PITTSBURGH – Three game-winning goals in the Eastern Conference final. Leading your team back from the brink of elimination.
This is the stuff of legend, and this is Sidney Crosby’s opportunity to add to a sterling legacy already guaranteed to place him among the all-time greats.
For even the best and brightest don’t find themselves here too often. It has been seven years in Crosby’s case since he had an opportunity to play for the Stanley Cup – a lifetime in pro sports – and all that stands between him and that now is Thursday’s Game 7 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Crosby has been a catalyst throughout this third-round series, delivering the first playoff overtime winner of his career and creating something from nothing with the Penguins facing elimination on Tuesday night. He got the puck in the neutral zone and drove past three Lightning players through the middle of the ice before scoring with 36 seconds left in the second period.
That gave the Penguins a 3-0 lead and they needed all of that advantage to survive a heavy surge from the Lightning and escape with a victory. He basically applied the dead bolt to the front door.
“The timing of the goal is huge right at the end of the period,” coach Mike Sullivan told reporters in Tampa on Wednesday morning. “I think you saw his will and his determination in that goal. And when Sid’s playing that way, I think it certainly gives our bench a big lift.
“Obviously, it was a game-changing goal for us.”
Somehow criticism has landed at Crosby’s doorstep during this series. All he’s done is score the deciding goal in every game the Penguins have won.
It seems the toughest place to find perspective on this team’s stars is here in Pittsburgh.
On some level you can understand why – they’ve been staring at greatness from close range for decades. This was once Mario’s team and Jagr’s team. Evgeni Malkin owns a scoring title and MVP award, and we haven’t even gotten to Paul Coffey or Ron Francis or Mark Recchi or Tom Barasso or numerous others.
Crosby was the youngest captain in history to raise the Stanley Cup and is the top points per game player – both regular season and playoffs – since entering the NHL in 2005. He’s won everything and everywhere, and yet still gets nagged in some corners for not saving the day every day.
Except now it’s playing out a little differently.
After being neutralized by Washington during the second round, he’s broken through against Tampa. Crosby may not have anything to prove at this point in his career, but there is still plenty to be gained if the Penguins can find a way to win their first Game 7 on home ice since Consol Energy Center opened.
Playing for another Stanley Cup would be seismic, especially since the Penguins as currently constructed only have so many shots remaining at a title. This is also a team that has undergone an incredible turnaround after sitting outside of playoff position in mid-December.
And on some level, too, you have to think it would shift the conversation somewhat around Crosby. Like it or not – and I certainly don’t – the narrative still carries weight in significant segments of the sporting world.
Someone as cerebral as Crosby obviously understands the stakes, but he’ll be trying to keep his mind in small places as the puck drop approaches.
“You give yourself the best chance of winning by just keeping it simple and not trying to put too much emphasis on kind of the storyline around (the game),” he said.
Essentially, you can’t get afford to get ahead of yourself. Not against a team as talented and dangerous and experienced as the Lightning – a team that waltzed into Madison Square Garden under these same circumstances a year ago and thoroughly outperformed the New York Rangers.
Not with such a precious opportunity at hand.
“I don’t think you can play to your potential (in Game 7) if you’re not embracing it and just having fun with it and enjoying it,” said Lightning defenceman Anton Stralman, whose teams are 7-0 in these situations.
“Honestly there’s just no fun, there’s no atmosphere, there’s no feeling like playing in a Game 7,” added 39-year-old Penguins centre Matt Cullen. “It is the ultimate. It’s what you dream about as a kid. To have one game to get to the Stanley Cup final, it doesn’t get any better.
“It doesn’t matter what age you are, it doesn’t matter where you are in your career, it’s as good as it gets.”
It will be among the five biggest games of Crosby’s NHL career to date – a notch below the two potential elimination situations the Penguins survived while winning the Stanley Cup in 2009.
Thursday’s game will be won or lost by an entire team. It’s not all on his shoulders. But it’s a unique opportunity to watch a future Hall of Famer in a position we haven’t seen him since a time where his playoff beard amounted to a thin moustache.
“We expect him to be himself,” Sullivan said of Crosby. “And when he does that, he’s a great player. He helps us win.”
Time and time again.