PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, April 21, 2007
OTTAWA
His first experience with the NHL's postseason was more brief than it was brilliant, but while Sidney Crosby didn't dominate against the Ottawa Senators, he certainly didn't disappoint.
The record will show that the NHL's leading scorer failed to register a point in the series' final two games, that his three goals merely matched rather than surpassed the total posted by Senators third-line center Chris Kelly, and that Crosby's team was dispatched in five at-times one-sided games, mostly because the power-play unit Crosby commands failed miserably in its final 15 chances.
That's one way to look at it.
Another is to recognize that Crosby took to the playoffs as if he'd been in the league for 19 years rather than alive that long, that he led the Penguins with five points and finished just one behind the series' leading scorer, Daniel Alfredsson, and that Crosby did it all under suffocating pressure and intense scrutiny.
The hockey world was watching closely.
Crosby responded by acquitting himself in a manner that confirmed what Penguins fans already knew: He's already perhaps the NHL's best player, and that whether he is or not he's just getting started.
"He played well," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "He played really well. He works hard; that's Sidney Crosby."
His signature moment was the third-period goal he scored that won Game 2. Crosby was on the ice against the defensive pairing of Chris Phillips and Anton Volchenkov, as he seemingly was all series.
That individual matchup went the Senators' way more often than not; the scoreboard said so.
Still, Crosby wasn't finished battling even late Thursday night in the aftermath of Game 5.
"They played well," Crosby said of Phillips and Volchenkov. "They're a tough pairing, but I think I was still able to create things. It wasn't like there weren't chances. I'm not going to sit here and say they didn't do a good job because they did, but I think the competitive side of me says I had my chances, too."
He'll have more, and the hockey world knows it, which is why the disappointment of the quick exit will fade faster than the Penguins probably suspect.
Crosby may have been educated to an extent in this series, but he wasn't rattled.
He showed up and he was heard from.
Crosby didn't pull a Barry Bonds.
And when the Penguins get him a little more help on the wing ...
Perhaps that's what he and Therrien were discussing when they shared a private moment in the bowels of Scotiabank Place, as Therrien was leaving the podium and Crosby once again was taking center stage.
"That's between me and him," Therrien said.
As Crosby spoke, it was difficult to differentiate his demeanor from what he had displayed Thursday morning following the morning skate.
The kid is that unflappable.
And he made it clear he has unfinished business.
"We had two games where I think we were trying to get our feet wet, and we got caught watching," Crosby said. "That's not going to happen again because we know what it's like now."
The rest of the NHL has been notified.
Mike Prisuta is a columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He can be reached at mprisuta@tribweb.com or 412-320-7923.
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