You are going from being an assistant with a specialty to being in charge of an entire operation, with the scheduling, the practices, and the rest of it. How does it change your life?
Sullivan: It is very different. You have to have a 10,000-foot view of the organization and team that you are involved with.
As soon as I got announced today, I started making some phone calls to the staff regarding how we can get better. What changes would you make if you were in charge and had carte blanche in your department? What changes would you like to make, and where do you think there is some opportunity for growth?
Managing the people will be just as important as managing the actual systems on the ice. I am not going to micro-manage. I give John Gruden a ton of credit; when I came in, I was green and didn’t know very much about coaching at the time. He gave me carte blanche with the power play to grow and learn, and I made it my own. He stayed out of the way. I truly believe that is the path.
Mark Giordano is an elite hockey mind who will get a great opportunity to run the D and the PK. We will work together on finding someone who will run the power play.
It is about allowing them the opportunity to be in charge of their departments and letting them grow with it. That is the coaches, the equipment managers, our strength and conditioning, the medical — all of those areas. It’s about managing that, so we are giving the players exactly what they need to continue their development.
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