Posts Tagged ‘success’

The return of Sidney Crosby.  The skills of Evgeni Malkin.  The wall that is marc-andre Fleury.  If you ask the Pittsburgh Penguins what the secret to success has been this year, they will probably tell you that hard work, determination and a never say die attitude has been the recipe for success.

Todays win, a 4-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers, a possible first round opponent  gives the Penguins home ice in the Playoffs.

“It’s huge. To win at home and win the division against a rival, I’ll bet everyone in here will say it’s our best win of the season, and Sunday could even top that,” defenseman Ryan Whitney said. “It’s exciting in here right now.”
- Yahoo! Sports

From team captain Sidney Crosby…

 “We knew going in it was going to be an emotional game, an intense game with them needing to play desperate hockey and us wanting to play well here down the stretch, with the division in mind,” Crosby said. “For me personally, that’s probably the most intense game we’ve played since I got back here the second time.”
- Yahoo! Sports

That success blossomed today as the Pittsburgh Penguins clinched the Atlantic Division.  It’s been 10 years since the Penguins last won their Division, and the team today is vastly different from that in 1998.

In 1998 the Penguins lost in the first round to the Montreal Canadiens 2 games to 4.

Going into the All Star break this year many people you could have been forgiven for assuming the Red Wings were guaranteed to take out the conference at the end of the regular season.

Who would have thought that the Red Wings, who dominated the season to that point in the competition would come out of the break looking like another, far less impressive team.

At the point of the All Star break, the Red Wings had a 17 point lead over the closest competitor. After todays loss to the Dallas Stars, their 6th loss in a row, that lead has been cut to just 8 points.

If the Red Wings are not scared yet, they should be. The Dallas Stars are on a roll and have their sights set on that top spot. 6 points behind Dallas are the defending champions, the Anaheim Ducks, who have yet to see the success they expected after the return of Scott Neidermayer and Teemu Selanne.

The west is a hot spot, and in the battle for the top 8 spots, there are in fact 12 teams still battling it out with realistic chances of making the top 8.