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Penguins Head Coach Mike Sullivan Says Morning Skates 'Remind Him Of Why His Mother Cut The Sides Off Of Hams'

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Since Mike Sullivan took over as head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2015, he has gone against the conventional wisdom of most NHL coaches and hasn't held a morning skate prior to every game.

"Part of me, as I said, we're trying to manage workloads," Sullivan said. "I've always been a believer that it's the most overrated practice in hockey. It's like 'Why does the whole league have morning skates?'"

Sullivan's philosophical disagreement wasn't the only reasoning he told reporters why he doesn't like morning skates but also had a unique comparison as to why teams hold morning skates.

"It reminds me of why my mother cut the sides of the ham off before she cooked them," Sullivan began. "I asked her, 'why do you cut the sides of the hams off?' She said, 'I don't know, because that's how my mother taught me.' So I asked my grandmother, I said, 'why do you cut the sides of the hams off before you put them in the oven?' She said, 'Well that's easy, I didn't have a pan that was big enough.' So that's my analogy of morning skates."

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