Pittsburgh Penguins Need Sidney Crosby on Track with His New Linemates

On Monday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins did an admirable job of weathering their latest injury storm with a strong game and a third-period comeback that helped them seize a point on the road against the New York Rangers.

Though Sidney Crosby is now goalless in his last seven games—a career-high slump, according to Josh Cooper of Yahoo's Puck Daddy—he showed some nice chemistry on Monday with his latest linemates, Nick Spaling and Steve Downie.

"Downie especially did a great job of getting Crosby the puck with short little dishes as he was coming up the ice at full speed," explained Michelle Crechiolo of Penguins.com after the game. "That allowed Crosby to gain the zone and jump-start a few good offensive zone shifts."

Both in their first seasons with Pittsburgh, neither Spaling nor Downie is known as an especially skilled forward, but each finished the night on Monday with a goal and an assist.

Spaling opened the scoring midway though the first period on a terrific feed from Crosby, while Downie tallied the game-tying goal with 4:19 in the third on a setup from Spaling.

Pascal Dupuis' blood clot diagnosis on November 19 kicked off the Penguins' injury parade. Since that time, the Penguins have managed a solid 5-3-2 record in 10 games. Crosby has tallied an uncharacteristically low nine points during that time—a single goal and eight assists.

It's unusual to see a healthy Crosby knocked out of the top spot in the Art Ross Trophy race. After Tuesday's games, his 35 points currently rank him second behind Tyler Seguin of the Dallas Stars.

Is he dealing with health issues of his own? Crosby did miss a game-day skate due to illness on December 2—right in the middle of his three-game pointless streak—but has played in every game this season.

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

Whatever was ailing him might now be in the past. "Crosby was flying all over the ice" on Monday, according to Crechiolo, and has returned to the scoresheet with assists in his last two games.

Mike Johnston should have more bodies available when the Penguins take to the ice against the Calgary Flames on Friday. According to Sam Kasan of Penguins.com, defenseman Kris Letang should be ready to provide a much-needed spark to the power play, while there's a chance that Patric Hornqvist will rejoin the depleted forward ranks.

Hornqvist has been good with Crosby this season but could slot in with Evgeni Malkin if Johnston decides to keep his new first line together.

For the moment, the coach is concentrating on getting the most out of the players he has available—making sure they know how to work best together, even if it means sacrificing the speedy breakouts he holds dear.

"We're at a point now where we have lines that haven't played together before," Johnston explained to Josh Yohe of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "So you sit down. You talk about how you break out together, how you get out of the defensive zone. You have to move at a slower pace when you're dealing with people who haven't worked together before."

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Though 27-year-old Downie has been known primarily as an agitator and energy player during his NHL career, he showed some scoring chops during his junior career. A first-round draft choice by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2007, Downie was a two-time gold-medalist for Canada at the 2006 and 2007 World Junior Championships and a key offensive contributor with six points in six games at both tournaments.

If Downie can keeping clicking with Crosby, the combination could go a long way toward solving the Penguins' depth issues up front as they wait for more players to return to the lineup.