Wednesday, January 24, 2007
By Shelly Anderson
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
DALLAS -- It turns out that Sidney Crosby, in fact, can score in a shootout.
Who knew?
"Yeah, all those times I missed this year, it finally made it worth it I guess -- to come here and score," the Penguins' center said with a big smile last night after he turned the one deficient area of his game into a positive.
Crosby found himself in two shootout events in the NHL SuperSkills competition at American Airlines Center, and he ended up winning the team competition for the Eastern Conference.
Crosby is the NHL's leading scorer with 72 points and is the front-runner to win the Hart Trophy as league MVP, but shootouts have not been his forte.
He is 0 for 5 this season, worst in the league, and 2 for 11 in his two-year career.
Last night, though, he beat Calgary's Miikka Kiprusoff with a forehand that scooted underneath the goaltender in one portion of the shootout competition, then took part in the final event, which was called the one-on-one shootout. His opponent there was Anaheim veteran Teemu Selanne.
Crosby scored on two of three attempts against goaltender Roberto Luongo of Vancouver. Selanne was stopped on all three shots by goaltender Ryan Miller of Buffalo.
That broke a 10-10 tie in the team score and gave the Eastern Conference a 15-11 win.
"I surprised them with some junky ones, I guess," Crosby said.
Crosby also competed in a competition called in the zone, a three-on-none drill.
He was teamed with Atlanta's Marian Hossa and Philadelphia's Simon Gagne against Kiprusoff. They got no goals, but Crosby didn't attempt a shot.
Rick Nash of Columbus won the individual puck control relay, but the Eastern Conference won the team portion of that.
Anaheim's Andy McDonald was the fastest skater, completing a lap in 14.03 seconds to help the Western Conference win that skill.
Boston defenseman Zdeno Chara got all of his 6-foot-9, 260-pound frame into a shot that registered 100.4 mph to win the individual hardest shot and help the Eastern Conference take that team event.
In the shooting-accuracy drill, Carolina's Hossa and Eric Staal tied by hitting four of five targets to help the Eastern Conference win.
The league did not announce which players would participate in which events until midday yesterday.
"I was just like, oh, this can't be," Crosby said.
"But it came down to me and Teemu Selanne, a guy I grew up watching, so it was fun."
BROTHERLY LOVE?
Carolina All-Star Eric Staal gave his version Monday of the staged, feather-filled pillow fight with younger brother and YoungStar Jordan Staal -- one in which the big brother won.
"Yeah, that's what he would say," Jordan Staal, the Penguins' rookie, said yesterday. "I think I got him in the face a few times."
Jordan Staal had some reservations about getting in front of the cameras for the NHL promotional spot because it was listed as "wrestling" on his itinerary.
NO SCHEDULE CHANGE
After a morning NHL Board of Governors meeting, commissioner Gary Bettman said the league is sticking with its scheduling design through at least the 2007-08 season.
Teams play eight intradivision games, but they play in each opposing conference city just once every three years and do not play every opposing conference team every season.
There has been some criticism that, for instance, rising stars Crosby and Ovechkin in the Eastern Conference, don't play in every market each season or that Canadian teams in the Western Conference don't always face or play host to cnerstone franchises Toronto and Montreal.
"We kind of like it where it is," Bettman said. "It doesn't mean it's perfect, but I think on balance, that's the conclusion that everybody was most comfortable with."
ON THE RUSSIAN FRONT ...
The NHL has received a new proposal from the International Ice Hockey Federation on transfer agreements that includes Russia, but Bettman said he has not had time to digest it enough to comment.
"It's a good sign that, on some basis, though I don't know what that is, the Russians are indicating a willingness to participate," Bettman said.
Because Russia was not a part of the latest IIHF agreement with the NHL, Penguins rookie Evgeni Malkin had to make a secretive and difficult trip to the United States last summer.
NO BACKSLIDING
Bettman insisted the league is not backsliding on its crackdown of the obstruction that had bogged the game down and hindered the skill players.
"We're not advocating or tolerating any slippage," he said. "We're all committed to maintaining it.
"Some of the critiquing and review of the officiating can be subjective, and we understand that and we respect it. But the fact of the matter is we think the game is still open, the feedback we're getting is overwhelmingly positive, but it requires work. We've had some rough games. We don't like it. We want no rough games. But we're committed to maintaining the standard."
SLAP SHOTS
Bettman announced that the 2009 All-Star Game will be in Montreal, where the Canadiens will be celebrating their centennial. The game next year is in Atlanta. ... Although the NHL All-Star Game got a lot of local media attention through Sunday, it has been trumped by the news of Bill Parcells' resignation as the Dallas Cowboys' coach. ... Bettman said the board of governors has no interest in conference or division realignment or in increasing the size of the nets.
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