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Sidney Crosby is better at scoring goals than you think |
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On one hand earning a point against the Carolina Hurricanes is not the worst result possible. On the other hand not understanding to be on the defensive side of the puck in a 3v3 situation is not a good look for a high school team let alone an NHL one. The Penguins got to overtime only to flame out after a Bryan Rust turnover.
It was a perfect storm of errors, no pun intended. Rust wasn’t wrong to curl back and maintain possession. Resetting your attack and changing on the fly is a tried and true strategy of the 3v3 overtime. It was bad luck he skated right into the change where Petry had to wait to be involved with the play or take a too many men on the ice penalty. The biggest mistake was Jeff Carter not reading the situation at all. As soon as he sees both his players flat footed in a board battle he needs to work back to the defensive side of the puck in the middle of the ice. What bounce is he waiting for? Even if the puck magically squirts out to him he is flat footed in a 1v1 situation at best. It was a bad job by Carter.
Sidney Crosby scored his 12th goal of the season in this game. It came on a really nice transition sequence. Ricard Rakell took the puck off a hard rim and effortlessly switched the puck over to the far side for an easy breakout. Joseph made sure he got the puck up quickly and Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby took care of the rest
At age 35 Sidney Crosby leads the NHL in 5v5 points this season. He has 21 on the year. He is one better than Erik Karlsson. Jeff Skinner is 6th overall at 17. We have some real 2015 vibes near the top of the league this year.
Despite leading in 5v5 points Crosby sits in 7th place overall in points this season with 31. The reason? His power play production has been way off his career norms. He only has five points on the power play this year. He is the 124th ranked player this year. This is unacceptable and the coaching staff needs to figure this out. It is costing Sidney Crosby points which in turn is costing the Penguins standings points. It is embarrassing the power play has the problems that it does. This should be a top priority for Mike Sullivan and his staff. Crosby with more power play success might make a legit push at the Hart Trophy.
People think of Mario Lemieux and Alexander Ovechkin as two of the best goal scorers of all-time, because they are. Not many consider Sidney Crosby a top 10 goal scorer, but he kinda is.
It is a very underrated part of his game. In the era of Alexander Ovechkin he was able to snake away two Rocket Richard Trophy which is pretty impressive given the fact Ovechkin is never missing games and always scoring goals. Crosby is already considered one of the best playmakers in the history of the sport. Being one of the best goal scorers has often been an afterthought. Adding to his legend is the fact he would have ~86 more goals if not for losing a huge part of his physical prime, and that is a conservative estimate.
I did the calculations four and a half years ago .
Sidney Crosby, what a player.
Up next for the Penguins are the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday.
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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