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 — Those who have experienced it say it goes in phases. After you win a Stanley Cup, it’s a summer of celebration. Then comes a regular season in which an inevitable rough patch emerges when exhaustion kicks in. “You crash sometime in November, December or January,” said former Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Bylsma, who led the Penguins to a Stanley Cup in 2009. “You don’t have any energy. You’re walking zombies.” But the best champs persevere and then the playoffs arrive — another phase and a new life. “I remember thinking
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