massive, and somebody has to run with it.”

The Penguins will see what happens in that regard during this coming stretch, and if those players don’t pull through, “then that’s on me,” Dubas said. “We haven’t found the right mix of guys to take advantage of it. If we have a depth issue, that falls on my shoulders and should be held against me more than anybody else.

“So, I’m excited for the guys that are in those opportunities to take advantage of it and roll with it. But if they don’t, then it’s up to me to act and try to us other guys who can.”

* Being new in the role, Dubas has his expectations of the group now and his responsibility in the long run. His approach is to give the players and coaching staff as much time as possible when it comes to dictating their future course.

He’s not going to make any decisions based on how the team does this week or next week. Dubas said they’ll have a better idea of where they are as a group and where they need to go coming out of the All-Star break, with the Penguins off from Jan. 28-Feb. 5, resuming game action on Feb. 6 versus Winnipeg.

“It’s not going to be anything in the short run. Us continuing to pull our way out of where we’re at right now is on all of us internally. It’s on me, it’s on the coaching staff and it’s on the players, and I’m excited to see how we go about it here, starting tomorrow night,” he said.

Dubas did say he understands that nobody on the outside cares about what the underlying numbers say one way or the other (for the record, they are mostly positive in the Penguins’ case).

“They want to see execution on the ice and they want to see us convert on the ice and deliver wins for the fans in Pittsburgh, which is really all we care about here,” he said.

* One move Dubas did make is bringing in Jesse Puljujarvi on a free agent tryout (full story here). “We just hope to give him an opportunity here if he proves healthy enough where he can help out. It goes back to the question about depth and trying to find more avenues to find it,” Dubas said.

With Puljujarvi’s draft pedigree – he was taken fourth overall in 2016 – teams have been familiar with him for a long time. If the 25-year-old forward is able to come back from the major hip surgery he had in the offseason, Dubas wouldn’t be looking for him to provide massive amounts of offense, though Puljujarvi did show an ability to play up the lineup in Edmonton.

“For me, it’s his ability to get on the forecheck, get to the net, disrupt the defense of the other team when they’re going back on the puck, and then get to the net and really start to get under the skin of people,” Dubas said. “I think that’s when he’s at his best.”

* Just like he did in last week’s GM Show, Dubas reiterated that the struggling power play is top of mind for everybody – “not only for fans and media as it should be, but every day internally.”

Dubas said in his experience, when the power play struggles, it’s the heaviest feeling. “You come into the rink, and you get one revolution, and as soon as it doesn’t work to the exact way that you want it to – especially when you’re at home – you feel the angst that goes with it,” he said.

Dubas thinks the players and coaches are too good not to solve their way out of it. The famous quote that says the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results doesn’t feel applicable to this group for Dubas, who said they’ve been open to trying new things in practice.

“That, for me, has been the most encouraging part,” Dubas said. “It doesn’t mean that tomorrow night, we’re suddenly going to come out and light the world on fire. Because I think especially when you’re at that stage, it’s a process of earning your way out of it and building a new confidence in the way that things run and continually trying new things. We haven’t continued to try to do the same thing over and over. But we have to start to build a consistency in terms of what we want in the power play.”

Dubas said that Erik Karlsson has been a great addition in that regard, as the defending Norris Trophy winner as the league’s best defenseman is always spurring conversation about how they can continue to evolve and change.

“He doesn’t truly accept status quo in his own game or others as the way that we should go about things,” Dubas said. “Especially when he views his role on the power play, he’s the quarterback of it. He takes that very seriously, he’s not afraid to directly talk to players about the way that it’s going, and I think that, for me, is very refreshing.”