Sidney Crosby breathes life into Penguins by continuing to dominate against Flyers – Beragampengetahuan

PITTSBURGH — Tristan Jarry allowed six goals. Bryan Rust was lost to an injury. Erik Karlsson and Rickard Rakell helped turn a power-play chance into a short-handed score. And the Pittsburgh Penguins twice coughed up a two-goal lead.

All of this happened in a must-win game they somehow won.

Without having watched, even a casual fan could have guessed how: Sidney Crosby.

He scored a goal and set up three others in a 7-6 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers at PPG Paints Arena on Sunday afternoon. He has 13 regular-season games with at least 3 points against the Flyers, including three with 4-plus points.

“I’m not surprised,” Kris Letang said of Crosby’s latest one-man performance against the Penguins’ archrival.

“I’ve told you the last … 18 years, I guess. I don’t know what you want me to say. Like, whether you watch a lot of the top players in the league with their highlights and some stuff some of the young guys do, he’s still in my mind the best complete player out there.”

If the Penguins held a Stanley Cup playoff spot — or were even close to one — Crosby willing them to this victory over the Flyers probably would have served as his Hart Trophy audition video for NHL Awards voters. None of his points were of the so-called cheap variety. He spent three periods winning races to and battles for loose pucks, keeping plays alive a second or two longer so that teammates could find open ice, and staking a claim to the hard areas from which hard-earned goals are scored.

His goal pulled the Penguins even in the first period. His first couple of assists pushed the Penguins ahead by the game’s midpoint. Another assist — a vintage win-position/one-handed-dish to Rakell in the third period — afforded the Penguins a two-goal advantage.

RAK ON 🤘 pic.twitter.com/E9nL4dw0eI

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 25, 2024

There were some other positives for the Penguins: recent acquisition Emil Bemstrom’s goal for the second power-play unit, Matt Harkins’ clean open-ice hit that rocked the Flyers’ Jamie Drysdale and caused Nicolas Deslauriers to take a reactionary penalty, and Evgeni Malkin’s forecheck and board battle that preceded a Drew O’Connor score.

But Sunday provided another special episode of the NHL’s longest-running current hit: The Crosby Show — this time for a national television audience in the United States, where Crosby remains one of the few players of whom non-hockey fans have heard.

There is a reason he has name recognition, and it’s in part the way he has stayed true to himself despite the pressure of carrying the Penguins and NHL out of a dark period over the past two decades. Witness Crosby’s emotional postgame interview on TNT with his former assistant coach, Tony Granato, who has been battling cancer.

What a moment as Sidney Crosby was getting choked up talking to his former coach Tony Granato 💛 pic.twitter.com/oTGw1y4qEc

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) February 26, 2024

As former Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford once said, “Sid is a better person than he is a player, and he’s the best player, so what else do you need to know?”

Crosby’s singular focus is probably his most underappreciated skill. His career against the Flyers embodies that focus. He’s had it out for them since Derian Hatcher tried to detach his jaw from his face during Crosby’s rookie season.

On that date — November 16, 2005, in Philadelphia — Crosby racked his first three-point game against the Flyers, including an overtime winner followed by an enthusiastic wide grin, albeit one missing a tooth.

During a roller coaster-like 2012 playoff series that this game on Sunday resembled, Crosby famously responded to a reporter’s question by flatly stating of the Flyers, “I don’t like them.” He still plays like it, even if Crosby has over the past half-decade taken a more whimsical stance on the off-color jeers he usually receives in Philadelphia.

“Obviously, it’s a huge rivalry, and it’s been that way long before I started playing here,” Crosby said.

“The way they play — they’re a gritty team, they’re physical, especially this group. Give them credit — down a (defenseman), back-to-back games — with where they are (in the standings) it would have been easy for them to step back. But they didn’t. They kept coming.

“I thought it was a great response from us a few times. That’s a big one. That’s what we need to do is find ways to bounce back like that.”

With this game against the Flyers serving as the last the Penguins will play in Pittsburgh before embarking upon a four-game Western swing, the start of 6 of 9 on the road in 14 days, Crosby led by example in treating each shift with urgency, if not desperation. He was credited with eight attempted shots, three takeaways, and two blocked shots.

The only area in which he didn’t dominate was in the circle, where he lost 10 of 19 faceoffs.

A lot has been made about his age, 36, and this being his 19th season. Perhaps his slight off-day on draws merely proves he’s human.

A regulation loss would have essentially ended any faint hope the Penguins have for returning to the playoffs by way of the Metropolitan Division. The Flyers hold the Metro’s third-and-last automatic postseason spot, but the Penguins joined a group of four within seven points. Of that group, the Penguins have played the fewest games.

One entertaining win probably won’t dramatically improve their odds of reaching the playoffs. Going into Sunday, the Penguins realistically needed 33-36 points in their final 28 games and get all the teams ahead of them in either the Metro or the wild-card standings to play to between a .500 to .540 points percentage the rest of the season. Basically, the Penguins are a long shot — especially if Rust joins fellow winger Jake Guentzel in the out-for-a-while club.

Coach Mike Sullivan said Rust was being evaluated for an upper-body injury and was scheduled to travel with the Penguins to Vancouver on Sunday night. Sullivan also left open room for Rust to not take that charter flight pending the Penguins’ medical staff evaluation.

A longer-term injury to Rust could also deal a significant blow to GM Kyle Dubas if Dubas is willing to trade Rust, as he appears ready with Guentzel, before the NHL trade deadline.

Great as he’s been this season, and he’s on pace for 48 goals and 91 points, even a living legend such as Crosby would probably find carrying the Penguins into the postseason too heavy a lift without Guentzel and Rust.

Impossible? Well, good luck getting Crosby to think anything is impossible.

Only a few days before this game, Crosby sat at his dressing room stall inside the Penguins’ practice facility and told a longtime team employee, “We’re still in this.” At the time, and perhaps even now, only Crosby seemed to truly believe what he was saying.

Less a call to arms than a statement of fact, Crosby was speaking as would a captain who, even if the ship is taking on water, will keep sailing as long as his vessel is afloat.

This win by the Penguins against the Flyers patched a hole. It did nothing to change Crosby’s mandate: “Take one game at a time.”

“The games in hand don’t paint the prettiest picture, but regardless of how it is, it’s still going to seem like a climb,” he said. “If we just take care of things, get ourselves back in the picture a little bit — that’s all we have to do.”

(Photo: Charles LeClaire / USA Today)