“If I had to evaluate it, I’d like to bury a few more."
Sidney Crosby shook his head as he spoke that opening preposition late Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena and, if taken in the proper context, it wasn't without cause: The NHL season's a third of the way through, and the sport's generational talent's sitting on one, two, three ... four total goals.
Now, never mind missing training camp and the first seven games due to a summertime wrist surgery. Or being bounced right back out of the lineup after a single game by COVID. Or losing both of his regular linemates to injury. Or being without 3/5 of the top power-play unit. Or ...
Wait, did I mention the wrist thing?
It's not as if there isn't a list of explanations that'd stretch from here to Cole Harbour and back.
Not to mention the interim excellence in his setups for everyone else, such as the primary assists on goals by Mike Matheson and Brian Dumoulin that were part of a generally jaw-dropping passing clinic in the Penguins' 5-2 flattening of the Canadiens on this night:
Pas mal du tout, as they say up in Quebec.
Not bad at all.
And yet, very obviously, nowhere near enough to suit Sid's stratospheric self-standard.
"I think I feel better timing-wise, and there's a lot more chances there," he'd say in continuing from the comment above. "I think it feels a lot more comfortable than it was starting out."
More comfortable. Nowhere near enough.
And when I asked if maybe, after he told me in Montreal a month ago he'd never been through anything like the opening of this season, he'd made up his mind to pass his way into peak form, he replied with ... well, watch this:
Nice, right?
Couldn't even begin the answer without prefacing, "Yeah, I think I had six shots or five shots or something" against Montreal. And it was, in fact, six shots.
"I wouldn't say I'm gonna force it," he elaborated. "But when you're in the areas, you've gotta have the same confidence as if you've scored five games in a row. Sometimes that's not easy to do, but ... I think just going to the net doesn't hurt. You know the puck's going to be there. The way things are going, unfortunately, I haven't been able to find those loose ones, I've hit posts, the crossbar, I missed two pretty easy empty nets in Washington, so ..."
Small smile with that.
"Yeah, you just try to keep doing those things you know have brought you success in the past."
Note here, please, that none of this has come with the tiniest tinge of criticism, including the question I asked. Because that'll underscore all the more how incomplete Sid's game feels to Sid himself.
Even though, again, he's been pretty productive: Since being held to a single point through his first seven games, he's got three goals and 12 assists over the next nine games for a very Sid-like 1.67 points per game.
He's getting there. With each game, each shift, more and more pistons appear to be firing.
Sure, as he stressed, the shots and chances are growing. He could've had a couple goals in this one, too, had Montreal's Jake Allen not made two point-blank rejections, one of those on this third-period rush:
Everything about that sizzles, from the nifty dip around poor Jesse Ylonen outside the Montreal blue line to the Canadiens' defense backing way off, to purposefully feeding Rodrigues with the express purpose of getting it right back on his center drive, to the absurd awareness to angle his skate for a redirect once his stick was tied up by Kale Clague. And before anyone looks it up, I'll confirm it would've been legal.
But hey, no goal.
As it was, Sid and his team had to, oh, settle for this sort of stuff:
There are two things to appreciate on this one, neither of them being the blah outcome.
First, watch Sid's shoulder-fake that buys him time and space away from the Canadiens' Laurent Dauphin. All 17,005 people in attendance, plus Dauphin, would've sworn he'd keep the puck coming up that wall.
Then, watch how Evan Rodrigues is thoroughly abandoned by the Montreal defense ... and how Sid not only realizes that but also feeds a pass right to Rodrigues' blade that even he clearly hadn't anticipated.
No offense to Rodrigues, who's having a wonderful breakout year and, on this night, blasted home a beauty. But those of us who go way back to Mario Lemieux's first couple years in the NHL will recall No. 66 playing chess like this to everyone else's checkers. It had to be appreciated for what it was.
Here's another, although this one finds its target:
It's there at the end of the clip: Sid's lateral pass that cuts through the Montreal penalty-killing box from the left wall to Kris Letang at the right point.
That, my friends, is a pass that doesn't even get attempted. Not that path. Not with a left-handed player executing. One can sit through a hundred hockey games, anywhere, and not see that.
Finally, here's a clip that'll feel like it's some highlight collection of passes when it's all actually one sequence:
How many was that?
Lose track?
How about that deft keep just inside the Montreal blue line with a soft backhand swat to Rodrigues?
How about one, two, three, four more lateral splits of the zone?
And for that matter, how about all the movement and motion around him?
It's almost as if all that can have a global impact on the team's confidence and composure.
"Sid's one of those guys in the league, obviously, where everyone knows he can always make the play," Dumoulin replied to my question on that. "He can have two guys on him, three guys, be in tough situations, but you know he'll find a way to get the puck through to you. So obviously, you have to be ready."
And just as obviously, Sid's stats -- goals notwithstanding -- have coincided with the Penguins' strongest stretch of the season, the current five-game winning streak and a broader 10-2-1 surge right back into legit contention:
"He's playing great right now," Dumoulin continued. "He's really creating plays for us, and it's great to be able to finish for him."
Look, there can't be more boring, predictable commentary in Pittsburgh than to suggest that -- Sidney Patrick Crosby's important to the Penguins. I get that.
But it still feels worthwhile to emphasize that, even as this team's now functioning without the equivalent of almost any NHL's top line in Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust, it keeps succeeding because of a universal and passionate adherence to Mike Sullivan's 200-foot system. And I'll stubbornly maintain over these next few months that nothing will matter more to this collective. The days are long gone where even Sid or Geno can carry the process.
But for them to play within that process?
And for all of them to be led by a captain who commands as much respect as any in the league, in large part because he practices what he preaches?
And to be drawn into that example with exemplary displays like this?
This is the way. And this is the time, I'm beginning to believe, that the adherence will stick.
"I think we rely a lot on our work ethic," Sid replied when asked his main takeaway from the team's surge. "I think that's one thing you've seen: We check really well. We have speed. We don't give up a lot. And when we play that way, we're tough to play against. And for that reason, it translates into wins."
He looked away momentarily, then back, as if to catch himself.
"But it can change pretty quickly. It's good to get rewarded for playing the way we feel can give us success, but there've been times we've gotten away from that, and we're a much different team. So, just building on that, getting that confidence in knowing that, if we play the right way, that's probably the biggest takeaway, I'd think."
Sound familiar at all?
