Sidney Crosby works the puck away from old friend Brooks Orpik Saturday night at Consol. — GETTY
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Not much moves the needle about Penguins-Capitals these days, certainly not the way it once did, and the season’s first meeting Saturday night at Consol Energy Center hardly offered an exception. Alexander Ovechkin bowled over a couple of bodies but was barely booed. Brooks Orpik made his return after a decade in black and gold and received a nice ovation, nothing anyone will remember. And to the outcome itself … man, what was the score again?
Oh, yeah, 3-0 Washington over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton/Mumps-free Penguins.
Nothing to see here, folks. Nothing to see. Move along now.
Unless, of course, anyone is interested in tackling the topic that stuck with me from morning to midnight on this hockey day: What’s up with Sidney Crosby not scoring anymore?
By the numbers, for your edification, the captain now has:
• One goal in his past 12 games, three in his past 24 games covering all of November and December, 11 in his past 50 games if reaching back to last season and including Stanley Cup playoffs
• A 4.4 shooting percentage over these past two months, 10.4 for the season
• Only six games of more than three shots over these two months
• 20 assists in that same span
• One power-play goal in his past 29 games
Not all of those carry a direct correlation, but it’s eminently fair to draw a couple of broader conclusions, anyway: Crosby isn’t shooting much and, when he is shooting, he isn’t finishing.
At the same time, it’s equally fair to stress that he’s still passing and, for the most part, playing OK.
“Sid takes what’s out there. He’s always been that way,” Chris Kunitz was telling me. “Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a change in his game, and this goes way back. If he sees a shot, he’ll take it. If he doesn’t, he’s going to look for the open man. And he sees the ice better than anyone who plays the game.”
Also absolutely fair. No one could speak to it better.
So why, then, does it feel as if maybe we’ve seen the last of Crosby the truly great goal-scorer?
And please, don’t think for a second that question is aimed at the overly dramatic: In his first 5 1/2 NHL seasons, right until sustaining the concussion in the 2011 Winter Classic at Heinz Field, Crosby scored 215 goals in 412 regular-season games, a brilliant pace of .52 per game that would approach the current .61 of Ovechkin, the most prolific goal-scorer of this generation. But since the concussion, Crosby has 69 goals in 170 games, an average of .41.
That’s a pretty glaring pivoting point, and it can’t be ignored.
Crosby has repeatedly rejected the notion that he’s willfully changed anything in his game post-concussion and, more powerful by far, he flat-out buried any notion that he’s a lesser player by winning the Hart and Art Ross trophies last season. Good for him. Great, actually. At the same time, it takes no more than peripheral memory of that shortened 2010-11 season — 32 goals in 41 games, his most productive period ever — to recall him getting deflection and rebound goals seemingly at will. The man was a machine around the net.
He isn’t that same player. He just isn’t.
In the first period Saturday, he and Andrew Ebbett burst across the Washington blue line on a two-on-one, the puck on the correct player’s stick right up until Crosby decided to dish, and Braden Holtby made a toe save. Ebbett didn’t fare badly with the aerial pass, but hey, I’ll take No. 87 shooting in that situation 87 times out of 87.
For the night, Crosby totaled zero points, three shots that included a clean breakaway which left him no choice, a minus-3 rating, and two broken sticks while attempting power-play shots from predictably impossible angles. Each was flung against the glass in disgust.
Frustrated much?
“I mean, I had some good chances there,” Crosby was saying afterward in quite the dejected tone. “It doesn’t make it any easier when you aren’t scoring much.”
Still, that’s just one night. Means no more than any other in late December. For a better picture, take a look at this chart of Crosby’s 35 goals last season and the 10 this season:
It doesn’t take Scotty Bowman to see a clear fanning out of his shots from one season to the next. There are countless variables, of course, and all should be considered, not least of which is the small sample size of a half-season of anything. Crosby missed three games to the mumps. He lost Pascal Dupuis for the season and went a long stretch without Kunitz. He’s had Bryan ‘Blinders’ Rust — whose next NHL pass will be his first — and other AHL callups lugged along as linemates. The power play as a whole has dropped off.
But it’s also very real that, independent of all of the above, Crosby has been passing up shots and has spent too much perimeter time on the power play, the two facets to which I’ll mostly attribute the lack of scoring.
I asked him a couple questions about this before the game, when he’d have been less emotional …
I’ll respect the captain’s view, as always. He’s earned that. But I’ll also stubbornly stand by that two-facet stance until the goals come back.
Think about the power-play aspect alone: The Penguins are in a 3-for-44 drought with the man-advantage over the past 14 games. Much can be blamed on injuries of late, but definitely not that. The big guns have been mostly healthy. The problem here is, at least in part, that Crosby has parked himself in the right faceoff dot and seldom budges. Or shoots. And as a result, when the puck comes his way, the goaltender is free to cheat to the middle — Holtby was brazenly doing this all night — because he can push in all his chips that Crosby will give it up.
Half the rink is wiped away.
I feel the need to stress here for emphasis: This is not some sweeping criticism of Crosby or his effort or his leadership of a team that — let’s not forget — is 22-8-5 with half a roster. Nor is it targeting him with some larger fault, especially not over a single hollow loss. And by all means, hold the conspiracies: He isn’t hurt again.
Rather, it’s about looking at what’s best for the Penguins now and into the future.
To state it plainly: There can’t be any doubt that this franchise needs Crosby to be a goal-scorer.
That was painfully evident in the most recent playoffs, when he was held to a solitary goal in 13 games, albeit with an eventually disclosed wrist injury. There wasn’t enough scoring from the wings then, and there’s even less now. Crosby can’t morph into a latter-day Craig Janney or Cliff Ronning. He’s got to be more of the balanced point-producer he’s been for the better part of his brilliant career.
It’s funny, but Crosby took advantage of the power-play drills at the morning skate to shoot at every opportunity. One after another, every time the puck glided his way — boom! — it was on Marc-Andre Fleury.
Here’s betting Fleury’s about to see many more, assuming the sticks can handle the shock.
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December 27, 2014
Column: Will Sid ever be a star sniper again?
by Dejan Kovacevic • Columns • Penguins
Sidney Crosby works the puck away from old friend Brooks Orpik Saturday night at Consol. — GETTY
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
Not much moves the needle about Penguins-Capitals these days, certainly not the way it once did, and the season’s first meeting Saturday night at Consol Energy Center hardly offered an exception. Alexander Ovechkin bowled over a couple of bodies but was barely booed. Brooks Orpik made his return after a decade in black and gold and received a nice ovation, nothing anyone will remember. And to the outcome itself … man, what was the score again?
Oh, yeah, 3-0 Washington over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton/Mumps-free Penguins.
Nothing to see here, folks. Nothing to see. Move along now.
Unless, of course, anyone is interested in tackling the topic that stuck with me from morning to midnight on this hockey day: What’s up with Sidney Crosby not scoring anymore?
By the numbers, for your edification, the captain now has:
• One goal in his past 12 games, three in his past 24 games covering all of November and December, 11 in his past 50 games if reaching back to last season and including Stanley Cup playoffs
• A 4.4 shooting percentage over these past two months, 10.4 for the season
• Only six games of more than three shots over these two months
• 20 assists in that same span
• One power-play goal in his past 29 games
Not all of those carry a direct correlation, but it’s eminently fair to draw a couple of broader conclusions, anyway: Crosby isn’t shooting much and, when he is shooting, he isn’t finishing.
At the same time, it’s equally fair to stress that he’s still passing and, for the most part, playing OK.
“Sid takes what’s out there. He’s always been that way,” Chris Kunitz was telling me. “Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a change in his game, and this goes way back. If he sees a shot, he’ll take it. If he doesn’t, he’s going to look for the open man. And he sees the ice better than anyone who plays the game.”
Also absolutely fair. No one could speak to it better.
So why, then, does it feel as if maybe we’ve seen the last of Crosby the truly great goal-scorer?
And please, don’t think for a second that question is aimed at the overly dramatic: In his first 5 1/2 NHL seasons, right until sustaining the concussion in the 2011 Winter Classic at Heinz Field, Crosby scored 215 goals in 412 regular-season games, a brilliant pace of .52 per game that would approach the current .61 of Ovechkin, the most prolific goal-scorer of this generation. But since the concussion, Crosby has 69 goals in 170 games, an average of .41.
That’s a pretty glaring pivoting point, and it can’t be ignored.
Crosby has repeatedly rejected the notion that he’s willfully changed anything in his game post-concussion and, more powerful by far, he flat-out buried any notion that he’s a lesser player by winning the Hart and Art Ross trophies last season. Good for him. Great, actually. At the same time, it takes no more than peripheral memory of that shortened 2010-11 season — 32 goals in 41 games, his most productive period ever — to recall him getting deflection and rebound goals seemingly at will. The man was a machine around the net.
He isn’t that same player. He just isn’t.
In the first period Saturday, he and Andrew Ebbett burst across the Washington blue line on a two-on-one, the puck on the correct player’s stick right up until Crosby decided to dish, and Braden Holtby made a toe save. Ebbett didn’t fare badly with the aerial pass, but hey, I’ll take No. 87 shooting in that situation 87 times out of 87.
For the night, Crosby totaled zero points, three shots that included a clean breakaway which left him no choice, a minus-3 rating, and two broken sticks while attempting power-play shots from predictably impossible angles. Each was flung against the glass in disgust.
Frustrated much?
“I mean, I had some good chances there,” Crosby was saying afterward in quite the dejected tone. “It doesn’t make it any easier when you aren’t scoring much.”
Still, that’s just one night. Means no more than any other in late December. For a better picture, take a look at this chart of Crosby’s 35 goals last season and the 10 this season:
It doesn’t take Scotty Bowman to see a clear fanning out of his shots from one season to the next. There are countless variables, of course, and all should be considered, not least of which is the small sample size of a half-season of anything. Crosby missed three games to the mumps. He lost Pascal Dupuis for the season and went a long stretch without Kunitz. He’s had Bryan ‘Blinders’ Rust — whose next NHL pass will be his first — and other AHL callups lugged along as linemates. The power play as a whole has dropped off.
But it’s also very real that, independent of all of the above, Crosby has been passing up shots and has spent too much perimeter time on the power play, the two facets to which I’ll mostly attribute the lack of scoring.
I asked him a couple questions about this before the game, when he’d have been less emotional …
I’ll respect the captain’s view, as always. He’s earned that. But I’ll also stubbornly stand by that two-facet stance until the goals come back.
Think about the power-play aspect alone: The Penguins are in a 3-for-44 drought with the man-advantage over the past 14 games. Much can be blamed on injuries of late, but definitely not that. The big guns have been mostly healthy. The problem here is, at least in part, that Crosby has parked himself in the right faceoff dot and seldom budges. Or shoots. And as a result, when the puck comes his way, the goaltender is free to cheat to the middle — Holtby was brazenly doing this all night — because he can push in all his chips that Crosby will give it up.
Half the rink is wiped away.
I feel the need to stress here for emphasis: This is not some sweeping criticism of Crosby or his effort or his leadership of a team that — let’s not forget — is 22-8-5 with half a roster. Nor is it targeting him with some larger fault, especially not over a single hollow loss. And by all means, hold the conspiracies: He isn’t hurt again.
Rather, it’s about looking at what’s best for the Penguins now and into the future.
To state it plainly: There can’t be any doubt that this franchise needs Crosby to be a goal-scorer.
That was painfully evident in the most recent playoffs, when he was held to a solitary goal in 13 games, albeit with an eventually disclosed wrist injury. There wasn’t enough scoring from the wings then, and there’s even less now. Crosby can’t morph into a latter-day Craig Janney or Cliff Ronning. He’s got to be more of the balanced point-producer he’s been for the better part of his brilliant career.
It’s funny, but Crosby took advantage of the power-play drills at the morning skate to shoot at every opportunity. One after another, every time the puck glided his way — boom! — it was on Marc-Andre Fleury.
Here’s betting Fleury’s about to see many more, assuming the sticks can handle the shock.