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<\/p>\nPITTSBURGH \u2014 The Pittsburgh Penguins entered Sunday\u2019s game against the Florida Panthers having scored a very impressive 73 goals in their previous 17 games. Somewhat remarkably, Sidney Crosby was only responsible for one of those goals, as the captain has missed 12 contests due to injury and has otherwise been a little off his game.<\/p>\n
That all started to change over the weekend.<\/p>\n
Crosby followed Saturday\u2019s two-point performance by producing a goal and two assists as the Penguins had little trouble in disposing of the exhausted and wounded defending champs in a 5-2 victory on Sunday at PPG Paints Arena. The win moves the Penguins very close to clinching a postseason berth for the first time since 2022.<\/p>\n
Crosby, given his time missed, will play a maximum of 70 games this season. Given his three-point outing, he now has 72 points for the season, assuring the living legend of a better-than-point-per-game scoring average for a 21st consecutive season.<\/p>\n
In classic Crosby fashion, he downplayed the accomplishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a stat,\u201d he said. \u201cIt speaks to the teams that we\u2019ve had, the players that I\u2019ve had the opportunity to play with. That\u2019s a big part of it. It\u2019s a stat. You try to be consistent. Like I said, I\u2019ve played with some great teams and some great players.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is no denying that.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also no denying that finishing with a point per game or better in 21 consecutive NHL seasons is a remarkable achievement. Something that started as a teenager has continued all these years for Crosby, who is now four months shy of his 39th birthday.<\/p>\n
His head coach preferred to direct the spotlight on Crosby.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen (hockey fans) look back, there\u2019s going to be a lot to look back on,\u201d coach Dan Muse said. \u201c(This record) will be one of those things. At this point of the year, and I\u2019ve been around this organization for a little bit, I really hope nobody is taking this for granted. The fans. Media. Everybody in the community. To be able to see this firsthand, it\u2019s amazing. Twenty-one seasons. A point per game. NHL record, and that\u2019s a big one.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think about how much goes into it. I\u2019m not just talking about hockey. I\u2019m talking about all sports. People to be able to do it for that long, it doesn\u2019t happen. And so, yeah, it\u2019s amazing. He seems to have a lot left in the tank.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s funny that with the postseason less than two weeks away, Crosby suddenly found his form this weekend. He has been salivating for the playoffs ever since the Penguins were last involved. And the team he loves to beat the most might well be waiting for the Penguins, as the Philadelphia Flyers have suddenly positioned themselves in third place in the Metropolitan Division, six points behind the Penguins.<\/p>\n
While Crosby had five points this weekend, Evgeni Malkin had six. The dynamic duo still appears to be going pretty strong.<\/p>\n
\u201c(We\u2019re) playing with a great group of guys for an organization that we care an awful lot about,\u201d Crosby said of their time in Pittsburgh. \u201cStill getting opportunities to play big roles. That doesn\u2019t always happen as you get older. There\u2019s a responsibility that comes with that, and trust, and belief. And then just having a passion for the game. We still love it after all of these years. We still want to contribute and try to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll almost certainly get their chance when the playoffs arrive.<\/p>\n
Along with Crosby\u2019s goal, Rickard Rakell scored twice while Bryan Rust and Elmer S\u00f6derblom added goals. Art\u016brs \u0160ilovs got the start because of an eye injury to Stuart Skinner and earned his second win of the weekend.<\/p>\n
The Penguins now get three days off before playing on Thursday night in New Jersey.<\/p>\n
Ten postgame observations\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 It\u2019s one thing that Crosby put up five points this weekend, and I\u2019m not diminishing the importance of his productivity. But what I noticed more than anything was that Crosby appears to have his legs. He was using his speed to beat players in a way that we haven\u2019t seen since he returned from his most recent injury on Monday in New York.<\/p>\n
The Penguins played very well on Monday and Tuesday against the Islanders and Detroit Red Wings, respectively, but Crosby didn\u2019t look like himself in those games. And he most certainly didn\u2019t look like himself against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.<\/p>\n
A different, and I suspect healthy, version of Crosby emerged over the weekend against Florida. He looked stronger on his skates and he looked a step faster.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Crosby passed Steve Yzerman on Saturday to slide into seventh on the NHL\u2019s all-time scoring list.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s special,\u201d he said Sunday. \u201cGrowing up, watching him and admiring his game and his character, you don\u2019t ever think far ahead, of thinking you\u2019re going to be in the same company. That one was pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crosby grew up a Montreal Canadiens fan, but he always idolized Yzerman. Hearing Crosby speak of such reverence for all-time greats like Yzerman is always interesting to me because Crosby himself is an all-time great, yet has the capacity to sound like a fan when he speaks of other hockey all-timers.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The goaltending situation is worth mentioning. Skinner was supposed to get the start on Sunday. However, he was injured on Saturday when a puck went into the Penguins bench area and struck him around his left eye. The goaltender watched in the press box on Sunday and has a pretty nice shiner. It\u2019s unclear if there is additional damage to the eye or if it was merely a matter of his eye being too swollen to open.<\/p>\n
The Penguins attempted to get Sergei Murashov to Pittsburgh on Sunday morning, but the ride from Wilkes-Barre was too long to get the Penguins\u2019 top goalie prospect to PPG Paints Arena in time for the game. Instead, they managed to get Taylor Gauthier, the Wheeling Nailers\u2019 goaltender, to Pittsburgh in time for the contest. Gauthier served as the backup in his first NHL game.<\/p>\n
Muse didn\u2019t offer any specifics on Skinner. The Penguins don\u2019t practice until Tuesday, so we probably won\u2019t have information until then. If Skinner isn\u2019t available on Thursday, look for Murashov, who was in the locker room after the game, to be in uniform.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Art\u016brs \u0160ilovs played both nights of a back-to-back after an eye injury to Stuart Skinner. (Mark Alberti \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
\u2022 Skinner is a legitimately wonderful teammate. He approached\u00a0\u0160ilovs in the locker room after the game, hugged him, told him he played great and that he appreciated him playing on consecutive days.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to see why Skinner is one of the most well-liked players in hockey. He\u2019s fit into the locker room exceedingly well.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Credit to \u0160ilovs: He wasn\u2019t good on Saturday and has struggled lately.\u00a0\u0160ilovs also allowed a goal in the first period that clanged off his mask before somehow going between his legs. His confidence couldn\u2019t have been real high at the moment. But then he settled down and played a very strong game. I think that says something about his mental toughness.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Rust notched his 500th career point. As I always say, he\u2019s an all-time important member of the Penguins and he doesn\u2019t wear a letter on his chest, but he doesn\u2019t have to. He\u2019s a true leader and quite a hockey player.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Rakell scored two more goals and has 11 in his past 10 games, all while playing out of position at center and dealing with Crosby and Malkin being in and out of the lineup. He\u2019s a huge, huge part of the Penguins.<\/p>\n
\u2022 I was talking with a veteran in the locker room about Egor Chinakhov, who didn\u2019t score a goal today but was outstanding again. He\u00a0told me Penguins players have had conversations amongst themselves, trying to figure out why on earth Columbus traded the budding 25-year-old star to the Penguins.<\/p>\n
To a man, the locker room absolutely thinks Chinakhov is special.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Parker Wotherspoon dropped the gloves with Matthew Tkachuk and went toe-to-toe with the Florida star all afternoon. It was great theater.<\/p>\n
Wotherspon isn\u2019t only a good player, he\u2019s tough as nails.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The metrics now tell us the Penguins\u2019 most likely playoff opponent in two weeks will be the Flyers. It\u2019s hardly set in stone, of course. So many things could still happen.<\/p>\n
But wouldn\u2019t it be fitting for Crosby to get back to the postseason for the first time in four years with the team he loves to torture the most waiting in the first round? There is nothing quite like the theater and hatred that comes when the Penguins and Flyers share a sheet of ice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 The Pittsburgh Penguins entered Sunday\u2019s game against the Florida Panthers having scored a very impressive 73…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5113],"tags":[5,4,118,1469,100,5216],"class_list":{"0":"post-543087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-penguins","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-penguins","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","13":"tag-pittsburghpenguins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116355408208298454","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}