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Pittsburgh Penguins’ captain Sidney Crosby during a game against the Philadelphia Flyers last week in Philadelphia.Matt Slocum/The Associated Press
That Sidney Crosby is among the National Hockey League’s scoring leaders after the first month of the season is hardly newsworthy. That his Pittsburgh Penguins are also flying high – one point back of the NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche entering Monday’s games – is where the real surprise lies.
At 38, Crosby remains as metronomic as ever. Coming off his NHL-record 20th season averaging at least a point per game, Crosby wasted little time adding another milestone to his collection in his 21st campaign, becoming just the ninth player to pass the 1,700-point mark last week.
But despite scoring 16 points in his first 13 games this season, he’s not the leading scorer on his team, and therein lies one of the principal reasons for the Penguins’ resurgence. Long-time teammate Evgeni Malkin, now 39, leads the way with 18 points, and is back to being a point-per-game player after two sub-par seasons by his own high standards.
The team is also getting contributions from across the roster, with all-star defenceman Erik Karlsson having put up 10 assists over his last eight games, and relatively unknown winger Justin Brazeau third on the team with 12 points.
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The formula has certainly worked, with the team tied for second in goals with 46 entering Monday night’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and riding an eight-game point streak that was only snapped by Saturday’s regulation loss in Winnipeg. Pittsburgh has also benefited from some top-notch goaltending, with both Tristan Jarry and Arturs Silovs among the league leaders in save percentage.
“I think we’ve been going into every game probably with something to prove a little bit,” Crosby said Monday. “I feel like the expectations weren’t that high for us coming in.
“I think we’ve competed hard, we’ve given ourselves a chance pretty much every night that we played … and we’ve had contributions through the whole lineup.”
The Penguins have missed the playoffs the last three seasons, and despite calls to blow up the team and begin a full-scale rebuild, general manager Kyle Dubas has so far resisted, leaning on his Stanley Cup-winning core of Crosby, Malkin and Kris Letang in the hopes of staying competitive while developing younger talent.
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Winnipeg Jets’ Gabriel Vilardi (13) looks for a tip toward Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Arturs Silovs (37) as Kris Letang (58) defends during third period action in Winnipeg on Saturday.JOHN WOODS/The Canadian Press
With head coach Mike Sullivan now in New York with the Rangers, the Penguins replaced him with former Rangers assistant Dan Muse in the off-season to help the team with that transition.
“I think the biggest thing as a group, we’ve found different ways to win games,” Muse said. “And even in the games that haven’t gone our way, I think they’re fighting right to the very end. And so that’s where the credit needs to go to the players. They’re the ones that are out there doing it.”
In his first job behind an NHL bench, Muse has been helped in no small part by his captain, who continues to set the standard for everyone in the organization, both on and off the ice.
“I’ve learned something new every day,” Muse said of Crosby. “It’s amazing to see, just that drive, the preparation; every day he’s just searching for excellence and just pushing every single day. And when you have that from him, it obviously becomes contagious to the group.”
It’s not just contagious to the Penguins. Down the hall in the Maple Leafs dressing room, Toronto forward John Tavares – no stranger to a late-career revival himself, and now leading the Leafs with 16 points entering Monday’s game – spoke of his admiration for a player who entered the league four years before he did.
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“I think Sid is one of the best players our game’s ever seen,” Tavares said of Crosby, who was a teammate when the two played at the 2014 Olympics and 2016 World Cup.
“It’s really unique, how hard he competes, how determined and focused he is, and then certainly, how he sees and understands the game and plays the game is special. And obviously [that] he’s been able to do it for as long as he has is extremely impressive.”
While Tavares will be hoping to make his second trip to the Olympics with the NHL’s return to the Winter Games in February in Milan-Cortina, Crosby has already been selected as one of the original half-dozen stars to represent Canada.
No stranger to the vagaries of an NHL season set to be interrupted by the chance to compete for Olympic gold, Crosby, who will be aiming for his third gold in his third trip to the Games, says that it can be hard to compartmentalize and focus.
“It’s in the back of my mind,” he said. “I think it’s something that, during an Olympic year, you’re always somewhat thinking about it. But I think the best way to approach that is just put all your effort towards the team here, and making sure that your game is where you want it to be, that sort of thing.
“But, yeah, it’s always in the back of everyone’s mind, I think.”
