Sidney Crosby Shouldn't Be an All-Star, and He's Better off Missing the Game

The NHL unveiled its official rosters for the 2016 All-Star Game on Wednesday. Notable by his absence was Sidney Crosby, the Pittsburgh Penguins star who has long been the face of the league and the consensus choice as its best player. He has not, however, been close to being the game's best skater this season.

It isn't the first time Crosby will miss the All-Star Game. It's just the first time the NHL has had the option of showcasing him in the event and consciously declined to do so.

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Oddly enough, Crosby has only attended one NHL All-Star Game, in 2007. On four occasions in his career, the event has been superseded by something else—three times by the Olympics and once by an owner-initiated lockout. The rest of the time, injury has been the culprit.

"[The absences are] not really crazy considering I missed on three chances because of the Olympics and four because of injury," Crosby said last year, as per NHL.com's Dan Rosen. "One was a high-ankle sprain, two were concussions, and one was my knee."

In that Rosen piece, published January 19, 2015, Crosby explained it was going to be nice to play in an event he hadn't seen in nearly a decade. The next day, he played just under 23 minutes in a game against Philadelphia. A night later, he topped the 23-minute mark in a contest versus the Blackhawks. The day after that, he withdrew from the event, citing a "lower-body injury." He skipped Pittsburgh's first game after the break but was back a night later, playing 20 minutes against Washington.

In other words, there's no sense in blowing Crosby's exclusion out of proportion. It's unlikely he is sitting at home mourning a lost opportunity to go to Nashville and play an hour of three-on-three no-contact hockey at three-quarter speed.

That's not to say the NHL's decision lacks meaning. In most seasons, the NHL is obliged to name Crosby to the event if he's capable of playing. After the season Crosby has had, though, the fact he was passed over is entirely defensible.

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Each divisional roster carried six forwards, and as of the announcement, Crosby was in a three-way tie for sixth place in scoring among players from the Metropolitan Division. He was also six points back of Evgeni Malkin, the forward who got the nod for Pittsburgh.

Sean Gentille of Sporting News put it this way:

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Crosby wasn't good enough in October and November — and, again, at the risk of being overly speculative, things surrounding him didn't look or feel right. If that wasn't enough to disqualify him, it planted the seed. Good as he's been recently, and as much as he seems to be back on track, Crosby was too pedestrian in the first 20-25 games for an All-Star omission to be any real injustice.

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The good news for the Penguins is Crosby finally seems to be coming out of the season-long slump he's been mired in. After managing a paltry 19 points through his first 30 games of the 2015-16 campaign, he now has 12 in his last eight contests. Under new head coach Mike Sullivan, Crosby is finally back to scoring at Crosbyan levels.

It's also not like being passed over for the All-Star Game is without its own advantages.

While most of the rest of the division's top players will be in for a packed weekend, showing off for the skills competition and playing tiring three-on-three hockey, Crosby will have a week without games to rest any nagging injuries and take some down time from a disappointing season. The Christmas break doesn't seem to have done him any harm, and this won't, either.

And if Crosby needed any more motivation, this decision gives it to him. For a long time now, he's born the burden of being almost indisputably the NHL's best player, but this is perhaps the best indication he's been given to date that he won't hang on to that title if he can't get back to playing the way he once did. Players don't win Hart Trophies without being driven; it's a good bet this will stir Crosby's competitive spirit.

All of that is good news for the Penguins. The team currently sits one point back of Boston for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and 18 points back of the division-leading Washington Capitals. Much as Crosby has disappointed this year, so have the Pens as a team. A rested and fired-up superstar to lead the way is exactly what the club will need as it makes a playoff push down the stretch.

Statistics courtesy of NHL.com. 

Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.