Down 2-games-to-0 and with our first-round series shifting to the City of Brotherly Shove for Games 3 and 4, it goes without saying our Penguins are facing an uphill climb. One might even say we’re in dire straits.
Among our myriad issues, an inability to crack the Flyers’ tight defensive structure and put the puck in the net. Unthinkable for a club that possesses as much firepower and as many weapons as our Pens.
Speaking of, to my eye there seems to be some sort of underlying issue lurking just beneath the surface involving one of our biggest stars.
I’m talking about Sidney Crosby.
With all due respect to our captain, he just hasn’t looked right to me for a long time. For lack of a better way to describe it, he just seems slower and somehow diminished, rather than his usual dynamic self. I can even pinpoint the date when he began to seem “off” to me.
January 25. We were playing the final game of a four-game Western swing against the Canucks. On the heels of a five-game points streak, Sid was held off the scoresheet that night. Nothing terribly unusual about that. Except that he managed just two assists over his next five games leading up to the Olympic break and finished a minus in three of them.
I remember at the time many folks commented how great it was that the Pens could win without Sid driving the offense. But to me, his sudden downturn, which seemed to come out of the blue, was cause for concern.
Just prior to that stretch of games, I recall Sid was involved in a net-front pileup that resulted in a foe falling on top of him. I don’t remember the team or the opposing player involved. I do remember watching Sid slowly pick himself up and skate rather gingerly to the bench. I also remember thinking, “Uh oh, I hope he’s not hurt.”
His output since would seem to support my suspicions that something, indeed, occurred that night that hasn’t been revealed.
In his 50 games prior to January 25, Sid rang up 27 goals and 57 points. He seemed a lock to score 40-plus goals.
In his 18 regular season and two playoff games since? He’s scored only two goals and tallied 17 points to go with a minus-6. Perhaps just as telling, his shooting percentage during those 20 games is an anemic 4.1 percent. Considerably below his career mark of 14.7 percent.
Everyone experiences slumps now and then. Even an all-time great like No. 87 isn’t immune.
Still, I wonder if he isn’t dealing with something more…
We know Sid sustained a knee injury during the Olympics that caused him to miss a sizeable chunk of time after the NHL schedule resumed and that he’s very likely still dealing with lingering effects of that injury.
Could there be another explanation for the perceived downturn in Sid’s play? At age 38, could Father Time finally be catching up with our captain? He’s been so incredibly consistent over the course of his 21 NHL seasons, not to mention marvelously conditioned, I tend to think of him as this indestructible machine who’ll continue to produce well into his 40s. The proverbial Timex watch that takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin.’
However, as the old saying goes, time waits for no one.
Not even Sid.
If he is dealing with another significant injury, I’m sure it will be revealed come the offseason. Which judging by the way our first-round series is progressing, may arrive a lot sooner than any of us hoped.
Selfishly, and in a back-handed way, I kind of hope that’s the case, and that he’s not entering the twilight of an absolutely brilliant career.
I’m not looking forward to the day when Sid’s no longer an integral part of the team.