Sidney Crosby's weekend should be appreciated even in defeat: Yohe's 10 observations

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PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby had just played more than 23 minutes, the highest total of any forward on the ice. He registered five shots on goal, the most of any player in Sunday’s matinee between the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers. He took 23 faceoffs, winning 13, both game highs — his health apparently not a concern after rarely taking draws or shooting the puck in the 4 Nations Face-Off because of an upper-body injury that has been plaguing him.

Crosby was probably the best player on the ice, his tenacity forcing turnovers and creating offense for his teammates throughout. His effort, however, wasn’t enough as the Penguins fell to the Rangers 5-3, their second loss in as many days. If the Penguins didn’t have much of a chance to qualify for the postseason before this weekend, their chances now are effectively dead.

The effort from the Penguins’ captain shouldn’t go unnoticed, however.

Crosby played a grueling 19 minutes in Canada’s instant-classic overtime win against the United States on Thursday, traveled home to Pittsburgh on Friday, played 20 minutes in Saturday’s loss to Washington and then 23 minutes in Sunday’s loss to the Rangers.

The captain surely must be gassed.

“Nah,” he said. “I actually felt pretty good today.”

How? 

Crosby was the oldest player in the 4 Nations Face-Off but played huge minutes throughout, dealt with constant pressure and requests from Team Canada and the media during those 10 days in Boston and Montreal, and had 36 hours to prepare for a back-to-back set of games this weekend. Crosby recorded a point in each game and was something of a force, looking more energetic than usual.

No reasonable fan would have complained had Crosby taken a day off, the NHL’s decision to play games less than 48 hours after that tournament a somewhat inhumane reality for the players that participated.

He surely was fatigued and he’s not 100 percent healthy. And yet he simply shrugged his shoulders.

“Sometimes when you keep going, you just don’t stop working, you keep going, I think maybe it’s better,” Crosby said. “Maybe at some point, I’ll start feeling it. But I’m feeling pretty good right now, honestly. I’m just happy to be back here, to keep going now with the season, get back in the swing of things here.”

On the surface, Crosby being happy to be getting back in the swing of things with these Penguins might be the biggest shock of all.

Yet there is sincerity in his words. The Penguins are toast. They’re nine points behind Detroit and seven points behind Ottawa for the final playoff spots in the East, and the Red Wings and Senators each have two games in hand on the Penguins. There will be no playoffs in Pittsburgh this spring and, make no mistakes, the playoffs are what Crosby lives for these days.

Still, even though there is a sense of resignation in Crosby’s voice — he can read the standings, too — he played as hard on Sunday as he ever has. Crosby was winning every puck battle, separating Rangers defensemen from the puck, nearly beating Igor Shesterkin on a number of occasions and getting his second point of the weekend on one of Ryan Shea’s two goals.

There was something very admirable in his performance, even if it’s expected at this point. Sure, Crosby is the captain and a well-paid one, so expecting him to play hard shouldn’t be considered anything other than normal. But given his age and what he’s been through — and the undeniable reality that this team is going nowhere fast — he just keeps grinding away anyway.

“I think we played well today,” Crosby said. “We were so close on a few. He’s a great goalie but it’s still our job to find ways to score. We just didn’t do it enough today.”

It wasn’t for a lack of effort, especially from Crosby. His legendary status has only been elevated in recent days, largely because he captained Canada to yet another international triumph. Indeed, his performance in that tournament was impressive.

To appreciate Crosby and what makes him special, though, is to appreciate the way he did everything in his power to lift a team that can’t be budged.

Ten postgame observations 

• The Penguins utterly dominated the Rangers most of the afternoon. Disregard the score for a moment. At one point, they were out-shooting the Rangers 29-5. That’s not a typo.

So dominant were the Penguins that they recorded 17 straight shots on goal to start the second period. Seventeen! This came on the heels of Saturday’s game against Washington, when the Penguins closed the first period by recording 20 straight shot attempts.

Those are the kinds of numbers you rarely see. It’s somewhat extraordinary that they lost both games.

One can’t deny how hard the Penguins played against the Rangers and they were decidedly the better team. It’s not even debatable. They outshot the Rangers 39-16 and easily produced the better of the scoring opportunities.

• But goaltending might be the Penguins’ biggest problem.

Oh, they have many issues, of course. But the truth is their goaltending is a terrible mess. Their No. 1 goalie Tristan Jarry is so broken that he’s in Wilkes-Barre for the second time this season. Their backup goalie Alex Nedeljkovic has been pretty good recently but got ambushed against Washington on Saturday and is widely considered more equipped to be a backup, not a starter.

Then there is young Joel Blomqvist. He showed much promise early this season and while the Penguins have plenty of faith in him becoming a good NHL goalie in the near future, the 23-year-old was terrible in this game.

There’s no other way to put it. He stopped only 11 of 15 shots. All of the goals were some level of stoppable.

For the first time in his young NHL career, Blomqvist looked utterly lost. His glove hand looks like a particular problem.

• Shesterkin wasn’t perfect, but he was pretty impressive, all things considered. Having a great goaltender can conceal warts.

• The Penguins don’t always play smart hockey. I think we can objectively agree on that. But you can’t say Mike Sullivan’s team doesn’t play hard. This team, even at this point in what has been a horribly disappointing season, almost always plays hard.

It simply suffers from mental mistakes with a frightening regularity.

They outplayed the Rangers as much as they’ve outplayed a team all season. It’s hard to overcome bad goaltending and the inability to finish.

• Ryan Shea didn’t have any trouble finishing. He enjoyed his first two-goal game in the NHL and the goals came on consecutive shifts.

Yeah, that really happened.

• Bryan Rust missed a second straight game with an illness. Needless to say, the Penguins are not the same team without him. Crosby is their leader, but Rust’s role on this team can’t be diminished.

• The Rangers are not a good hockey team. I can’t emphasize enough how rotten their performance was on Sunday.

They have far too many good players to look that bad. I love the J.T. Miller trade for them, and he scored twice. Miller and Vincent Trocheck, two of the best players to ever come from Pittsburgh, are great warriors and will do anything it takes to win. But they’ll have their hands full even getting this team to the playoffs, based on what I saw today. I saw no energy, no precision, not much of anything. Goaltending saved them at both ends of the ice.

• Evgeni Malkin was terrific, scoring a goal and setting up another. He’s got his legs at the moment. The Penguins are no playoff team, but at least you get to see Crosby and Malkin when you attend a game. They’re still worth the price of admission.

Well, those tickets are really expensive. But you know what I mean.

• Matt Grzelcyk was injured on a nasty Matt Rempe hit in the first period and didn’t return. The defenseman stayed down for quite some time. He’s being treated for an “upper-body injury.”

Hopefully Grzelcyk is OK. The Penguins would badly miss him, and frankly, he’s one of their better trade chips ahead of the NHL trade deadline on March 7.

• Kudos to the crowd of 17,186 at PPG Paints Arena on Sunday. The Penguins aren’t going anywhere this season but the crowd actually gave the game something of a playoff atmosphere for a second straight game.

And frankly, the Penguins deserved it, given the level of effort they produced.

(Photo of Joel Blomqvist: Justin Berl / Getty Images)





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