CROSBY AND CO. HAVE RETURNED TO STANLEY CUP FORM
Two-time champs look like favourites again after turning it around over last six weeks
Jim Rutherford cannot help but laugh.
Yeah, said the Pittsburgh Penguins GM in a phone interview, it sure looks like Sidney Crosby is old, or out of gas or lost a step or whatever it was people were saying about him a few months ago.
That was the chatter in October and November when last year’s Rocket Richard Trophy winner went 11 games without a goal and had just three assists in that span.
Back then it was easy to think Crosby’s tank might be empty. After all, he was coming off backto-back Stanley Cup wins and had played more hockey than anyone in the league. And he just turned 30 in a league where some of the next best players were still too young to order a beer in the United States.
Maybe Crosby, like Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith and Corey Perry and anyone else on the wrong side of 30, was starting to decline.
Again, Rutherford laughs. “I’m amused when I hear people asking him that question at this point in his career,” he said. “It’s almost when you get to 30, they think you’re old or something. I wouldn’t ask Sid that question for another five years.”
Indeed, just as Crosby seemed to be trapped against the ropes and on the receiving end of a flurry of punches from Father Time, one of the NHL’s greatest of all-time took a page out of the playbook of another GOAT and started punching back.
Since Jan. 1, no one in the NHL has been better than Crosby, who has picked up 31 points in 19 games.
Of course, it’s not just the Penguins captain who is playing rope-a-dope with the rest of the league.
Evgeni Malkin, tied for fourth in league scoring with 66 points heading into Friday’s action, tallied 30 of those points in the last 19 games. Phil Kessel, also tied for fourth in scoring, has 24 points in 19 games. The result is a Penguins team that was stumbling around in a daze a few months ago is in second place in the Metropolitan Division and once again looking like the team to beat heading into the playoffs.
“The top players are the guys who drive our team,” Rutherford said. “It takes contributions from everybody. Clearly, Sid, Geno and Phil have been very good pretty much all year.”
That it would take a little while for the Penguins to get going is hardly surprising. This is a team that played 49 playoff games in the last two years. That’s more than half a season’s worth of hockey and the shortened backto-back summers that come with extended playoff runs.
“I don’t think anybody can put their finger on our first half, unless you’ve been in that situation,” Rutherford said.
“When you have players who have had two short off-seasons in a row, only the players know how that feels and the energy level that they have. But clearly, everyone was aware that our team was better than what we were doing. And it was a matter of getting back to the urgency and the focus that it takes to be a good team. Since the midway point on, we’ve been able to do that.”
For the first three months of the season, Pittsburgh hovered around the .500 mark as it struggled to string together wins. Goaltending was mostly to blame, with backup Antti Niemi placed on waivers after allowing 16 goals in his first three games and Matt Murray unable to take hold of the No. 1 job now that Marc-Andre Fleury wasn’t around.
Rutherford made a couple of minor moves, trading for forward Riley Sheahan in October and defenceman Jamie Oleksiak in December.
He tried something even bigger, but he said it fell apart at the “finish line.”
Ultimately, it was the players who pulled themselves out of the funk right when the games started to matter. Pittsburgh went 9-3-0 in January and heads into Saturday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs having lost once in regulation in the last 10 games.
“Right around the midway point, we went into Philadelphia and played a real strong game there and won and just seemed to keep going from there,” Rutherford said. “Now you can go throughout our roster and everybody’s playing their role and playing the way they’re capable of playing.”
Rutherford said he would still like to add a centre at the deadline and there’s no question a top-line winger like Rick Nash or Max Pacioretty would look great next to Crosby. Then again, the way the Penguins and Crosby are playing these days, they might not need any reinforcements.
“We’ve gone through our period where we’ve had time to get rejuvenated, so I don’t have any concern about that,” Rutherford said.
“Our team that we have right now is good enough to win.”
It’s almost when you get to 30, they think you’re old or something. I wouldn’t ask Sid that question for another five years.