Stanley Cup Win Seals Sidney Crosby's Hard Road Back to Hockey's Mountaintop

SAN JOSE, Calif. — In the end, one more Pittsburgh Penguin slid down to sacrifice his body against one more San Jose Sharks shot. That player wore a 'C' in the upper left corner of his sweater, signifying his captaincy. A few minutes later, Sidney Crosby would be called another word that starts with C.

Champion. 

He was probably already there, but Crosby cemented his inclusion to the pantheon of NHL greats Sunday night, leading the Penguins to the Stanley Cup in a 3-1 Game 6 victory over the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center. A statue of only one Penguins player stands sentry outside the arena in Pittsburgh, that of another pantheon member, Mario Lemieux. Number 66 might have some company some day from No. 87.

For those counting, that's two Stanley Cups now for Crosby, along with a newly won Conn Smythe Trophy, two Olympic gold medals and a couple of Hart Trophies. And, he's still only 28. That second Cup, though, was something still missing on his resume, something that critics could still point at and say it separated him from the true legends of the sport. No more.

It took seven years, and there were a lot of obstacles to overcome, including serious concussion issues that had him worried he might never play again. But whereas things had always come easily to Crosby, he now is a man who better knows that the road to glory is hard-won—and maybe it's more satisfying that way.

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"I have a greater appreciation this time around," said Crosby, who won as a 22-year-old in 2009 with the Penguins, and played in the 2008 Final. "At a young age, going back to back like we did, you just think it's going to be an annual thing. With the core that you have, you just think everyone's going to stay together and the team's not going to change, and it does. It's not easy to get here. You win at a young age, you probably take it for granted a little bit. You don't think you do at the time, but you realize it's not easy to get to this point."

The Sharks were still just one shot away from tying it up as the game entered the final minute, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic attempted a shot from the left point. Crosby went down to block it, then gained control of the puck, skated it out and slid a pass to teammate Patric Hornqvist, who buried the empty-netter. 

That was the kind of leadership Crosby stamped all over his team. This was the quieter, more mature, stoic Sid, not the young player who had a reputation at times as a hot-head, was always looking to the referee for a call. Despite winning his first Conn Smythe, Crosby did not dazzle with personal statistics in these playoffs, finishing with six goals and 13 assists in 24 games. 

But Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said Crosby made innumerable contributions in many unseen ways.

"I've said all along in these playoffs, he's deserving of the Conn Smythe," Sullivan said. "His numbers don't indicate the impact he had on helping this team win. He was a great leader for our team. He's a complete player, plays at both ends of the rink. I could tell, as we went through this postseason, that he knew that our team had something special."

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Crosby probably didn't think that early on. The Penguins were out of a playoff spot on Dec. 12 and fired coach Mike Johnston, replaced by Sullivan. A trip to the Stanley Cup Final, which Crosby and the Penguins hadn't done since 2009, looked light years ago. Six months to the day later, Crosby had the Cup over his head.

How did this happen? 

"Well, obviously after a coaching change, I think everyone takes that personal, puts the responsibility on their shoulders to be better," Crosby told Bleacher Report. "I think individually and as a group we had high expectations, we knew we needed to be better. I thought we just slowly got better and better. Mike came in and made it pretty clear how he wanted us to play, what he expected from each individual guy. I think guys just welcomed the opportunity, welcomed the challenge, tried to get back on track."

Standing on the crowded postgame ice, where the NHL allowed families, friends of players and the media, Penguins owner Lemieux marveled at his captain, who lived in his house his first couple of years in the league.

"It means a lot to him, this second Cup, and the Conn Smythe" Lemieux said. "He deserves it. He's been a great leader throughout the year. He's been a great leader in the playoffs, when the game was on the line. I'm happy for him. He's got two Cups, and should have a crack at a few more."

Crosby touched the Cup first, but Kris Letang made the play that won it. In an astonishing shift, Letang did a spin-o-rama past Sharks captain Joe Pavelski, circled behind the net and threw the puck out front. It was blocked, but Crosby then beat former teammate Paul Martin to the loose puck, circled the net himself and fed Letang who was completing his journey to the other side. Letang one-timed Crosby's pass by Martin Jones, getting the Penguins the lead back just 1:19 after Logan Couture had tied it for the Sharks.

The Sharks never got much of a sniff on rookie goalie Matt Murray after that. Pittsburgh completely took away any time and space of San Jose skaters, to the tune of limiting them to just two shots in the third period. Crosby's blocked shot at the end was one of his four in the game as Pittsburgh had 33 overall.

"In order to win championships, you got to keep it out of your net. You have to become a team that is stingy defensively. Everybody has to buy in to that idea for us to get to where we want to go. To their credit, they did, down to a man," Sullivan said. "When we started to get some traction towards the end of the postseason, we won a lot of games down the stretch, I think they really started to believe. That was the hard evidence that ... if we play a certain way, we can be a good team and beat anybody in this league."

Lemieux noticed improvement in Crosby's defensive play as the playoffs wore on. He was matched up a lot against Sharks star Joe Thornton, for instance, and Thornton never scored in the series.

"Sometimes in the playoffs, you have to play defense and I think he's been able to do that," Lemieux said. "The game was on the line a few times and he made some great defensive plays. That's the sign of a great leader and great captain. That's the way the playoffs go. There's not a lot of room out there and when there's no room, you've got to make sure you play good defense too."

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Crosby, who handed the Cup off first to injured defenseman Trevor Daley, hugged his parents on the ice and never stopped smiling. A few years ago, he wasn't sure he'd ever play again. 

Now, he's the champion of the world. Again.

Adrian Dater covers the NHL for Bleacher Report.