Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan will miss tonight's game against Flyers due to COVID-19-related protocols
The Penguins said assistant coach Todd Reirden will assume Sullivan’s duties behind the bench tonight in his absence.
The Penguins said assistant coach Todd Reirden will assume Sullivan’s duties behind the bench tonight in his absence.
The Penguins said assistant coach Todd Reirden will assume Sullivan’s duties behind the bench tonight in his absence.
The Pittsburgh Penguins announced Thursday afternoon that head coach Mike Sullivan will not be available for tonight’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers at PPG Paints Arena due to COVID-19-related protocols.
The Penguins said assistant coach Todd Reirden will assume Sullivan’s duties behind the bench tonight in his absence.
"At this point for him, he is symptomatic, and wish nothing but the best for him for a speedy recovery here as we go through the process that's been going through our team a little bit," Reirden said during a news conference Thursday.
The Penguins have been grappling with a COVID-19 outbreak since training camp opened. Eight players have entered the protocol since mid-September, including captain Sidney Crosby and defensemen Marcus Pettersson, Brian Dumoulin and Chad Ruhwedel this week. All will be unavailable to face Philadelphia.
Sullivan said Wednesday that Crosby and Pettersson were symptomatic and Ruhwedel was asymptomatic.
Forwards Zach Aston-Reese, Jeff Carter and Jake Guentzel tested positive for COVID-19 since training camp opened but have since returned. Defenseman Kris Letang, placed in the protocol on Oct. 23, will return to the ice against the Flyers.
“It seems like it’s been something we’ve been dealing with for a while now,” Reirden said. “As we work through it here. The focus is going to be on us trying to find some of the hockey we were playing in the beginning of the year.”
The Penguins got off to a 3-0-2 start with Crosby out of the lineup while recovering from surgery on his left wrist, but they have dropped three straight entering their first meeting this season with the Flyers.
This is not Reirden's debut as a head coach. He spent two years as the head coach in Washington from 2018-20 before returning for a second stint as an assistant in Pittsburgh, where he worked under Dan Bylsma from 2010-14.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.