By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
Rick Stewart/Getty Images
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby has won 60 percent of his faceoffs this season.
Sift through NHL statistics, and you can see tangible evidence of Sidney Crosby's improvement on faceoffs.
As a rookie in 2005-06, the Penguins' center won 45.5 percent of his draws. The next season, it was 49.8. He jumped to 51.4 percent in 2007-08, plateaued a bit last season at 51.3 percent and, through eight games this season, has been among the best in the NHL at 60 percent going into the game tonight against St. Louis.
Those numbers are easy to track. What's more complicated is tracking how Crosby has made improvements in his game since arriving as a highly skilled, highly promoted 18-year-old.
"It's more of a constant, consistent mindset of just working on things," Crosby said.
You don't have to tell that to his teammates, who see a multi-faceted agenda from him at each practice.
"He's constantly working on stuff," said winger Matt Cooke. "He'll want guys to go out and work him on the half-wall or work him down low on the power play. If we're doing extra work, he's one of the guys there participating.
"He's definitely got the drive and the desire to better himself every day."
Crosby -- the team captain who, at 22, has a league scoring title, a league MVP award and his name on the Stanley Cup -- takes a three-pronged approach to working on his game.
He has his longer-term projects, such as faceoffs. He has his pet peeves of the day, maybe a particular pass or shot that failed him in a recent game.
And then there are the things that already are going swimmingly.
"I guess it's easy when you're having a tough time, to work on something," Crosby said. "You want to be good at it, and you realize you've got to work on it.
"When you're doing well at something, it's a little harder to practice it because you're doing well at it. It's coming easy. That's the time when you've got to remind yourself to stay on it and make sure you keep getting better and don't kind of sit on it because you could be doing well for a couple weeks, then all of a sudden you hit a time when you're trying to catch up."
Crosby's drive helps him juggle all the things he wants to work on. It helps to divide his tasks into long-term goals, short-term goals and crisis management, and treat each area accordingly.
"As long as you realize that, it's easier to manage it and try to work on things," he said. "There are some things that are going to take time, and faceoffs are one of those things."
Penguins coach Dan Bylsma describes the art of faceoffs as, at least in part, an exercise in will.
"It's much like blocking a shot," said Bylsma, who excelled in those as a player. "You've really got to want to win it, first off. If you don't really want to win it, if it's not that important to you, you probably aren't going to be that good.
"It doesn't guarantee success, but, if you go in there with a certain expectation level and battle level in the importance of the faceoffs and you're talking to your wingers and your [defensemen] about helping you out and what you're trying to accomplish, I think you're going to have a great success vs. going in there thinking, 'Oh, I'm going in there against a good guy like [Rod] Brind'Amour tonight,' and you talk yourself out of having success."
Crosby's desire to improve is not usually something that is questioned, but he does not stop there -- nor, in the case of faceoffs, does he leave it at taking extra draws in practice.
He scouts his prospective faceoff opponents, their tendencies, whether they are right-handed or left-handed.
"It's practicing it and applying it, finding things out," Crosby said. "That's probably the biggest part, but also just learning about the other guys you're facing off against.
"I'm still facing off against new guys, but I find, for the most part, I'm pretty familiar with who I'm against every night, what works and when you have to bear down and when you have to switch things up."
Crosby is hardly alone as a hockey player who works on his game or craves improvement. He might be a little more intense than many, though.
"Everybody has bad habits you try to shake," Crosby said. "For me, as an offensive player, you get caught cheating sometimes. It doesn't mean you don't care about defense. It's just a natural thing.
"You've got to kind of evaluate yourself sometimes and make sure you're getting back to good habits. That's an NHL hockey season, and that's what you deal with. That's adjusting, and I think every player, we all try to improve those things."
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 or 412-263-1721.
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 October 20, 2009 at 12:00 am
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