TAMPA, Fla. — About a week ago, the Pittsburgh Penguins had finished an optional morning skate at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

Mike Sullivan, long after meeting with his team and the media, strolled down an ice-level hallway, searching for the proper path to the team bus. Standing at an intersection of four hallways leading in different directions, he wasn’t sure where to go.

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I had just watched most of his team head toward the bus, so I pointed him in the right direction. Then I joked that he shouldn’t need directions because he’s coached a game or two in Bridgestone Arena, the site of the Penguins’ most recent Stanley Cup clincher in 2017.

Sullivan did something he hasn’t often done this season and smiled for just a moment.

“I have many fond memories of this building,” he said with a grin.

Then he marched down the correct hallway toward the bus.

Sullivan isn’t one to reminisce, and I don’t know what memories were conjured at that moment. One of my favorite Sullivan traits is his positivity — his unshakable belief that his Penguins can find the right formula if they keep digging. It’s not insincere. He believes it. It’s admirable. The Penguins like playing for him, and you would, too.

And yet, his mention of fond memories came with the slightest hint of sadness. It’s been almost seven years since that night in Nashville, where Sullivan, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin planted their flag on Mt. Everest. Kris Letang was hurt, the Penguins were running on fumes and they still won a second consecutive championship that night. It was an extraordinary performance, and those Penguins were an extraordinarily well-coached team.

Give Sullivan truth serum, and he’ll tell you that the 2016 champions were more talented but that his favorite was the 2017 team, which won because of its smarts, guts and courage.

All of which makes me wonder what Sullivan must think about his current team. And what he must think about his apparent inability to get through to his players.

Sullivan is a great coach, probably a Hall of Famer. His much-maligned staff — Todd Reirden has become fans’ favorite punching bag, presumably because of Jeff Carter fatigue — is really good. Reirden didn’t forget how to coach this season, you know?

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But ask yourself this painful question: Do the Penguins look like a well-coached team?

• The Penguins power play is non-functional, converting at 10.4 percent, giving up breakaways in droves and quickly becoming a civic embarrassment.

Of the NHL’s 32 teams, it ranks 30th. It showcases four future Hall of Famers and a perennial all-star forward. 10.4 percent.

• Speaking of which, the Penguins also rank 30th in odd-man rushes against.

In other words, only two teams give up more odd-man rushes per game than the Penguins.

Odd Man Rushes against.

How are you feeling about your team?

— Meghan Chayka (@MeghanChayka) December 5, 2023

When you employ Letang and Erik Karlsson, you’re going to give up odd-man rushes. They’re high-risk players and they’re almost always on the ice. It happens.

But 5.54 per game? That’s an absurd number that isn’t conducive to winning.

It doesn’t make the coaching staff look good, either.

• I’m not sure what the three-on-three plan is. Whatever it is, it doesn’t appear to be working.

Should the Penguins fire Sullivan? No. Oh, sure, that’s the easy route and some short-term gratification could conceivably follow. If you know your Penguins history, you know it usually works that way. But it’s not that simple.

Should Sullivan be on the hot seat? No. Not yet, anyway. Half of the roster was turned over this summer. If we’re going to bash him for the power play, let’s remember the penalty killing has been elite. The five-on-five play has been pretty good. The Penguins are maddening, but they’ve been average, not a disaster. The staff isn’t getting through to this team, and that ultimately is the coaching staff’s responsibility. We’re 24 games in, and 24 games don’t equal a season.

Are there ramifications to firing Sullivan? You bet. Is it important to you that Sidney Crosby finishes his career in Pittsburgh? Well, you should know he’s a big Sullivan fan. We always assume Crosby will finish his career here, but we don’t know for sure until he does. Firing Sullivan won’t make him more likely to sign a final contract in Pittsburgh. And spare me the “logo comes first” talk. Crosby, like Mario Lemieux before him, is the rare athlete who is indeed bigger than the logo.

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The final question: Is this Sullivan’s toughest challenge? Oh yeah.

It’s an opportunity to cement his legacy. Think about it. Another famous coach in Pittsburgh, the Steelers’ Mike Tomlin, hasn’t won a playoff game since January 2017. The Penguins haven’t won a playoff series since April 2018. Both of their legacies are somewhat safe, but a grand finale would go a long way.

Sullivan’s teams have lost their last five playoff series, each more painful than the previous. Last season, there were no playoffs.

Look at what Sullivan is up against:

• The Penguins are the NHL’s oldest team
• They have immense star power, but stars are difficult to coach
• Sullivan can’t snap his fingers and turn Radim Zohorna, Drew O’Connor and Lars Eller into Phil Kessel, Carl Hagelin and Nick Bonino
• GM Kyle Dubas is somewhat restricted largely because the previous regime was incompetent

So, Sullivan has 58 games remaining to figure something out. To solve the power play. To generate depth scoring. To keep Crosby and Malkin fresh. To limit odd-man rushes. To improve play in overtime. To maintain penalty-killing excellence. To ensure the NHL’s oldest team stays sharp on the second night of back-to-back games (3-0 this season).

That’s a lot. The challenge is immense. We live in a society where sports fans never blame players for much. We just like to fire coaches and assume it’ll fix everything. See Canada, Matt.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but we like that quick fix. In the Penguins’ case, a quick fix sounds intriguing because time is ticking on their core.

Maybe time will tell us that Sullivan is no longer the guy for this job. Every coach has an expiration date. His track record speaks for itself, though. He’s the greatest coach in Penguins history and presided over their greatest era. Once upon a time, he took a collection of wayward Hall of Famers and transformed them from one-hit wonders into the team of the century.

Now, his job is to make it happen one more time, only in the twilight of their careers.

It sounds somewhere between daunting and impossible.

Betting on the Penguins seems foolish these days. They look like a great team from the past without much direction.

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I don’t blame Sullivan for their faults. But he hasn’t found the solutions, either. Ultimately, this is his job.

That four-way hallway in Nashville was nothing compared to figuring out this team. And reminders of those Stanley Cup years never go away. On Wednesday, the Penguins play again in Tampa, Fla., where Sullivan made the bravest decision of his coaching career — going with rookie Matt Murray in goal instead of Hall of Famer Marc-André Fleury — before Game 6 of the 2016 Eastern Conference final.

Then, it’s onto Sunrise, Fla., where the Florida Panthers are hosting Patric Hornqvist Night with the Penguins in town. Think the power play could use Hornqvist? Think Sullivan saw Hornqvist’s face when bringing up the fond memories in Nashville?

Ghosts of Penguins past are everywhere. Someday, Sullivan will be a ghost of Penguins past, too. That’s the way it works in the NHL, especially if you’re a coach.

He’ll keep digging to make his team better. It’s the only way he knows. We’re about to find out if he chooses the right hallway.

(Photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)