Sidney Crosby's Resurgent Season Bolsters Status as NHL's Ultimate Game-Changer

The National Hockey League took just about every opportunity to trot out Sidney Crosby during his first decade in the league.

Crosby was the featured attraction at the league’s first Winter Classic in 2008, then reached the Stanley Cup Final in consecutive years—finally winning the championship in 2009. He scored the golden goal to lift Canada to a gold medal at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.

Even after he suffered a concussion that cost him almost a full calendar year of games—ironically suffered during the 2011 Winter Classic—Crosby returned to the forefront, claiming the Hart Trophy for most valuable player in 2014 while leading the NHL with 104 points and Canada to another Olympic gold.

His status as the face of the sport was undeniable.

But with a fresh batch of charismatic generational talents—Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Anze Kopitar, Tyler Seguin and others—and the Pittsburgh Penguins failing to even reach the Eastern Conference Final in consecutive years, Crosby had been pushed to the back burner in the NHL’s pecking order of superstars.

This season, his tantalizingly slow start—in which he failed to mesh with newly acquired winger Phil Kessel—further fueled his detractors. Some even suggested the NHL was moving on from the Crosby era.

The Penguins hit rock bottom with four straight losses in December after coach Mike Johnston was fired, and Crosby, still just 28, was at a crossroads.

But with some consistency and familiarity on his lines, plus lessons taught by new coach Mike Sullivan, Crosby again looks like a Hart Trophy candidate, and the Penguins appear dangerous. In Pittsburgh’s playoff opener Wednesday against the -, Crosby had three points, including a goal.

“Obviously, when there’s a change, everyone takes that to heart and realizes we have to take a look in the mirror here,” Crosby said. “I think individually, I did the same thing, and I think as a group, we all have kind of come together and been a lot better.”

With 29 points in the Penguins’ final 21 regular-season games, Crosby finished third in the NHL in points—a remarkable occurrence based on how his season started. Johnston forced Kessel, the five-time 30-goal scorer acquired by Pittsburgh in the summer, with Crosby, and the tandem simply didn’t gel.

Crosby could not possess the puck enough to feed Kessel, and the result was more shot attempts and scoring chances against. Crosby, who had at least 13 points in every October of his career, posted just five points during this season’s first month.

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

Crosby was minus-10 through two months and had just 27 points in Pittsburgh’s first 33 games—good numbers, but not quite on par with his career 1.36 points-per-game pace he had entering this season. Lacking production from their top line, the Penguins sat in 10th place in the Eastern Conference as the calendar flipped to 2016.

That inability to mesh talents cost Johnston his job, but Sullivan has offered more than just a fresh voice in the Penguins’ locker room. He has preached accountability and ownership, and fueled by that—plus a midseason deal that brought Carl Hagelin to Pittsburgh in exchange for struggling winger David Perron—the Penguins have looked rejuvenated.

“Everyone kind of has their own identity, and with him, accountability is a big thing,” Crosby said, referencing Sullivan. “You could tell right away, no matter what the detail is, they’re all important. I would say he’s very detailed, and when it comes to being responsible, being accountable—being on time—that sort of thing, he really pays a lot of attention to that.”

No player looks fresher than Crosby, who put the Penguins on his back after the club announced on March 12 that second-line center Evgeni Malkin would miss the remainder of the regular season. While critics questioned the Pens' postseason chances without Malkin, Crosby closed the season with a point or more in 21 of 22 games, including a current nine-game point streak—further ratcheting up his Hart Trophy candidacy.

“Prior to the coaching change, I felt I was starting to play better,” Crosby said. “I felt my game was coming along. It takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight.”

Yet, if Crosby is the sport’s most valuable player, his linemates, Chris Kunitz and Patric Hornqvist, are likely the NHL’s most important sidekicks. Sullivan finally settled on that troika in the middle of January—around the halfway point of the Pens’ season—and Crosby had 54 points in 40 games.

Hornqvist scored a hat trick and assisted on Crosby’s goal in Game 1.

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

“They’re both similar players in the sense that they go to the net, they play in the battle areas, they’re strong on the walls, they’re good in the corners,” Sullivan said of Kunitz and Hornqvist. “I think they help Sid keep the puck under the hash marks, where he’s really good … but Sid certainly has been the playmaker on that line, and those two guys go to the net and make it hard on our opponents.”

Sullivan also has the option to insert Kessel and/or Malkin—when he returns, which he may do in Game 2 Saturday—onto Crosby’s line for short spurts to turn the tides of games. Ex-Penguins coach Dan Bylsma used Malkin and Crosby together at times during the 2014 playoffs, and although they generated offense, the Penguins were unable to overcome the glaring lack of offensive depth besides the superline that season.

Yet Sullivan believes this campaign is different.

“When we have our full lineup, we have the ability to move people around,” Sullivan said. “Depending on how the games go, or depending on how our lines play, we have some flexibility. I think that makes us harder to play against.”

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

This postseason feels especially important for Crosby and the Penguins. After consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final in 2008 and 2009, Pittsburgh has won only four playoff rounds since. With just one championship to his name, Crosby’s legacy is still at stake, particularly since the Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings have ascended as the class of the NHL—winning three and two titles, respectively, since Pittsburgh’s last.

The Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh’s most ardent rival, are having a renaissance season—thanks in large part to another huge year from Alexander Ovechkin—plus, Henrik Lundqvist and the New York Rangers have ousted Pittsburgh in consecutive seasons.

Sullivan, who was a Rangers assistant coach for four seasons under John Tortorella, watched Crosby torment his teams since he entered the league in 2005-06, as the center posted 36 points in 25 games against teams Sullivan had either coached or been an assistant with—including a two-game stretch against the Rangers in late November 2009 in which Crosby posted eight points.

It feels like karma that Sullivan would be Crosby’s coach during this incredible stretch—particularly since the last time the Penguins won the Cup in 2009 they changed their coach midseason, firing Michel Therrien and bringing in Bylsma. That they’d open the postseason against the Rangers again further propagates that sentiment.

But whatever force is behind it, Sullivan isn’t going to apologize or complain.

“I’d much rather have him on my bench than play against him,” Sullivan said.

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. 

Pat Pickens has covered the NHL since 2012. His work has appeared in the New York Times, USA Today and NHL.com. Follow him on Twitter @Pat_Pickens.