How Sidney Crosby Saved The Pittsburgh Penguins

How Sidney Crosby Saved The Pittsburgh Penguins

Sydney Crosby was one of the most hyped prospects the NHL has ever seen fresh off of a lockout all 30 teams in the NHL had a chance to win 2005 Sydney Crosby sweep Stakes among the teams with the highest chances of winning were the Pittsburgh Penguins their 6.3% chance proved to be enough to land the League’s next generational talent for well over a decade now Sydney Crosby has been the NHL’s greatest superstar he’s been at the Forefront of the League’s image because of his total dominance both individually and as a part of the Penguins he’s been there for Pittsburgh time and time again lifting the franchise and even the city both on and off the ice he has become the Pittsburgh Penguins a player so closely associated with them that you can’t possibly think of the franchise with without thinking of him and vice versa today we look at how Sydney Crosby has saved the Pittsburgh Penguins throughout all the different stages of his incredible career it is my somber duty to report that at today’s meeting the NHL Board of Governors unanimously reconfirmed that NHL teams will not play at the expiration of the CBA until we have a new system which fixes the economic problems facing our game spurned by disputes surrounding issues such as a hard salary cap the league was ultimately put into lockout on September 16th 2004 the collective bargaining waged on for months before eventually in February the remainder of the wouldbe season was cancelled financially the league was in a pretty rough position the NHL reported a loss of $273 million in Prior years claiming that only 11 of 30 NHL franchises were operating profitably the NHL themselves were not specific in which franchises were non-profitable but evidently Pittsburgh was one of the unfortunate franchises the franchise was no stranger to financial troubles the team had declared bankruptcy in 1998 under the stewardship of owners Howard ball win and Roger Marino if not for franchise Legend Mario Lemieux’s desire to keep the team in Pittsburgh having stepped in himself with investors to purchase it they very well may not have been the Pittsburgh Penguins by the time the lockout rolled around but they were and while it was better than not having a team at all things were not going well the Penguins average attendance was thousands below their maximum capacity Year bye in 20 3 2004 the year before the lockout they were last in League attendance fans weren’t turning up and the biggest part of that is the on Ice product in the three seasons prior to the lockout the Penguins finished bottom five every year going into the lockout there was some hope for the future on NHL ice their hopes were built around first overall pick Mark Andre flurry who was kind of thrown to the wolves in his first NHL season he sat well below League average save percentage and had an abysmal record even though he had massive potential it was clear flurry wasn’t going to be enough to turn around the franchise on his own the Penguins last place finish in 2004 allowed them to get another top pick they were leap frogged by Washington for first overall but still came away with the second overall pick they use that pick to select evny Malin while it seemed there was potential in Pittsburgh’s future pieces it was hard to be too optimistic watching the NHL roster the team needed a true Superstar a franchise savior that could help bring the Penguins back to Glory could flurry become that player could Malin become that player maybe but the fans were looking and hoping for somebody else when the lockout ended in the mid to late summer of 2005 everyone was thrilled to be getting things back underway the fans got to watch their favorite teams again the owners got to make their Millions again and the players got to return to playing in the world’s best League again many had spent their seasons in one of Europe’s various leagues or the AHL if they were still eligible dedicated fans spent their time following those leagues for the year or following the supposed best Prospect of a generation because over in Quebec there was plenty of talk about the next one Sydney Crosby ahead of the 2005 NHL entry draft Sydney Crosby was being hyped as the best Prospect in NHL history Crosby ripped apart the qmjhl with the rusi oceanic he led League scoring by a 52o margin and guided rusi to a Memorial Cup final he had also participated in the 2005 World Juniors Championship as part of one of the most stacked rosters in World Juniors history Crosby was instrumental in helping Canada bring home the gold with nine points in six games Crosby proved himself to be essentially a perfect Prospect Scouts praised him for being good great or Elite at every facet of the game even as an 18-year-old in addition to his being a leader for a dominant junior hockey team safe to say every NHL team wanted him and because of the lockout every team had a chance to get him the 2005 NHL draft lottery was different to any other NHL draft lottery because the NHL didn’t have the previous season standings to base the lottery order on they used multiple previous Seasons teams were weighted by playoff appearances ranging over the past 3 to four years every team got at least one ball entered into the lottery 10 of those teams had two balls four of those teams got the maximum of three and one of those teams was the Pittsburgh Penguins as it would turn out for the second time in three drafts the Pittsburgh Penguins landed the first overall pick and not for even a second was anyone entertaining that pick being anyone other than Sydney Crosby the hype for Crosby after the draft was enormous he was the immediate poster child of the new NHL the salary cap era upon drafting him Pittsburgh was immediately a relevant team within the NHL again before he even touched NHL ice Sydney Crosby had already gone a long way in preserving the Pittsburgh Penguins the Penguins had their lowest attendance in 20 years in the 20032 2004 season when they won the draft lottery Pittsburgh season ticket sales boomed and in Crosby’s debut year they surged to an average of nearly 4,000 more fans attending each game the Penguins were even expected to be a great team not just better than the year before an actual playoff threat and cup Contender before the season started the previously last place Penguins held the joint seventh most likely odds to win the Stanley Cup alongside inside the Vancouver Canucks every team above them in those preseason odds would go on to finish the season with 90 plus points in the standings Pittsburgh finished the year with 58 while the Penguins disappointed Crosby didn’t he broke the 100 point mark as an 18-year-old becoming the third ever player to do so unfortunately he only got four first place votes for the cder trophy the voting was Dom n inated by 20-year-old Russian Winger Alexander oetkin setting the stage for a lasting rivalry between the two rookie of the year was one award Crosby would never receive in his trophy cabinet fortunately the other awards were coming soon it was a telling moment it was able to Spring the franchise and and the interest even tenfold more than what it had been so it was a big moment in penguin history and it’s one that uh everybody who follows the game and follows the Penguins knows about Pittsburgh was never a huge hockey Market throughout much of the first 15 plus years of their franchise’s history they were an a relevant team in their City when compared to the likes of the Steelers of the NFL and the pirates of the MLB fan support was lacking compared to the rest of the NHL they were an afterthought making the playoffs on occasion but rarely threatening to challenge for anything significant when Mario Lemieux was drafted first overall in 1984 things quickly began to change the Penguins selected one of the League’s most exciting players and success followed soon after throughout the early to mid90s Lemieux helped establish the Penguins as a force in the league winning the franchise’s first two Stanley Cups but as that era began to wind down the franchise’s flaws were Amplified with the lingering Financial issues becoming more prevalent Pittsburgh desperately needed a superstar to reestablish their identity the reputation as a premier franchise within the NHL and with Sydney Crosby leading the way the Penguins were able to do just that in Sid’s second season the Pittsburgh Penguins went from 58 points in 2006 to in five in 2007 from second last in the league to 10th Place overall as good as he was that big of a swing obviously couldn’t be entirely attributed to Crosby second overall picks of Guinea malcin and Jordan Stall both made their Pittsburgh Penguins debuts this year these two helped form the spine of a center core that would last for over half a decade big second Seasons in Pittsburgh from the light akes of Sergey gonar Ryan Whitney and Mark recky were all huge contributors to the standing surge also but while all valuable no one player drove the Penguins forward more than Crosby his 120 point season was enough to win him his first Art Ross trophy Ted Lindsay and Hart as League MVP still yet to even hit 20 years of age Sydney Crosby had established himself as the NH sh’s best player and transformed the Penguins into mustat TV they bowed out in round one to the auttaa Senators but earned valuable experience to build on for next season on May 31st 2007 Sydney Crosby was named captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins this made him the 13th captain in Penguins history succeeding Mario Lemieux it also made him the youngest captain in NHL history at least at the time this honor came with the expectation that the Penguins would be contenders under Crosby’s new Reign and in the years that followed they were perhaps the very best in the league in his first two seasons as Pittsburgh Penguins Captain Crosby played in Eight playoff rounds the first four set of those culminated in a Stanley Cup Final Series against the Detroit Red Wings led by the likes of Pavo datsuk Henrik Zetterberg and Nicholas Lindstrom the wings were an older team benefiting from experience that the Penguins didn’t yet have Crosby scored six points in the six game Cup Final series but it wasn’t enough to overpower the president’s Trophy winning Detroit Red Wings who claimed their franchise’s 11th Stanley Cup in an NHL commercial released after the series’s conclusion Crosby expressed his sadness over the series loss but he also said that the result would make the team stronger the Penguins were expected to come right back with avengeance the next year the Pittsburgh Penguins were right back in the Stanley Cup finals right back up against the Detroit Red Wings while the wings finished third in the NHL in the regular season the Penguins arguably entered the playoffs as the favored team the Penguins had moved on from cup finalist coach Mike tyion in February and since replacement Dan bilma took over the Penguins had a combined regular season and playoff record of 30 wins and 14 losses the two powerhouses went to war and as expected it came down to the very last game even within that game it came down to the very last minute the Penguins were able to survive the final flurry put on by the Red Wings and in the end Sydney crossby claimed his first Stanley Cup his 31 points in 24 games weren’t enough enough to win the K SMI trophy behind an unbelievable 36 points from teammate of Guinea malcin however Crosby was of course at the center of it all the man credited whether fairly or not as the one with the most responsibility and bringing the Stanley Cup back to Pittsburgh Sydney Crosby was the focal point of the first Pittsburgh Team without Lemieux to win the Stanley Cup if he hadn’t done it already the cup win brought Pittsburgh’s reputation back to that of a superpower within the NHL even The Way It Was Won was somewhat reminiscent of Lemieux with the two both reaching back-to-back finals Lemieux did win both of his but it only took Crosby Four Seasons to win his first Stanley Cup at only 21 years old Sydney Crosby was by almost every metrick the best player in the NHL his arrival had taken Pittsburgh from a boring irrelevant underperforming team to the League’s most exciting Powerhouse while again the success can’t be entirely attributed to him the player that fans were coming to PPG Paints Arena to see was Sid in a remarkably short time Crosby had established the Penguins as one of the League’s most dynamic squads and the organization’s Prestige would only continue to grow over the next decade when the discussion of alltime greats comes into play Sydney Crosby has to be in that discussion and you think about him coming into the league at 18 years of age and at this point in his career there has been no signs of any decline in his Superstar status Sydney Crosby’s legendary status has helped in elevating the Penguins to become one of the NHL’s most prestigious franchises it saved a legacy erased the memories of many fans as to how difficult those aimless years entering the 2000s were it created new fans people who were drawn to Pittsburgh when Crosby emerged onto the scene so many have been pulled into the Allure of Crosby and the penguins that the penguins have become a global brand the team is the most followers of any team in the NHL on Instagram the most of any non original six team on Twitter just over 20 years ago there were fears that the team would be moved attendance was the lowest in the NHL and franchise popularity was in the dumps but in the social media era they’re one of the most popular franchises within the sport and without a doubt that’s because of Sydney Crosby Crosby’s greatness captivated fans throughout the late 2000s and 2010s he of course won that first down the cup against Detroit in 2009 but by then he had also won the heart trophy Ted Lindsay and Art Ross by the time the Pittsburgh Penguins reached the Stanley Cup finals again Crosby had claimed another six major individual Awards he had registered over 500 additional points in the regular season and 70 in the playoffs and he produced one of the most iconic moments in hockey history when the Penguins matched up against the San Jose Sharks in the 2016 Stanley Cup Final Sydney Crosby was still only 28 years old the San Jose Shark star players may have been older but unlike those first Detroit series the Penguins had the experience the Pittsburgh Penguins would win the Stanley Cup in six then do it again the very next season Crosby made up for the missed opportunity in 2008 8 by going back to back 7 years later Crosby won the K SMI as playoff MVP both years he was instrumental in every aspect of both Cup wins he drove play offensively control play defensively was there whether they needed a clutch goal or a crucial Faceoff the Penguins absolutely could not have done it without him and before he had even turned 30 years old Sydney Crosby was a three-time Stanley Cup champion two-time league MVP and Olympic gold medal winner Sydney Crosby is now in what are likely the final few seasons of his career he’s given all that he has to the sport and continues to do so to this day Crosby is among the oldest players in the NHL today he is still among the best in the league even 18 years after his debut season in the 2023 24 season Crosby was at point in serious consideration to be nominated as a finalist for the heart trophy his eventual 42g goal 94o season lifted a struggling Penguins team to being only three points shy of a playoff spot even still Crosby is holding the Penguins above complete mediocrity even more impressively Crosby managed in this year to do something only the very best players all time have been able to do equal a Wayne Gretzky record upon the conclusion of the Season Sydney Crosby clenched his 19th consecutive Point perame Season no better stat exists to illustrate the legacy of a player who has been so good for so long Sydney Crosby is the greatest player to ever play in the NHL salary cap ERA with the only real competitor to that title being longtime rival Alexander oetkin his multi-decade run of dominance has established him as an all-time great and the Penguin as an all-time great franchise possibly the most highly regarded today of those outside the original six Crosby is pretty widely considered to be a top 10 hockey player throughout history some would go as far to rank him in the top five and you could probably find those who believe he’s in the top three Sydney Crosby has been transformational to the sport a positive impact on and off the ice that’s been at the NHL’s Forefront for nearly 20 years Sydney Crosby has saved the Pittsburgh Penguins franchise he did it in the literal sense right when he entered the NHL the hype surrounding Crosby as a prospect brought in tons of fans and revenue to the franchise and his ability on the ice kept that hype sustainable he saved the reputation of the organization turning the Pittsburgh Penguin back into the contender they had been throughout much of the 9s during marel Lemieux’s prime years and throughout their decade plus of dominance Crosby established a legacy for himself a legacy as one of the best prospects ever who lived up to the hype a legacy as the best player in the modern NHL and one of the best of all time a legacy as a winner hero and Champion few players have done more for the NHL and hockey than Sydney Crosby and it’s hard to believe anyone can do more for their franchise for the Pittsburgh Penguins than Crosby did your captain number 87 Sydney KZ [Applause]

Sidney Crosby has had a very long career in hockey. From youth hockey phenom to NHL legend, Crosby’s 20 plus years in the spotlight have been extraordinary to watch and follow. Crosby’s career has been so impactful as to where it has, in a variety of different ways, essentially saved the Pittsburgh Penguins as a franchise. Today, we look at the career of Sidney Crosby, from before the NHL, to where he is today, and analyze his impact on Pittsburgh, the NHL, and hockey as a whole.

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0:00 Intro
1:13 Part One – Franchise
8:48 Part Two – Reputation
15:30 Part Three – Legend