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OCTOBER 2017 2017-18 NHL Preview 27 Cullen's last days, when he had to tell his coach he was moving this season to the Minnesota Wild. Sullivan was as gracious as can be. "That's another side of him that people don't understand," Cullen says. He chalks it up to Sullivan's deep hockey experience. "He has an appreciation of what you're going through as a player because he's been through it." Sullivan says his role is to put players in a position to be successful. That's why he and the other coaches try to focus on what each player can do, not so much on what he can't. "We all have our strengths and weaknesses," he says. He's big on getting the team on the same page in terms of attitude and will to win, things that are in their control. Adversity will come; what matters is how you deal with it. "I think that's a critical part of having success in pro sports." Challenges Ahead Looking forward to defending back-to-back Cups and trying to win a third, he's also thinking, 'How do we deal with success?' I n a d d i t i o n t o C u l l e n , w h o m S u l l i v a n warmly wished the best for his move, the Penguins have lost several key players to other teams—"victims of our own success," Sullivan says—but he still has his core group that he knows very well. He expects chal- lenges, foreseen and not, and expects the coaches and team to "figure it out as it goes. "It's a new challenge," he says. "We're going to approach it as such." Like everybody else, he doesn't know how it's going to go ("That's why everyone watch- es") but he knows how he wants it to. He often says what a "privilege" it is for him to have this role in a story as it continues to unfold. So far, some of his favorite parts of the journey have been lifting the Stanley Cup and taking it back to where he came from. "For me, it just lights the fire to want to do it again." P Bob Batz Jr. is a writer and editor for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and an assistant coach on his son's 10U Mt. Lebanon Hornets team. A M E R I C A N - BO R N COAC H ES TO W I N T H E STA N L E Y CU P For Mike Sullivan and the rest of the Pittsburgh Penguins, winning back- to-back Stanley Cups "lights the fire to want to do it again." 1938 Bill Stewart Chicago Blackhawks 1991 "Badger" Bob Johnson Pittsburgh Penguins 2004 John Tortorella Tampa Bay Lightning 2006 Peter Laviolette Carolina Hurricanes 2009 Dan Bylsma Pittsburgh Penguins 2016 Mike Sullivan Pittsburgh Penguins 2017 Mike Sullivan Pittsburgh Penguins