Sullivan Prepared for Unique Training Camp

During Mike Sullivan's first virtual availability with local media ahead of the 2020-21 season, the Penguins head coach was cut off midway through an answer and didn't reappear for several moments.
"I apologize for that, guys. My computer ran out of batteries," he said with a laugh after logging back online. "I was on a lengthy WebEx meeting with our coaching staff yesterday and I forgot to charge my laptop."
Sullivan and assistant coaches Todd Reirden and Mike Vellucci have certainly been hard at work ahead of training camp, which is set to open on Sunday, Jan. 3 at PPG Paints Arena.

"We're really excited," Sullivan said. "It's been a long offseason. We've had a fair amount of planning and preparation going through this process and trying to think of all the potential contingencies as this unfolds in the return to play. But we're really excited to get back on the ice with the group of players that we've assembled, and we look forward to the opportunity to compete."
Here is the rest of what Sullivan had to say…
- The Penguins have
invited 40 players to training camp
, which will last for just 10 days. There will be no preseason games before the Penguins open the season on Jan. 13 at 5:30 p.m. in Philadelphia, which presents a big challenge in terms of evaluation and readiness.
"It's going to be a short camp," Sullivan said. "It's going to happen fast. We're going to have to prioritize what we do with the group, and we've put a plan together for that."
From a readiness aspect, the Penguins - who will practice a total of seven times - will focus on 5-on-5 play and inter-squad scrimmages. The coaching staff has also built in a game simulation day, where the players will reacclimate themselves into their usual routines before scrimmaging at 7 p.m.
"We think we put a pretty good plan together on how to establish the foundation of our team concept and how we're going to try to play, but also allow the opportunity for these guys to get into 5-on-5 scrimmage play so that they can get acclimated with a real game environment again," Sullivan said.
From an evaluation aspect, Sullivan said it helps that they have a lot of familiarity with the players that are challenging for the NHL roster.
"I'm looking forward to watching some of the younger guys and the progress that they've made, but having said that, I think we've got a fairly good handle on where everybody is at," Sullivan said. "We'll try to create a competitive camp and allow guys the opportunity to perform."
- In addition to finalizing the 23-man opening-night roster, the Penguins also have to put together a 4-6 man taxi squad in an effort to minimize any roster shortages due to COVID-19 protocols. The players will be eligible to practice and travel with Pittsburgh, and must be called up by 5 p.m. on a game day in order to play.
Sullivan said that the coaching staff is continuing to have discussions with Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford and the hockey operations department on how they're going to structure the opening-night roster with respect to the taxi squad.
"We feel as though we have a real competitive group here," Sullivan said. "We have an idea as a coaching staff where we'd like to start as far as line combinations and defense pairs, and we'll put these guys together and see how they perform and we'll make decisions accordingly."
- The bottom-six forward group should be a particularly competitive environment, especially with Zach Aston-Reese sidelined for the start of the season after undergoing offseason shoulder surgery. Sullivan said there are a number of players capable of seizing that opportunity.
"There are young players like Sam Lafferty that made significant progress last year," Sullivan said. "We added a guy like Colton Sceviour in the trade market. We signed Evan Rodrigues back. So it's going to make for a competitive environment. I think that's what keeps us all at our best. We've always been strong believers in that internal competitive push."
- The Penguins treated the last few months as a real offseason and didn't have weekly meetings with the players like they did during the pause. Instead, Sullivan periodically reached out to members of the leadership group and stayed in fairly constant communication with those guys. Many have already returned to Pittsburgh to skate in small groups while being tested daily and screened upon arrival at the rink.
"These guys are real excited," Sullivan said. "They were kind of a holding pattern here and they're used to playing hockey at this time of year. That's what they want to do. That's what they love to do. And so they've been training hard in preparation for this return to play process."
- Once the puck drops on Jan. 13, the Penguins will be heading into shortened 56-game season which will consist of exclusively intradivisional play. Pittsburgh is in the highly-competitive East Division, playing eight games each against the Bruins, Sabres, Devils, Islanders, Rangers, Flyers and Capitals.
"We're playing a small amount of teams an awful lot," Sullivan said. "It's going to have a playoff feel to it, I believe. There's a lot of rivalries within our division. There's a lot of good teams, competitive teams, within our division. And I think that's going to make for exciting hockey."
It will be more important than ever to practice what Sullivan always preaches to his players: embrace the process and control the controllables.
"We're not going to get ahead of ourselves," he said. "We're going to stay right in the moment. We're going to take each day as it comes. We're going to push one another to try to get better each and every day, and we'll learn from the experiences along the way."
Sullivan said they've reflected on their experience in the previous Return to Play scenario, where the Penguins got eliminated by Montreal in the Qualifying Round back in August, and have some takeaways that can help them improve and grow as a group while they navigate what will be a unique and exciting season.
"We'll present those to the team and then we'll move forward," Sullivan said. "We're excited to get on the ice with these guys. We're looking forward to getting back to doing what we love to do."