Sullivan not ruling Crosby out tonight
been more inept offensively.
Furthermore, Crosby’s absence has changed how teams defend the Penguins. No longer do they need to worry about Crosby’s line, Evgeni Malkin’s line and the HBK line of Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino and Phil Kessel.
Teams have regularly been deploying their first or second defense pairings against the HBK line, one of the reasons it hasn’t regi stered a five-on-five goal in sDixugcamkses. Now, oSnteaorfsthose three lines will see bottompairing defenders, and they’d be right to start licking their lips.
“It makes it a lot easier on everybody,” winger Chris Kunitz said. “[Crosby] comes in and plays top minutes against the other team’s top pair and pushes everybody back down.
“That’s one of our strengths when we’re healthy: We have such depth and guys that can attack that second, third, fourth or fifth defenseman. That makes it tough on their guys. A lot of teams don’t have the depth at center that we do. When Sid comes back in, it just makes it that much easier on everybody else.”
The workout Monday was not an easy one. Crosby several times battled with defenseman Trevor Daley in front of the net in two-on-two drills. During line rushes, Crosby worked with Scott Wilson at left wing and Patrick Hornqvist to his right. Crosby and Hornqvist have been together plenty. Wilson is adept at smashing one-timers, something that should mesh well with Crosby’s ability to create.
“All the other teams are trying to match their best defenseman with [Crosby] and Geno whenever those guys are out there,” Wilson said. “You can’t think about that too much. You just have to play the game that you bring to the table.”
Never one to shy away from watching hockey on his nights off, Crosby kept tabs on how his teammates fared. One of his biggest takeaways — and he has done this before when he has been out of the lineup for extended stretches — was just how fine the line was between bad and good.
“The details that you know as a player when you’re in the game, you know that when you’re watching that, it’s so clear,” Crosby said. “There’s only so much separating each team.”
In his earlier concussion days, Crosby had issues with his peripheral vision. Not so this time. There’s been no recurrence of symptoms, no major setbacks. There has been a few more questions and a few more tests this time around, Crosby said, but he believes they’re there to properly pass a player on to the next stage of return-toplay protocol.
After a couple weeks of skating on his own, Crosby took a significant step forward by joining his teammates Monday, and they couldn’t be happier about it.
Perhaps Crosby can wake his Penguins from a slumber that included some serious struggles last week against the Montreal Canadiens, San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators, the lone exception being a third-period comeback Thursday against the Sharks.
“He’s the best player in the world,” Hagelin said. “Anytime you can put him on the ice, it’s going to be difficult for the other team to match that.
“We’re happy to have him back. We need to get rolling.”