Crosby continues to deliver when it counts
Penguins captain puts in another vintage performance against Capitals in Game 1
Look up “clutch performer” in the dictionary of hockey terms and you’ll likely find Sidney Crosby’s picture.
Then again, for someone who was voted in an NHLPA poll as the most difficult to play against, the best role model and team player, as well as the best future coach, you could put his picture under any number of definitions.
That’s how dominant the Pittsburgh Penguins captain has been over his Hall of Fame career. At the same time, it’s when the stakes are highest when Crosby is usually at his best. This is, after all, the same player who scored the golden goal for Canada at the 2010 Olympics and who has his name twice on the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
So it was hardly surprising Crosby would step up as the hero in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinal against the perennial rival Washington Capitals on Thursday. Down 2-0 early in the third period, the Penguins roared back and won 3-2 after scoring three goals within a span of five minutes.
Crosby, who was on the ice for all three Pittsburgh goals, tied the game up on a one-timer and a couple of minutes later set up Jake Guentzel for the winner.
Given the opponent, the comefrom-behind win seemed fitting — if not scripted — as though Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals were Charlie Brown running in to kick a field goal only to have Crosby pull the ball away at the last second. After all, this is a Washington team that has lost seven straight playoff rounds to Pittsburgh.
“It’s not like we put a game plan together to go out and say, ‘OK, we’re going to score three goals in three minutes,’” Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said in a conference call on Friday.
“But I think what our team does do is we have the ability to maximize the opportunities when we grab momentum in games.”
A lot of that, of course, has to do with a player who some had written off as old and out of gas earlier this season.
It’s funny to look back on now, but there was a time in October and November when some wondered if the yearly strain of playing in back-to-back championships had finally taken its toll on the 30-year-old Nova Scotia native.
A player who scored 89 points in the regular season — good enough for 10th overall — has seven goals and 15 points in seven playoff games. He’s on an 82-goal and 175-point pace. And he’s making it look easy at a time when hockey should be the most difficult.
“I don’t necessarily see a different player,” Sullivan says. “I see an elite player that brings his game to another level when the stakes are high. And that, I just think, is a testament to his competitive spirit, his appetite to win, and that’s what it takes to win a championship.
“Your best players have to be your best players and they have to bring their game to another level in order to have success. And Sid has done that time and time again for us.”