Crosby's goal-scoring touch has gone ice cold

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

By Dave Molinari

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Sidney Crosby has met numerous standards of excellence in his first two seasons in professional hockey, and set quite a few others.

They cover everything from productivity as a teenager on the ice, to poise and professionalism off it.

And today, when the Penguins face Chicago at 7:38 p.m. at the Mellon Arena, he'll have an opportunity to establish another. One he would rather keep off his permanent record.

Crosby has not scored a goal in seven games, matching the longest dry spell of his NHL career.

There's a rather large asterisk on that streak, considering he got the deciding goal in the Penguins' 5-4 shootout victory in Philadelphia Thursday, but the NHL does not include shootout statistics with conventional ones.

So, Crosby is considered to be goal-less since he got one in the Penguins' 7-2 victory at Phoenix Jan. 27. That equals the drought he experienced Oct. 15-Nov. 1 in 2005, his first month in the league.

His inability to score lately hasn't eroded Crosby's lead in the NHL points race; he still was 14 ahead of Tampa Bay's Vincent Lecavalier before the Lightning played Phoenix last night.

More important, it hasn't had a significant impact on the Penguins' record. They are 6-0-1 since he last scored.

"That makes it a little bit easier to take, there's no doubt," Crosby said. "When you're having trouble scoring and the team's losing, it's a lot harder to take."

Crosby's contributions to the Penguins aren't limited to his goal-scoring, even though he ranks second on the team with 25. He has accumulated nine assists in the past seven games, running his league-leading total to 62, and is a presence opponents dare not ignore every time he goes over the boards.

"He does so many other things to make our team good," said right winger Mark Recchi, Crosby's linemate.

Crosby got a new left winger in the third period of the Penguins' 6-5 shootout victory in Toronto Saturday, when Erik Christensen replaced Ryan Malone, but Malone was back on the top line at practice yesterday and is expected to be there against the Blackhawks.

Crosby said he does not believe he has been pressing since the shots stopped going in, preferring to characterize his mind-set as "bearing down" to make sure he takes advantage of any opportunities that come along.

If he actually is squeezing the stick a bit tighter than usual, his teammates don't seem to be noticing.

"I know he wants to score, and I know he wants to do good things, but he doesn't give you that impression [that he's pressing] off the ice, or even on the bench," Recchi said.

Even though goal-scoring isn't the cornerstone of his game the way it is for, say, Alexander Ovechkin, Crosby acknowledges that he's cognizant of his drought, even though those around him say it isn't affecting other facets of his play.

"He's like every guy who has scored goals throughout his whole life," Christensen said. "He's noticing it, I'll bet, but it doesn't seem to bother him."

That's probably because Crosby recognizes that slumps -- and how many players would be willing to swap a vital organ for a nine-points-in-seven-games "slump?" -- are an occupational hazard for even the most accomplished players.

"That's what you go through," he said. "You can pretty much say that I've gone through a situation like this every year I've played. You have games where you just can't miss and other [stretches] like this where you have an open net and the puck bounces over your stick, or you just get some unfortunate breaks."

All concerned appear certain his luck will turn soon. Until it does, Crosby's teammates don't seem to mind shouldering some of the offensive burden he usually carries.

"Obviously, he is our best player and we all know that, but there are going to be nights when other guys are going to have to step up in the scoring," Recchi said.

"He's still going to play well, because he always does, but he might get checked a little tighter that night. Maybe get an assist or two, kind of kept in check a little bit. That's when everybody else has to step up."

So far, the Penguins have done that, and getting important goals from other parts of the lineup suggests that, if they get into the playoffs, they could be a more formidable opponent than some might realize.

Then again, Crosby's co-workers are convinced that any discussion of his goal-scoring slump will take place in the past tense before much longer.

"It'll come," Recchi said. "And when it comes with him, it's going to come in bunches."



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(Dave Molinari can be reached at DWMolinari@Yahoo.com. )