Sidney Crosby has been a goal scoring machine this year. He is leading the league with 22 goals. In the 27 games he has played this season only 10 of them he has gone goalless. A big reason for this has been his emergence as a goal scorer on the power play again.
Sidney Crosby scored his eighth power play goal of the year in only his 27th game of the season last game. He is on pace for 22 power play goals on the year. His current career best was set in his rookie season with 16. It's been a long time since he has pumped in goals like this with the man advantage.
I believe the reason for this surge has been a result of Crosby playing less on the half wall and more down low. In year’s past Crosby would be glued to that right hash mark with minimal movement. The only time he would venture low would be on rebound opportunities during a scramble and because he was coming from the wall his chances were off-centered. Being on the half wall should have been a prime opportunity to take one timers, but that wasn’t happening either. This year he is lower with more movement and has included many more chances directly in the front of the net. Here is the evidence
#SidDownLow is paying dividends. Crosby is one of the favorites for the Rocket Richard as a result.
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Coming off their impressive 7-2 victory over the New York Rangers the Pittsburgh Penguins will have their hands full with one of the hottest teams in the league. The Columbus Blue Jackets have won ten straight games and have been one of the surprise teams in the league this year. Many (myself included) had the Blue Jackets hanging out near the bottom of the division and they are certainly not there. How are they doing it?
A big factor is Sergei Bobrovsky. He is playing amazing this year. When the Blue Jackets made a coaching change last year it wasn’t so much that the team was playing bad it was the fact that Bob was playing terrible. This led to their losing ways and the coaching change. This year he is humming along with a .940 save percentage at even-strength which is going to give the team a fighting chance on every night. As a team Columbus ranks third overall at .942 so even the backups are playing well.
It’s not just the goaltending. The team is playing well. Columbus is the fourth ranked Score-Adjusted Fenwick team in the NHL at 52.8%. This is a big improvement from last year when they were in the bottom third in the league. Is there anything drastically different that has led to the turnaround? You can’t point to only one thing to explain such a jump, but in my opinion the biggest difference maker has been Zach Werenski. He has been nothing short of amazing and his name is being rightfully brought up for the Calder Trophy. He has given the Blue Jackets another player on the back end that can help faciliatate transition with more controlled exits and entries. Here is a snapshot of Werenski’s year courtesy of datarink.com
He and Seth Jones along with Ryan Murray create a strong trio on the backend which used to rely on too many players elevated into roles they couldn’t handle. Zach Werenski is what the Blue Jackets thought Jack Johnson was. With Werenski Johnson is now in a sheltered role and isn’t a complete abomination.
Pittsburgh native Brandon Saad is having a great start to the year. His even-strength points per 60 is at 3.05. Only two players in the league are better. Sidney Crosby at 3.14 and the injured Steven Stamkos at 3.29. That’s it.
Thanks for reading!