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Pens GM shakes off playoff pressure

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Coming into a situation with players like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Marc-Andre Fleury means that people are likely to expect big things from a general manager.

Still, hockey is a game with a lot more random luck than some other sports, making that pressure occasionally daunting. Penguins GM Ray Shero spoke with The National Post about dealing with annual Stanley Cup expectations, tough competition and other elements of his high-profile gig.

“It’s a deflection off a save, it’s a bounce,” Shero said. “We’ve experienced it in a positive way and a negative way, too. It changes quickly, you know? And everybody experiences it, and you go through it in every playoff series when you win, and you bring it back, and you say holy [expletive], we moved on. And every team that wins a Cup is lucky. You’ve got to be good, and you’ve got to be lucky.”

Shero acknowledged that the advantages of his roster, but noted that having high-end talent doesn’t automatically make it all easy.

“It’s nice to have young players and do this, but it’s about eventually winning, and this group did it in a relatively quick period, and people thought it might be easy,” Shero said. “But it’s not. Whether it’s through injury or other teams’ goaltending or poor play on our own part, or … [expletive] comes in. And with the salary cap, it’s pretty even. I don’t think you can take it for granted, and this is really hard. Which is good. This is a good position to be in, because you’ve got a chance. I mean, it’s not bad. You try to take advantage of it, but we’re respectful of the teams in the league.”

Even if teams like the Boston Bruins want to play up that “David vs. Goliath” vibe.