Crosby sticks with new approach

By Joe Starkey, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Friday, October 30, 2009

Sidney Crosby, goal scorer.

We are all witnessing the evolution.

With nine goals in 12 games, Crosby is off to the best start of his five-year career. He has 24 goals in his past 36 games, including the playoffs. He is on pace to score 62 this season, though it's a bit early for projections.

Some people want to attribute Crosby's hot start solely to his new, one-piece stick. Crosby is not one of them, although he acknowledges that the stick, at the very least, is symbolic of his budding scorer's mentality.

For his first four seasons, Crosby used a wooden blade, while nearly all other NHL players were using one-piece composite sticks -- made mostly of graphite -- that they believe allow for better velocity and lift on shots.

Crosby favored the wood, among other reaasons, because he could feel the puck better on his stick. He finally made the switch this past summer, partly because the wooden blades he favored went out of production two years ago (he kept a stash for last season and still has plenty left, just in case).

"If anything, I think (the new stick) has probably given me more confidence to use my shot a little more," Crosby said Wednesday, after scoring a hat trick against Montreal. "I definitely feel like I'm more likely to shoot from a little farther out than normal. In my mind, I'm not afraid to take a shot in a one-on-one now. That's important. I can't be too predictable."

Most of Crosby's goals this season, as in last year's playoffs, have been right around the bucket. Can you imagine the carnage if he ever develops an outside jumper?

Crosby figures two of his nine goals "maybe" could be attributed to the new stick, and that is significant. That would project to 10 "new-stick" goals in a 45-goal season.

In that vein, I posed the following question to Penguins coach Dan Bylsma and winger Bill Guerin: What is the ceiling on Crosby's goal potential?

Before last year's playoffs, Crosby was trending downward. He averaged 0.48 goals per game during his 39-goal rookie year. That decreased to 0.46, 0.45 and 0.43. His shots per game, too, hit a career-low of 3.09 last season but has risen to 4.2 this season.

Clearly, something changed in the playoffs. Crosby decided he needed to score if his team was going to win.

So, what's the ceiling? Keep in mind that Crosby still is only 22.

"Sid probably focused on playmaking more early in his career, and I think there was a ceiling to how many goals he could get because of that," Bylsma said. "I think now he has a different mentality and focus. He has more of a shooter's mentality. I think that lends to there not being a ceiling."

Proof of the changing mentality: Crosby registered seven or more shots just three times in 77 games last season; he's already done it three times this season.

"He puts himself in position to score all the time," Guerin said. "If he chooses to shoot more - which they've been telling him to do - he could score a ton of goals."

Back home this past summer in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, Crosby spent hours shooting pucks with a weighted one-piece stick. He poured sand down the hollow shaft in order to make it heavier.

"I have a shooting area set up in my backyard, a big concrete slab," Crosby said. "And I have a net with a big cage around it."

If he scores 40 goals this season, Crosby will raise his career total to 172, which would tie Bobby Carpenter for fifth-most in NHL history before the age of 23. Wayne Gretzky leads that list, according to Elias Sports Bureau, with a ridiculous 329 goals, followed by Dale Hawerchuk (220) and Mario Lemieux (215).

But then, when it comes to goal scoring, Crosby is just getting started. And as he put it Wednesday, "I don't want to stop."