By Rob Rossi (The Athletic)

Just give Mike Sullivan the Jack Adams Award right now. No coach is going to do a better job the remainder of this season than Sullivan’s work over its first couple of weeks.

Sure, there is a lot of hockey remaining. Yeah, other bench bosses are likely to make compelling cases over the next six-plus months.

But where is there another coach who would have started a season without two surefire future Hall of Fame centers, lost another probable future Hall of Fame center to COVID-19, then on the morning of a game against one of hockey’s most talented teams learned he would not have access to the services of a defenseman who is at least deserving of future Hall of Fame consideration?

Mars, maybe.

Going into Saturday night, finding the red planet hospitable for human life seemed a safer bet than the Penguins beating the Maple Leafs at PPG Paints Arena.

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