PITTSBURGH — Late in Monday's press conference, which was called so Kyle Dubas could attempt to explain why he changed course behind the bench, Dubas was asked if he is concerned Sidney Crosby will want to leave the Penguins following Mike Sullivan's dismissal.

Dubas, who usually is wordier than my wife's Starbucks order, simply replied "no."

The third-year team president said he called his captain Sunday and the two talked briefly about Dubas' decision to "part ways" with the winningest coach in Penguins history. He declined, though, to share details on how Crosby reacted to the news.

"In terms of how he feels about it, I had a five-minute conversation with him before about the fact that we were going to make a change, and we didn't get into the ins and outs of it," Dubas said. "I have to do what I think is best for the organization."

Dubas added that he was not going to speak for Crosby, the team's longtime star.

All we have heard from Crosby over the last few days is a statement he released to NHL Network, in which he praised Sullivan for his "preparation and commitment to winning" and for pushing him every day during his 10 years as Penguins coach.

So in the wake of Sullivan's departure, we are left to wonder if the move will shake Crosby's commitment to the Penguins, the only team for which he has ever played.

As Dubas noted Monday, this was not the first time that Crosby saw his coach get let go. Two of his three Stanley Cup titles came after the Penguins made a coaching change. And despite his fondness for and his comfort with Sullivan, Crosby would probably be able to get on board with it if he believed it would help the team win.

So what would be the reason for concern here? Well, it is not so much the fact that Sullivan is no longer the coach. Instead, it is the reason why this all came to a head.

Sullivan has yet to give his side of the story. Perhaps he will when he is introduced as the new coach of the New York Rangers. But there apparently was a disconnect between Dubas and Sullivan regarding the Penguins' timeline to try to contend again.

During both of his recent press conferences, Dubas tempered expectations for next season, saying it would be "a tremendous accomplishment for the players" if they went on a playoff run. And when detailing what he is looking for in his next coach, he said that person will need to understand that the Penguins are in "transition."

"I try not to put a timeline on it," he said, "because I don't want it to be a perpetual and evergreen [press] conference when we come in and say, 'We're a year or two or so away.' We're pushing. That's what the organization is used to and what the fans want. We just have to stick to a very concise plan and execute our butts off."

If Sullivan was not in alignment with Dubas' indefinite timeline to get the Penguins back to the playoffs, should it really be that surprising if Sid decides he isn't, either?

Last month, as the Penguins played out the string during their third straight season without a playoff appearance, Crosby talked publicly about the toll that losing was starting to take on him. It wasn't just the losses themselves, but also watching good friends and longtime teammates get traded away as Dubas entered into a rebuild.

Dubas acknowledged Crosby's frustration days after the season ended, saying that "until we are back contending to win the Stanley Cup, I expect him to be grumpy."

Dubas was asked that day if he needed to start showing Crosby "proof of concept" when it comes to his rebuild in order to keep Crosby committed to the Penguins.

"I think, from my end, it's trying to build something that can sustain itself for a long time, getting those younger players who are going to be a part of that core around Sid," he said. "Him helping them and them helping him is really what the focus is."

It is fair to wonder, with Crosby at age 37, if those two timelines will ever line up.

Crosby has said he only wants to play for the Penguins. One of his favorite players as a child was Steve Yzerman, who spent his whole career in a Red Wings sweater.

Last year, Crosby reaffirmed his commitment with a two-year contract extension.

And even as the Penguins fell out of the playoff race in January, Crosby remained laser focused on his team. Let's just say he was pretty perturbed when Paul Bissonnette and other national talking heads speculated that he could request to be traded to Colorado or another contender and then had to answer questions about that.

So all of that points to Crosby continuing to ride this out, taking the next wave of Penguins prospects under his wing and trying to will the Penguins on at least one more deep playoff run, Dubas and his designs on a methodical rebuild be damned.

But if over the course of another long summer Crosby finally opens his mind to the possibility of playing elsewhere, we could look back at Sullivan's departure — and more importantly, what it signaled about the future — as one of the first dominos.

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