Some interesting parallels between Crosby and Matthews, 10 years apart (both aged 28)

I was feeling like there were a lot of parallels between what we're seeing with Matthews right now and Crosby from 10 years ago (2015-16). I found this article about Sid's "decline" and it's absolutely fascinating, considering what we've been seeing this year with Matthews.

Crosby was 28 years old at the time—the same age as Matthews right now. I've highlighted the sections that might be particularly interesting to Leafs fans.

Keep in mind this was written on December 13, 2015 (just over 10 years ago), one day after Mike Sullivan was hired. Sid would end up scoring 30 goals and 66 points over his final 50 games with Sullivan.

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EDIT:

Ok…I feel like many people are misinterpreting this post. I feel like I need to capitalize this next part

IN NO WAY AM I SAYING MATTHEWS = CROSBY!

I just found the article interesting, because many of the questions people were having about Sid's decline in production were similar to what people are saying about Matthews today. Including the injury questions.

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https://web.archive.org/web/20151215080842/https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/sidney-crosby-struggles-for-answers-in-career-worst-season/2015/12/13/7c43b882-a1d6-11e5-b53d-972e2751f433_story.html

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Sidney Crosby struggles for answers in career-worst season

By Dave Sheinin, December 13

PITTSBURGH — On the giant video screen above the ice, he is always shooting, always scoring, always freeze-framed with his arms in the air, the goal light lit in red. The folks who edit those Pittsburgh Penguins video extravaganzas — meant to raise heart rates and decibel levels across the downtown Consol Energy Center — have no shortage of indelible Sidney Crosby moments from which to pick. In the clips, he looks young, dominant, triumphant. Forever Sid the Kid, the Next One.

Down below, on the ice, the flesh-and-blood Crosby looks far different. Not exactly old. Not exactly bad. Not exactly disinterested. Just not extraordinary in any visible way.

The video editors won't be mining this game, Friday night against Los Angeles, for Crosby highlights. In a shootout loss, he gets off four shots on goal. None go in. He fires a point-blank shot into the goalie's neck. He winds up at the bottom of the scrum during a fight. In the shootout, he's stuffed on his attempt. The Penguins lose. Crosby goes without a point for the 15th time in 28 games.

Never a quote machine in interviews, Crosby now seems sullen, mystified. "I have to bury the puck. That's about it," he says quietly. "I don't know. I have to pick my spots better, I guess. I don't have a great answer. If there's chances and shots to be taken, I have to put them in. The stats are what they are."

The stats, in fact, are shocking. Roughly a third of the way through his 11th NHL season, Crosby is struggling like in no other time in his career. With six goals and 13 assists, he is averaging just 0.68 points per game — exactly half his average of 1.36 entering this season. Say what you will about the utility — or lack thereof — of plus-minus ratings in hockey, but the fact is, Crosby hasn't finished with a minus rating since his rookie season, and right now he's at minus-6.

As Crosby goes, so go the Penguins — which is why it's little wonder that, entering Monday's game against the Washington Capitals, they sit in fifth place in the Metropolitan Division, one point out of a playoff spot. Their power play, featuring not only Crosby but also big-time scorers Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel, somehow ranks just 27th in the NHL, which almost defies belief.

"You look at the last several games, he's had some phenomenal chances — phenomenal chances — and for some reason he's been handcuffed. The puck drops behind goalies, and they cover it up. Stuff like that. I still think it's going to even out."

Mike Johnston, the Penguins' second-year head coach, said that about Crosby on Friday, at a point when everyone figured Johnston was coaching for his job. He sounded hopeful, but flustered and more than a little defensive. He shot down the popular theory that Crosby's drop in production was the result of Johnston's system, in which the Penguins' centers, including Crosby, are asked to be more involved in defense.

"Asking Sid to be responsible at both ends of the rink I don't think is abnormal," Johnston said Friday. "I think more and more coaches are saying, like we're saying, that if you want to win a Cup, our centers have to play well at both ends of the rink. He's killing penalties for us now. Is that a good thing or bad thing? I think it's a good thing."

A day later, Johnston was fired, his 110-game tenure with the Penguins bearing witness, whether by coincidence or not, to the worst stretch of Crosby's career. On Monday against the Capitals, Mike Sullivan, Johnston's replacement on the Penguins' bench, will coach his first NHL game since 2006 with the Boston Bruins, a six-game interim shift with the 2013-14 Vancouver Canucks aside.

Not everyone is convinced that Crosby's decline is purely Johnston's fault. Mine the message boards and fan blogs around the Internet, and you will find plenty of theorists who connect the dots between the concussion Crosby suffered in January 2011 — plus a related neck injury the following season — and his statistical decline. Others point to the right wrist injury that plagued him during the 2014 playoffs and may still be bothering him. (The wrist was wrapped in ice as Crosby sat at his locker following Friday night's loss.)

It is certainly possible that, at 28, after spending a decade in the NHL playing a physical brand of hockey, Crosby is no longer — and perhaps never will be — the player he was pre-concussion. But these theories conveniently omit the fact that Crosby, under the right circumstances, can still be a dominant player, as when he tallied 11 points in nine games in helping Team Canada to the gold medal at the 2015 IIHF World Championship in May.

Others suspect Crosby's poor production this season is the result of a lack of talent on the Penguins' blue line — something even General Manager Jim Rutherford, as the architect of the roster, has acknowledged as a concern. (The Capitals may also have contributed to that problem by signing away Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen in the summer of 2014.) While Pittsburgh is loaded with scorers up front, especially since the acquisition of Kessel, its defensemen haven't shown the ability to set the offense in motion.

"I see a guy who doesn't get the puck in transition in the neutral zone as much," TSN hockey analyst and former Calgary Flames general manager Craig Button said of Crosby. "I see a guy who doesn't get sprung in the offensive zone. The Penguins' blue line has a tough time moving the puck forward. I'll tell you this: I'd still take my chances with Sidney Crosby. I'm all in on Sidney Crosby."

And still others see Crosby's drop-off as a function — albeit an extreme one — of the continued downturn in offense across the NHL, a pronounced trend that is now a decade old. Jonathan Toews and Anze Kopitar are two star centers within just a year of Crosby who are likewise having seasons well below their career norms for scoring. Then, too, Penguins winger Eric Fehr, formerly of the Capitals, recalled the time several years ago when Alex Ovechkin was written off as finished as a dominant player… only to reemerge with three straight goal-scoring titles beginning in 2012-13.

"It's a tough league right now for scorers," Fehr said. "I think a lot of guys are finding points are not coming as easy. Guys go through their slumps. With Ovi, he had that one year, and everybody thought he was done, but he bounced right back."

With Crosby, though, it's different. As the consensus best player in hockey for going on a decade now, his star power is bigger. His standard is higher. And his slump has gone on longer and is more profound.

In making a midseason coaching change, the Penguins may believe they know what the problem was. But they had better hope they are correct — because when it comes to Crosby, the alternative is much more difficult to contemplate.