(Featured photo by Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)

Mike Sullivan is the second longest-tenured coach in the National Hockey League.

His story is well documented in Pittsburgh. After taking over for the fired Mike Johnston halfway through the 2015-16 season, Sullivan led the Penguins all the way to the franchise’s fourth Stanley Cup.

A year later, he did it again, becoming the first American head coach to win back-to-back Stanley Cups in the NHL.

Ever since then, however, the success hasn’t been nearly as prevalent. Since that joyous night in Nashville in 2017, the Sullivan-coached Penguins have won one total playoff series, suffered five straight playoff round losses, four straight first round exits, and have now failed to make the playoffs in two consecutive years.

Sullivan’s Penguins have gone 12-21 in postseason games since they won their last Cup.

As the years have gone on and the Penguins have wasted the final years of their current core, featuring Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang, the calls for Sullivan to be fired have grown more and more, particularly as the Penguins have now fallen even out of the playoff picture over the last few seasons.

You’d be hard pressed to find Penguins fans who are in favor of Sullivan staying, and many simply don’t trust him to handle the impending rebuild for this team, whenever general manager Kyle Dubas decides to fully embrace it.

But on the international stage, Sullivan is seen very differently. Originally named the head coach for Team USA at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing (before the NHL eventually pulled their players out of it), Sullivan has been a star in the American coaching scene for quite some time.

Yes, part of that could be the lack of current NHL head coaches that are American. At the time of this publishing, only eight coaches, or 25% of the league, are from the US (and technically, Boston’s Joe Sacco is an interim coach). But still, someone from that crowd, plus guys who are not currently coaching NHL teams, has to stand out.

It’s been Sullivan.

Ahead of being named Team USA’s coach for the Four Nations Face Off, Sullivan’s Olympic coaching role was pushed back to 2026, where he will usher in the first time NHL players have been allowed to compete on the greatest international stage since the 2014 Games in Sochi.

But before that takes place, Sullivan got to showcase his work behind the bench for the Americans at Four Nations, where he has done a hell of a job.

Sullivan’s Americans routed Finland in their opening game of the round robin tournament, winning 6-1 to net three points in the standings.

His best coaching decision in that game was switching the lineup mid-game to configure a line that featured centerman Jack Eichel with brothers Matthew and Brady Tkachuk on his wings.

The Tkachuk brothers combined for four goals in that game, two of which also had an Eichel assist. To this point, it was the only completely lopsided game of the tournament.

Of course, though, that game pales in comparison to what took place at the Bell Centre in Montreal last night, where the US and Canada combined for the most electric game in god knows when.

A game that saw the Tkachuk brothers and JT Miller all get involved in fights in the first nine seconds of the game, Sullivan did a masterful job managing his bench and putting out a lineup that could disrupt and lock down Canada’s potent offense.

In that game, he also leaned more on the bottom half of the forward lineup, particularly on Dylan Larkin.

Larkin played only 11:14 against Finland, but played over 16 minutes against Canada, scoring Team USA’s second goal and the ultimate game-winner in the second period.

In the third, Sullivan’s team played the ultimate defensive game, almost willingly handing the puck to Canada and forcing them to be the ones to turn the game around. Against a team that rosters Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, and some guy named Connor McDavid, that is a gutsy, risky, and nearly impossible feat for a team to accomplish.

But the Americans did that for 20 minutes to win the game, clinching a spot in the championship game and ensuring that they can take it easier (if they want) against Sweden on Monday.

Sullivan and his staff, which includes Penguins assistant coach David Quinn and Philadelphia’s John Tortorella, deserve massive props for their win over the Canadians.

This tournament has only heightened his appearance in the eyes of the international hockey world, but have they changed some of the perception around him in Pittsburgh?

It cannot be understated how much better Team USA’s roster is than the Penguins’ current lineup, but perhaps this tournament has shown that the fault of the Penguins’ last few years doesn’t fall quite as much on Sullivan as we all have thought.

Connor Hellebuyck is probably the biggest difference maker between the American team and the Penguins. Hellebuyck has been lights out for Team USA, allowing two total goals in as many games and standing on his head against the Canadians on Saturday.

Hellebuyck’s talents and the level of trust Sullivan could instill in him is partially why the Americans were able to play a defensive match in the third period last night.

Pittsburgh’s biggest position of need for years now has been a quality goalie that the team can trust. Tristan Jarry wasn’t that guy before Dubas re-signed him to a massive five year extension, and backup goalies like Casey DeSmith and Alex Nedeljkovic have only had spare moments where they looked up to the task.

This tournament has made me wonder if Sullivan perhaps still does have the chops to be one of the best NHL head coaches. I suppose it depends on how much one attributes the roster to coaching. How much of Sullivan’s success at Four Nations is because of a star-studded cast featuring the best American players in the world?

For Dubas, the general manager of Canada’s Four Nations squad, that must have been a question circling around in his mind. But I personally can’t help but wonder if this tournament will make Dubas alter his strategy for next season a little bit.

The Penguins will have a TON of cap space. Crosby will be one year older, but he’s proving age will not slow him down at this tournament, as he has in the NHL for years now. It’s certainly not the responsible idea, but it’s by far the more fun one, and probably the one that Crosby deserves.

If the Penguins were to go all out for one final run in 2025-26, bringing in big name free agents and salvaging what they can out of this total core, would Sullivan be the guy Dubas wants behind the bench for that?

I think Four Nations has made that answer a resounding yes.

But Penguins fans, what say you?