PITTSBURGH — With a raucous celebration unfolding all around him, Mike Sullivan stopped for a moment on the ice at Bridgestone Arena that muggy June night in 2017.

The Penguins had just won the Stanley Cup for a fifth time. They had also become the first team in the National Hockey League's salary cap era to earn back-to-back championships, outlasting the Nashville Predators in six games.

I'll never forget the smile I saw from Sullivan when I chatted with him and his family for a few minutes. Or the obvious satisfaction when Sullivan considered all his Penguins had accomplished.

"This is pretty incredible, isn't it?" Sullivan said at the time.

Sure was.

And it shouldn't be forgotten.

For while the Penguins and Sullivan announced plans on Monday to mutually part ways — a move that actually makes sense for all involved — it turns the page on a Pittsburgh sports storyline that I think we should appreciate more.

Sullivan is one of the best coaches our city has ever seen, and there are several reasons I believe that to be true: his ability to get the best out of several types of players, how league-wide trends shifted because of fast and aggressively his teams played, and his gutsy decisions that drove a lot of the Penguins' success.

Not to mention, of course, becoming the winningest coach in franchise history.

At the same time, it's simultaneously hard to quibble with the move. The Penguins had grown stale, their mistakes many, their trajectory new and elongated. As Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas said Monday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, few NHL coaches climb to the top of the mountain, descend and then make it back with the same organization.

"Over the past two years, I've started to see why," Dubas said. "It's just very difficult. Last week, when Sully and I spoke about a lot of the same stuff we've talked about the whole year, it just became clear to me that it was probably time for a change and to move on."

No argument from this seat. But the battle I'm more interested in fighting involves Sullivan's importance to this franchise and city. He's a coaching titan in a local sports scene full of them, the right man at the right time and a genuinely good person who was nothing short of a joy to cover.

'Means a great deal'

Imagine where the Penguins would've been had they continued along the same trajectory back in 2015.

Mike Johnston was hired the year before, a promising junior coach leading an NHL team for the first time. It was not working out. The Penguins did not have an identity. It seemed their respect for Johnston lacked.

Then, everything changed.

Former general manager Jim Rutherford promoted Sullivan from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and the season soon took off. The Penguins leaned on younger players and found a speed-based style that worked for them. Their confidence grew. Sullivan met with several of the team's stars and set a plan in motion, their season saved.

"[Sullivan] means a great deal to a lot of the people in this room and to the community and will move on from the Penguins having left a truly incredible mark on the franchise," Dubas said. "But beyond the success on the bench what it led to for the city of Pittsburgh and the fanbase is the mark that he's made on the people here."

It wasn't all that dissimilar to what Dan Bylsma did during the Penguins' previous Cup runs or the immediate impact "Badger" Bob Johnson had on the 1990-91 team, but I've always appreciated how Sullivan earned his players' buy-in: by being genuine and unabashedly himself.

Sometimes that meant stopping practice and cursing a blue streak, every syllable of his expletive-laden rant heard by those of us covering the team. Other times it meant quietly supporting his players, letting them know he'll always have their backs and ultimately putting them in positions to succeed.

As much as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Phil Kessel, Patric Hornqvist or the goaltending duo of Matt Murray and Marc-Andre Fleury might've owned various portions of those Cup runs, so did Sullivan. His pressurized style resonated. Top players bought in. Sullivan should've won the Jack Adams Award for best coach at least once.

I wrote about Sullivan's relationship with his dad and his son. I visited his house and hometown after that Cup win. We chatted regularly about baseball and the relationship between reporters and those they cover. My respect for Sullivan and how he carried himself could not be higher.

"One of his biggest strengths is he's not worried about the noise," longtime NHL coach John Tortorella told me in 2017. "He's trying to make every decision to do what's best for his hockey team."

Sullivan made a lot of them, from whom he played, how much, which goalie he chose, his system or how he coached players who — let's be honest — can be difficult to coach.

Yet at the same time, what happened Monday was probably best for all involved.

"Two things can be true," Dubas said. "Someone can be a great head coach and they'll move on to become a great head coach on their next head stop. And it can also be time for change here."

The trajectory now

Nothing lasts forever, and Sullivan knows that. I lost count long ago of how many times he'd say coaches are hired to be fired ... yet he outlasted every one of them not named Jon Cooper.

Sullivan ascended to the top of his profession in Pittsburgh, and Penguins fans should remember that, not get tripped up on what the narrative has become over the past handful of seasons.

Sully won't change. He's stubborn. Why won't he trust younger players? They can't protect leads. What happened to the defense?

There were obviously things Sullivan wishes he could have done better, the same as anyone with a professional sports team that has struggled. But the ire directed at Sullivan got a little ridiculous. He didn't suddenly forget how to coach. He certainly didn't get lazy or start caring less.

His roster wasn't as good, and every coach has a shelf life.

As Dubas added several times Monday, it's probably best for everyone to move on — and I'll be rooting for whatever Sullivan does next.

As [Irish] luck would have it, Sullivan enters the pool of coaching candidates at a terrific time. The Rangers, Bruins, Ducks or Canucks are all possible fits. Let's hope Sullivan has become too much of an adopted Yinzer to ever coach the Flyers. It won't be an issue for an opposing team to pick up his contract and pay him to coach. It's just a matter of when and which one.

Let's also bury the concern over Fenway Sports Group's previous feelings on retaining Sullivan or what Sidney Crosby might think:

— An opposing team will gladly pick up Sullivan's contract, so there's zero impact there.

— Crosby wants to win, period. If Dan Potash devised a plan to lead the Penguins to the promised land, Crosby would be on board. He's going to do everything in his power to make life easier on the next person, not harder.

— What this move tells me about the current state of the organization more than anything is that it's unequivocally Dubas' show. He's now allowed to hire his first coach, the scope of this rebuild has been defined, and Dubas has reworked all of the underlying processes such as scouting, player development, analytics and more.

The Penguins, meanwhile, need a fresh set of eyes, a new voice and someone eager to write their own story, the same way Sullivan did here when the team was in a bad spot. Speaking of that, they should avoid retreads and think along the lines of Spencer Carbery with the Capitals, a lesser-known name but also someone with a blank slate and a recent history around player development.

David Carle from the University of Denver should be one name to watch, though as Dubas explained, the Penguins plan on casting a wide net and being patient with this process. Their situation dictates as much.

Bottom line, the Penguins' sudden swerve here makes sense, even if the timeline Dubas has described sounds funky. (Sullivan said he expected to coach the Penguins next season, and Dubas seemed at least reasonably OK with that ... only to pivot after meeting with the former coach last week.)

Either way, this was bound to happen. Let's hope that switch-flipping can instead shift the attention from calls for Sullivan's job to remembering how important of a role he's played in our city's sporting success.

Had Sullivan not come along in 2015, would Crosby, Malkin, Letang and Fleury be considered one-and-done flashes, or a collection of the greatest winners their generation has seen?

Sullivan's legacy is not one anyone should take lightly.

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