Crosby’s play has the Penguins high and dry
PHILADELPHIA » It was pretty easy to predict how Sidney Crosby and the Penguins would react Sunday to the way the Flyers made such a splash in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series in Pittsburgh.
Crosby, once again doing a star turn in a place that motivates him about as well as any other, scored the first goal of Game 3 then set up three others to lead the Penguins to a 5-1 victory, or the same score that the Flyers had posted in their lone win of the series two days before.
That second series game was almost an anomoly for Crosby, since he’d registered five points in the 7-0 Penguins win in Game 1. Now he’d like to look ahead to Game 4 Wednesday in Philadelphia, a chance to really water down the fire the Flyers like to bring on home ice, especially in desperate times.
“You have to move on when you get a couple of looks and they don’t go in,” Crosby said with a reference to the Pittsburgh loss Friday. “You’ve got to turn the page. So it was good to get one early. I always think it makes a big difference as far as being able to forget about it.”
Crosby’s early one was a beaut, kicking the puck ahead of him and diving into a wraparound move that beat Brian Elliott’s attempt to get across the crease at 10:25 of the first, giving the Penguins a lead they wouldn’t relinquish to the dismay of Flyers fans.
“I think it’s always intense,” Crosby said of the atmosphere he’s accustomed to at Wells Fargo Center. “It’s a tough environment to come into, so we all prepare as well as we have to. We played well today.” All well and good. Now for the real Crosby story angle, since he wasn’t the only one that was on his game Sunday. So were the fans. Specifically those who photocopied Crosby’s pictures and player cards and draped them at the base of a few Wells Fargo Center urinals. Nice touch. But even that wasn’t going to knock Crosby off his game when asked about it.
“Not the first building that’s happened in,” he said of his wet rest room image. “I don’t know if they stole that idea from someone else, but yeah, that’s not the first time that’s happened.”
Of course, Crosby and the Penguins aren’t firsttimers, either, coming off a pair of Stanley Cup championships. While handling Crosby and Evgeni Malkin is proving to be a task too difficult for the Flyers as the series goes along, what really pushed these Pens to the titles the past couple of years is also revealing itself. It’s all well and good that Crosby totaled nine points in two series games and Malkin has a couple of goals. But it’s what they and their teammates have done to the Flyers’ offense in two games that has mattered more.
“I think we’ve done a pretty good job of defending,” Crosby said. “That’s been our mindset, just defend well. Find ways to create zone time when we get a chance. But when we have to defend, defend well. We’ve done a pretty good job of that.”