How's this for starters? Sidney Crosby

Part 5 in a series

The Penguins have won three Stanley Cups since adding Sidney Crosby to their depth chart in 2005.

Crosby has been awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the top performer in the playoffs during two of those championship drives.

Not much of a coincidence there.

The "C" stitched to his sweater confirms that he is their captain; there is no such tangible evidence that he is their undisputed leader, not simply the symbolic one.

There's no question that is the reality, however, and has been for years.

Forget the oft-repeated line that Crosby is "the first guy on the ice for practice, and the last guy off." Truth be told, he rarely is either.

But while some might leave the locker room before him and others return after he does, few ever leave more of themselves on the ice than Crosby.

Every drill.

Every day.

That kind of commitment from a player who is the best on the team, and probably still the best 200-foot player in the world, can be contagious. And while relentless work and tenacity might not always be enough to overcome superior talent, they sure can complement a team's skill level.

Crosby's passion for the game is evident every time he plays, and is part of the reason he generally performs at a high level from his first shift in the first game of the season.

It will be particularly important that he do that when the 2019-20 season resumes later this summer, because his team will be jettisoned into another protracted stretch away from the game if Montreal upsets it during the best-of-five qualifying round.

Here is a look at Crosby's most basic statistics -- goals, assists and plus-minus rating -- and noteworthy events from his first five appearances in each of the past five regular seasons:

2015-16 -- Zero goals, Zero assists, even

Crosby would cap the season by parading the Stanley Cup around the rink in San Jose, but there wasn't much about its early weeks that should have made him think good times were coming. He ultimately broke his points drought with a goal and two assists in Game 6, a 3-2 overtime victory against Florida, but then was shut out for the three games that followed.

2016-17 -- Six goals, two assists, plus-3

Crosby sat out the first six games of the regular season because of a concussion, but then wasted little time climbing in the team scoring race. After scoring a goal in his first game back, a 3-2 victory over Florida Oct. 25, he added a goal and an assist in the next one before scoring two goals in both his third and fifth games.

2017-18 -- One goal, five assists, minus-3

Crosby made it onto the scoresheet in each of the first four games, with two-point outputs in a 5-4 overtime loss to St. Louis and a 4-0 victory at Nashville. He even managed to assist on the Penguins' lone goal during a 10-1 loss in Chicago during the second game of the season, but left the United Center that night with a minus-4.

2018-19 -- Zero goals, four assists, plus-1

Crosby broke from the gate with a goal and two assists in a season-opening 7-6 overtime victory against Washington, but produced just two more points -- one assist each in a pair of games against Montreal -- in the four games that followed.

2019-20 -- Three goals, five assists, plus-1

No one outside the organization knew it at the time, but Crosby was playing with a sports hernia that had to be surgically repaired in mid-November. That didn't seem to have much of an impact on his offensive output, however, as Crosby put up at least one point in each of the first five games and actually had two in three of those.

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