“Just kind of played the same way I have for my whole career”.
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Sullivan has the wicked MA accent, but it ends there.
Hired as the Penguins general manager in June 2014, Jim Rutherford engineered numerous moves that helped Pittsburgh back to the Cup, including undoing some of his own mistakes such as the Johnston hiring. On Sunday night, he completed a six-month turnaround of the Penguins that probably should be given a chapter in some how-to book on coaching. They played the Pittsburgh Penguins in both the 2008 and 2009 Cup finals, winning in 2008 and losing in 2009, to date their last trip to the finals.
When Sullivan came in with fresh eyes to an organization that seemed exhausted, he saw players such as Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang who still had all the skill in the world, but who had gotten away from the discipline needed to be winners. Sullivan’s intention upon his promotion was to play to the strengths of the team’s best players.
So he set out to get everyone to think collectively rather than individually.
“You guys are the ones that said I wasn’t nervous”, he continued, following Pittsburgh’s 3-1 win in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.
“So we look at our personnel”. I mean, Fleury got us here and in this position and with his injury, Murray replaced him and played out of his mind. “The one that resonates though is how proud we are of them”. They want to come through the neutral zone with speed. “So we tried to create an identity”. Here are five reasons that will happen, and why they’ll come away with the chalice as well. I think it’s been misplaced for a decade. I have a feeling you guys will be back with some more experience next season.
So, if the Cup was expected to go to Pascal Dupuis, who checked numerous boxes required to receive this honour – aged veteran who’d faced steep adversity and become a sentimental, fan favourite – some would have been surprised to see Trevor Daley accept the Cup from captain Sidney Crosby. “Gave us a chance to compete and get it to six games”. “We have such a good group”.
In the Bay Area, Game 6 earned a 9.2 rating – the highest ever for a Sharks game on the NBC family of networks, but well below the 35.1 in Pittsburgh. He stole Game 5 in Pittsburgh, and kept the Sharks in Game 6, a 3-1 loss including an empty-netter, with a number of highlight reel stops. The early playoff exits.
Even though they needed six games to beat the Sharks in the Stanley Cup Final, the series felt lopsided nearly the whole time.
Depth can be the difference between a Stanley Cup contender and a Stanley Cup Champion.
By the end, Crosby sounded fully converted to a new way of thinking about the game under Sullivan.
That was certainly true in the final, where Crosby did just about everything besides score, including blocking shots, winning face-offs, creating goals and setting a standard with his work ethic. But there’s a lot of other things that go into it. But if you are going to win a Cup, sacrificing your body is not just important but essential.
Go ahead and eat a hot dog, Phil – you deserve it.
A dominant first period by the Pittsburgh Penguins has them up 1-0 on the San Jose Sharks and 40 minutes from the Stanley Cup.
The Toronto-born defenceman has played 12 seasons in the National Hockey League since being drafted by the Dallas Stars in 2002. For if coaches were eligible for the Conn Smythe Trophy, Sullivan easily could have taken home the hardware.
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As they would say back home in MA, that’s wicked awesome. His time in the wilderness is over.
