By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
Matt Freed/Post-Gazette
Penguins forward Sidney Crosby has recorded two hat tricks this season.
Sidney Crosby was 13 when he first met Max Talbot. Five years later, in the 2005-06 season, they were Penguins rookies together. And when Crosby invited just one teammate to his personal celebration with the Stanley Cup last summer, it was Talbot.
So it figures that Talbot would cut right to the personality aspect of why Crosby is on pace this season to set career highs in shots, goals and shooting percent and, for the first time, finish with more goals than assists.
"It's not about shooting more; it's about being more confident, which makes him shoot more," Talbot said yesterday after the Penguins practiced at Southpointe. "He's more confident. He knows he can be a goal-scorer."
Going into tonight's home game against Colorado, Crosby has scored 17 goals on 101 shots. Those numbers had him in the top seven in the NHL in each category before last night's play. His recent tear -- six goals, 10 points in his past four games -- gave him 33 points and moved him into a tie for third in the NHL scoring race through Tuesday.
Crosby switched to a one-piece composite stick over the summer. That's one indication he made a conscious decision to shoot more.
"I feel like I think 'pass' first most times. So if I can think 'shoot' a little bit more, hopefully, that will open both and keep guys guessing," Crosby said. "I'll, hopefully, be a threat either way."
It's not that Crosby's assists have fallen off dramatically -- his goals total tops his assists by just one -- but the ratio is much different from his first four seasons, when he had 132 goals and almost exactly twice as many assists -- 265.
By shooting more -- Crosby will finish with 296 shots and reach 50 goals for the first time at his current pace of 3.6 shots a game and a 16.8 shooting percent -- he is helping the rest of the 19-9 Penguins through a ripple effect.
Opponents now have to be more alert for Crosby to shoot, not just make a familiar drop pass or dish the puck across. That means positioning differently to try to take away his shooting lanes and watch for rebounds.
"As a goalie and a defenseman, you could have thought he was going to be a passer before when he was coming down on a two-on-one or on a power play. You could see him looking for passes," coach Dan Bylsma said.
"The passing skills certainly haven't gone away, and the ability to make that play has not gone away. But if you also have a scoring threat, if the goalie's now worried about the shot, it's a different factor. ... In different scenarios, it's adding another weapon."
One that was bound to make its way into Crosby's repertoire as he matured, gained confidence and sought ways to solidify his high-level game. It only took until he was 22.
"He's got such a great ability to score goals that when you have those chances, you have to take it," said veteran winger Bill Guerin, who has played mostly on Crosby's right side since joining the Penguins in March.
"If there's a play to be made [to set up a goal], he'll make it. The fact that he's shooting the puck makes everybody else more available because now teams know that he'll shoot. They have to honor that."
Bylsma sees a difference in more than the number of shots Crosby is taking.
"Not only is he shooting them, but he's shooting them pretty hard," Bylsma said. "The last few games, he's had a couple of chances that didn't go in that were cannons to the net. You wear goalies down with that."
Guerin said that over the years he, like many, came to think of Crosby as a player who looked primarily to pass the puck. When Crosby won the NHL scoring title with 120 points in 2006-07, 84 of those came on assists, 36 on goals.
"He'll tell you he has a bad shot, but he has a great shot," Guerin said. "It's quick. It's hard. It's accurate. It's good to see him using it."
Crosby's assists can still be spectacular, such as the spinning, backhand pass from the left-wing boards to Sergei Gonchar in a 3-1 win Nov. 25 against Montreal -- the game that marked the start of Crosby's recent point surge.
Crosby also seems to have expanded his comfort zone in shooting the puck. No longer does he concentrate so heavily on the area within six or eight feet of the net. Also in that Nov. 25 victory, Crosby used Canadiens defenseman Paul Mara as a screen and scored from above the left circle on a rising shot.
Practice drills that have the Penguins taking perimeter shots help, Crosby said.
For more on the Penguins, read the new Pens Plus blog with Dave Molinari and Shelly Anderson at www.post-gazette.com/plus. Shelly Anderson can be reached at shanderson@post-gazette.com.
Penguins Plus, a blog by Dave Molinari and Shelly Anderson, is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.
First published on December 3, 2009 at 12:00 am
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