MONTREAL — I was walking through the bowels of the Bell Centre while the Pittsburgh Penguins were in the midst of celebrating a come-from-behind shootout win over the Montreal Canadiens when I ran into former Canadien Steve Begin, who came up with the best description for how Sidney Crosby scored his first of three points on the night and authored yet another tantalizing page of his storybook career.
“That kid wearing 87 isn’t bad,” I mused.
“It’s like he sees the game on the ice as though he’s watching it from high up in the stands,” Begin responded.
The Canadiens would’ve won this game in convincing fashion had Crosby been up in the nosebleeds instead of on the ice.
But there the man once famously dubbed The Kid was with just under seven minutes to play in a truly horrific first period for the Penguins, chasing Kaiden Guhle out from behind Montreal’s net and forcing the 21-year-old into a turnover that he ultimately capitalized on to wake his team up.
First, Crosby stole the puck from Guhle, then he set up a chance for Drew O’Connor, and when the puck came back to him, he put it in the back of the net for the 1,531st point of his career.
The 36-year-old added another goal and assist to pull into a tie with former teammate Mark Recchi as the 13th-most productive player in NHL history.
But this first goal, which left Guhle saying in Montreal’s dressing room after the game, “It’s on me, it just can’t happen,” was the product of the visionary genius that has long been a trademark of Crosby’s sparkling career.
It’s this ability to assess what’s happening on the ice as if he were 1,000 feet above it that has to be at the root of how he’s authoring one of the most impressive seasons a player his age ever has in this league. Crosby may no longer be the fastest, nor the most skilled, but he is still one of the game’s sharpest thinkers, helping him accumulate 15 goals and 28 points prior to Wednesday and enabling him to score on the play that completely changed the complexion of this game.
While Guhle was busy beating himself up in front of reporters down the hall, I was in Pittsburgh’s room listening to the most prolific No. 87 in NHL history explain why he wasn’t fully to blame.
“Well, they weren’t really set up, so he didn’t really have a lot of help,” Crosby said. “He had his partner in the corner, and you know sometimes you’ve got to keep them guessing a little bit. Most teams get used to how teams forecheck…So, the odd time, you’ve got to keep them honest. Most times it doesn’t work, you just end up chasing…”
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Crosby then suggested he got lucky this time, which was just another dose of the humility he’s displayed since he first stepped on the ice in this league 1,217 games ago.
It wasn’t long after that incredible debut that he shelved the shootout winner in his first-ever game against the Canadiens and brought his father, Troy, the 242nd pick of Montreal in 1984, flying out his seat in celebration.
Troy and the rest of the Penguins’ fathers were at the Bell Centre Wednesday, on their annual dads trip, and they were surely already standing when Jansen Harkins—who played all of 4:24 in regulation and overtime—scored the winning goal in the 12th round of the shootout.
Crosby went backhand to forehand and beat Samuel Montembeault on the blocker side much earlier in the skills competition to perform one more chest compression on the Penguins’ failing heart.
“It’s not too often that the first three guys score before you go,” he said, “so that adds to the pressure.”
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It was never in doubt he’d rise to it after Canadiens Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield and teammate Kris Letang scored in the shootout, especially after he did in the first and contributed two points on the power play in the second to tie the game 3-3.
That’s what Crosby has been doing this whole season — giving the Penguins a chance to remain in a playoff race they’d otherwise have no business being near and making perhaps the most convincing case of anyone in the league to date that the Hart Trophy belongs on his mantle.
“I think we’ve just grown accustomed to it,” said Penguins coach Mike Sullivan about the two-time winner of league MVP honours. “I think he plays the game at an elite level all the time. He has the ability to raise his game when he needs to, and he does in so many different circumstances. He still has elite play in his game, and we have the privilege to watch him night-in and night-out. I think he’s been a consistent force all year long for us…”
And as Harkins put it, “He’s good enough to be our best player every game, and he basically is every night.”
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There was no question Crosby was on this night, and it was special to watch.
It was painful for the Canadiens to be on the receiving end of it, but Guhle pushed that aside and tipped his cap to Crosby afterwards, telling reporters in Montreal’s room, “He’s still one of the best in the world, and he shows it.”
Crosby said it doesn’t come easy to him, that “each and every year the guys are coming in and they’re so skilled and so fast,” and that keeping up requires a ton of hard work.
But the game still appears easier for him because he’s able to stay ahead of it, and that’s exactly what he did to bring the Penguins into the fight and put them on the winning side of the ledger.
As for making history, Crosby’s only seven points away from passing Joe Thornton and once again vaulting up the all-time scorer’s list.
