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To your health: How to cope with stress that comes with the holiday season

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<p>As the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins interim head coach, Jay Leach knows who he isn&#8217;t going to be.</p><p>Mike Sullivan.</p><p>But Leach is well aware of what he needs to do.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s really important to keep things as close to similar as possible to the way it was when Sully was here,&#8221; Leach said after wrapping up his first practice on Monday. &#8220;We&#8217;re never going to be able to replace Sullivan. I&#8217;m not going to be Sully. But in saying that, if we can keep the structure the way it has been the last two-and-a-half months, that&#8217;s our best bet.&#8221;</p><p>So far, so good.</p><p>After being thrust into his first game as head coach hours after Sullivan left for Pittsburgh, Leach&#8217;s Penguins responded with a convincing 4-0 win over Albany. The game marked Tristan Jarry&#8217;s first pro shutout, but the puck instead went to the person who earned his first coaching win.</p><p>Leach said being presented the game puck meant a lot, but it was the players who deserved it. Their performance in the Albany game, Leach said, was the best he&#8217;s seen all season playing Sullivan&#8217;s style to perfection.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll take that puck, but I&#8217;ll remember the way they played more than my coaching win,&#8221; Leach said. &#8220;They performed. I stood behind the bench and rolled lines.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Farewell from Sullivan</strong></p><p>After he was named Pittsburgh&#8217;s new head coach on Saturday, Sullivan took a moment to address the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton players in what was an emotional farewell.</p><p>&#8220;He said he had mixed emotions about it. Obviously he wanted to get to the next level, but at the same time he really cared about the people down here,&#8221; center Kael Mouillierat said. &#8220;You can tell he was pretty emotional about the decision. He was a little sad about having to leave such a good thing.&#8221;</p><p>Kevin Porter said he was getting in his car headed for home after Saturday&#8217;s morning skate when he was ushered back for Sullivan&#8217;s meeting with the players.</p><p>&#8220;We had a quick meeting and he was pretty emotional,&#8221; Porter said. &#8220;A bittersweet moment for him.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Temporary coaching carousel</strong></p><p>Leach said Pittsburgh&#8217;s player development coach Mark Recchi, who wasn&#8217;t at Monday&#8217;s practice, will serve as assistant coach again for Wednesday&#8217;s game in Lehigh Valley. Pittsburgh assistant general manager Bill Guerin and defenseman development coach Sergei Gonchar will be in town periodically to help out as well until a permanent coaching staff is in place.</p><p>&#8220;The organization is just in a transition period top to bottom right now,&#8221; Leach said. &#8220;It&#8217;s a feeling out process and it&#8217;s a coaching-by-committee situation for the time being until we get some semblance for the way it&#8217;s going to be the rest of the year.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Injury news</strong></p><p>Tom Kostopoulos missed Monday&#8217;s practice for a maintenance day and will return on Tuesday, as will Carter Rowney, who is battling an illness. D Steve Oleksy has an upper body injury and is week-to-week, Leach said, and C Matia Marcantuoni wore the red &#8220;no-contact&#8221; jersey and is day-to-day.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Jay Leach stands behind the bench while serving as assistant coach with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins earlier this season. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Leach.jpg</photo0><caption0>Jay Leach stands behind the bench while serving as assistant coach with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins earlier this season. </caption0><photoCredit0>Fred Adams| For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Venesky</p><p>tvenesky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TLTomVenesky</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins interim coach Jay Leach won’t change a good thing