TORONTO – It says an awful lot about the way things are going for Sidney Crosby that he arrives at Air Canada Centre in the biggest “slump” of his season.
He’s gone two games without a goal.
His point streak ended at nine games on Friday with a 1-0 overtime loss to the Kings.
Based on the gold standard the Pittsburgh Penguins captain has established for himself, you might say he’s due for a big game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. It certainly wouldn’t surprise anyone.
“He’s done it for a long period of time now and he’s maintained it,” said Leafs coach Mike Babcock. “He might be at the highest level he’s ever been.”
There is certainly a case to be made. Something special is going on when you see a player score 21 goals in his first 25 games at a time when league-wide scoring rates are nearing their lowest point ever.
Babcock coached Crosby for a third time at the World Cup in September and came away feeling “that’s the best I’d ever seen him.”
“He’s a way better all-around player than he used to be, for sure,” said Babcock. “He’s stronger and heavier, he’s still in his peak. And he’s smarter than he’s ever been because it just comes with experience.”
He’s also scoring goals at a pace only matched by his 2010-11 season, which is easily the most dominant of his NHL career. Unfortunately, that one ended in early January with a pair of concussions – leaving Crosby with 32 goals and 66 points in 41 games.
We are left to wonder what could have been.
That he could even fashion another stretch which raises the possibility he’s near that level, or beyond it, is a feat in itself. That it comes directly after a short summer where he celebrated his second Stanley Cup and reported to World Cup training camp on Sept. 5 is bordering on ridiculous.
Crosby also missed Pittsburgh’s first six regular-season games with a concussion before going on a scoring tear.
The way he’s gotten to the net has made it nearly impossible to stop him. So many of his goals have come on deflections or plays where he batted the puck out of mid-air from the edge of the crease.
As Andrew Berkshire noted earlier this week, the quality of chances he’s generated suggests his 25.6 per cent shooting percentage won’t regress near to the level we would expect with other players.
“He’s scoring all over the place,” Penguins defenceman Olli Maatta told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “It’s not all one way he scores goals. I think that’s what makes him really dangerous and really tough to defend. He scores off the rush, in front of the net, he does it all.”
Crosby has seemingly accomplished everything during his career, but adding a second 50-goal season eight years after his first would go down as one of his more unexpected achievements.
He’s put himself in great position to do it.
The impressive start has also cooled the talk of him surrendering the title of the best hockey player in the world. Father Time marches on but the 29-year-old remains atop the mountain even with 19-year-old Connor McDavid leading the league in scoring.
The emergence of McDavid adds an intriguing element to the discussion. The greats always push each other – “The best athletes accept that responsibility and they don’t look at it as pressure,” Wayne Gretzky recently noted – and even with the big age gap it says something that Crosby has been able to delay the passing of the torch in a league where the kids are taking over.
It would be completely understandable if he let his foot off the gas pedal ever so slightly at this stage of his career. He’s won everything and has nothing left to prove. He’s only about a month away from reaching 1,000 NHL points.
But that’s simply not how Crosby is wired. He’s still pushing to find a new level.
“To be elite like he is, and do it year in, year out, you have to have an elite drive train and have a passion for the game,” said Babcock. “He has that. I think he’s really matured into a great spokesperson for the league – model citizen, does things right, treats people right – so that gives you the power to speak for the league and the players.”
His next chance to make a statement comes tonight on Hockey Night in Canada.
