Marchand’s approach paying off

Craig Custance ESPN Senior Writer Close Senior NHL writer for ESPN The Magazine Wrote for Atlanta Journal-Constitution Wrote for The Sporting News Follow on Twitter PITTSBURGH — One of the biggest mandates from Mike Sullivan when he took over as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins last season was to dial down the emotional swings that often distracted the team. Opponents could get in their head. The opponents knew it and, probably, deep down the Penguins knew it too. Sullivan’s message was simple: Just play. Don’t worry about the rest. The Penguins, in his mind, were more talented than any team around. If they removed all the distractions, if they just unshackled themselves from the baggage that

It seems like every year we celebrate Alex Ovechkin reaching a major milestone and the latest is his 600th career goal in his 990th game of his career. The only other players to reach the 600-goal plateau quicker were Wayne Gretzky (718 games), Mario Lemieux (719) and Brett Hull (900). Ovechkin is also