COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Right around a decade ago, there was legitimate concern about the longevity of Sidney Crosby's career.
Dealing with concussions and post-concussion syndrome, worries swirled about Crosby even making it back onto the ice, let alone what player he might be if he did.
After being robbed of what was sure to be three of the greatest individual seasons of the modern era, Crosby is doing everything he can to make up for it as he approaches the end of his 17th NHL campaign.
Crosby missed the first several weeks of the season recovering from wrist surgery, and upon his return, tallied just one goal and an assist through his first seven contests. An adjustment period was expected, especially after missing the entirety of training camp, but the lack of immediate production was almost jarring considering he'd been good for at least a point per game for ... well, forever.
Since the end of that seventh contest on Nov. 24, 2021, Crosby has amassed 64 points (22 goals, 42 assists) in 46 games. Only the Panthers' Jonathan Huberdeau (67) has more points in that time.
Crosby's 1.39 points per game in that stretch is also considerably higher than his career-average of 1.27. Over a full 82 games, that 1.39 points per game average comes out to nearly 114 points. Factoring in his lousy start, he's still pacing 102 points over a full season, which is his highest 82-game pace since 2018-19, and the second-highest dating all the way back to 2013-14.
And that right there -- at the age of 34 -- is nothing short of outstanding. There isn't a superlative in the dictionary to do it justice.
I won't sit here and tell you that a three-time Stanley Cup winner and two-time Conn Smythe winner who's averaging well over a point per game has become underrated, but he certainly seems to be underappreciated by the greater hockey world at this stage of his career.
On one hand, it's understandable. Crosby has done, and won, everything imaginable in the game of hockey. His excellence isn't anything new, and though his drive for another championship remains as strong as ever, the game's younger and flashier stars that have never hoisted Lord Stanley's Cup tend to take center stage.
On the other hand, there will come a day when we look back and wish we had shown just a little more appreciation for an all-time great paving the way to another Cup run in his mid-thirties.
So, that's what we'll do. Right now.
Beyond his individual point totals, here's how the Penguins have fared with Crosby on the ice at five-on-five this season, per Evolving Hockey:
- Outscored opposition 41-27 (60.3%)
- Controlled 57.1% of the expected goals
- Took 55.7% of shot attempts
Team effects can cause swings one way or the other season over season, but his on-ice goals share and expected goals share currently rank as the sixth and fifth best figures of his career, respectively.
Thanks to HockeyViz, we can see that the Penguins are generating a ton of looks pretty much everywhere below the tops of the faceoff circles with Crosby on the ice at five-on-five. That's even more true for the heart of the slot and net-front area:
That might not be quite as eye-popping as it looked when he was taking the league by storm years ago, but the fact that Crosby has remained one of the league's absolute best drivers of offense and quality chances is nothing short of remarkable.
Perhaps most fascinating of all, is that he pretty much picks and chooses how he wants to go about getting those results on a nightly basis.
Last Saturday in Arizona, Crosby decided to do it all himself, firing six shots on goal and burying two of them en route to victory.
The Penguins' very next game on Tuesday against the Blue Jackets, Crosby went into distributor mode. He fired only one shot on goal, but picked up three assists, two of which were primary. He completed a number of other dangerous passes that directly led to chances.
Here's one of those primary assists, where his magnificent edge work and control was on full display:
How many players across the NHL can manipulate their feet to improve the condition of the puck so instantaneously? I can tell you it's not many. He went from facing the boards with the puck out in front of him, to staring down the goaltender with the puck loaded in a literal snap of a finger.
Oh yeah ... then there's the no-look cross-slot pass to a wide open Jake Guentzel.
This season at five-on-five, Crosby ranks in the 97th percentile of creating chance assists (passes that directly lead to a scoring chance) and 97th percentile of cross-slot passes among NHL forwards, per the manual tracking of Corey Sznajder from AllThreeZones. He's in the 73rd percentile of taking shots, but typically makes the most of them as he is in the 97th percentile of individual chances. Check out the left side of the following visualization from JFreshHockey:
JFreshHockey, AllThreeZones
Very good to elite in every single shooting and passing category. Have I mentioned that he's 34?
Now shift your attention to the right side of the above chart, where Crosby ranks in the 96th percentile of assists off the cycle.
He frequently uses his incredibly strong and powerful lower-body to get inside positioning on defenders while also using that leverage to protect the puck. Combine that with his absurd hockey sense and you end up with this:
And sometimes, the absurd hockey sense is all that's needed. Just look at this mesmerizing, no-look, backhand pass between his own legs as well as a defender's:
Right into Bryan Rust's wheelhouse without ever so much as taking a glance in his direction. Legitimate eyes in the back of his head.
The goals that Crosby score aren't often of the pretty variety, but do tend to be very rewarding as the result of outworking or outsmarting the opposition:
Are you kidding me?
Tucker Poolman of the Canucks had zero interest in where the puck was, or where it was going. His objective was to smother, contain and interfere with Crosby and hope for his teammates to gain possession.
It didn't matter.
With Poolman draped all over him, Crosby managed to outmuscle him and escape, then immediately bee-lined to the net before burying a feed placed right on his blade.
For all the incredible things Crosby does that lead to the puck in the back of the net, there's as many, if not more incredible plays he makes that never lead to anything, but always leave you in awe:
Look, I know that you know Crosby is good. I know that you know he's still elite.
But lost in Twitter arguments about who the 12th forward should be or which backup goalie to trade for, Crosby's greatness can be, and quite often is, taken for granted.
Heck, he's been far and away their best skater this season and I haven't written about him once. Because, hey, it's Crosby. That's just what he does.
Even though we've come to expect such excellence, it's important to continue recognizing the triumphs of one of the greatest to ever lace 'em up.
At 34-years old, Crosby is showing no indication that his other-worldliness will come to an end any time soon.
