Ice hockey watchers across North America have long since kept their eye on the Pittsburgh Penguins – a team that has come back time after time to secure cups and victories which other teams have eyed up jealously. And as those who bet on ice hockey outcomes through Betrivers PA will have noticed, there have been a number of recent positive performances for this side, too – and there are suggestions that the side could well come to dominate the league.
But what are the steps that the Pittsburgh Penguins need to take in the coming months and years? What decisions do the key staff at the side need to make to become certain of securing victory as time goes on? This article will explore the key factors involved in seeing the Penguins head to winner status in the coming months.
Trust the head coach
The Penguins are lucky in one important respect: they’ve got a coach on their side who really does deliver the goods. Their head coach, Mike Sullivan, has demonstrated plenty of strategic nous in recent times: he has, for example, clearly used the talents of his team for the best. They have managed to hit a goal differential of +32, for example, which is unsurpassed by the rest of the league even at the halfway point.
Sullivan has also managed to deal with a huge number of injuries – which is a challenging task for any manager – and has done so with skill and precision while ensuring that the rest of the team have not been left high and dry. It is expected that Sullivan will be rewarded with some sort of award for his hard work – although what this might look like in practice is currently unclear.
And he’s also revealed a penchant for good instinctive gameplay decisions. In one interview, he explained his strategy for helping his team to get ahead: “We’re one shot away from getting the tying goal,” he was quoted as saying. “It may take us 15 minutes to get it. Eighteen minutes to get it. It may take us five minutes to get it. But we just have to continue to play the game that’s bringing us success.”
Get good players out
In recent times, part of the problem for the Penguins has been that they have failed to get the right players on the pitch on a regular enough basis. There have been all sorts of reasons why this has happened, and it’s not always been the team’s fault. Yet names such as Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, both of whom are regarded as some of the team’s biggest assets, haven’t been playing lately.
To some degree, the side has already been doing this. Players such as Bryan Rust, who is new and plays in the offensive position, have proven themselves to be great assets. Now, it’s the task of Sullivan and the other key coaching staff members to get ahead of the game and start thinking about which permutations of players might be the best to get on the field in the coming months. After all: ice hockey matches aren’t won by one team member alone, but by placing team members together and relying on them to work in tandem for the good of the wider group. Without that, the side is nothing.
Just play naturally
The world of ice hockey is full of punditry which attempts to analyze why some teams do well and others fail. That is inevitable, to an extent: it reflects the desire of many in the game, including those who place wagers on the outcomes of matches, to explain every move and maneuver. But, given that the team has momentum, perhaps the best move for the Penguins is to simply play naturally and with the skill that their fans and coach have shown support for and trust in. That way, success might naturally find its way to the Penguins.
Just like all ice hockey teams, the Pittsburgh Penguins don’t have success in the National Hockey League in the bag just at this moment. In fact, achieving their key goals depends in large part on how they use their present level of momentum. But by trusting the manager and by building a killer line-up, it’s possible for this much-loved and well-known side to advance and to get to a stage at which they can build on their current successes.
