Evgeni Malkin #71 of the Pittsburgh Penguins (not pictured) scores past Braden Holtby #70 of the Washington Capitals in Game Four of the Eastern Conference Second Round during the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at PPG Paints Arena on May 3, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images)
PITTSBURGH — The Washington Capitals were road warriors during the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs — that is, until Thursday night.
The Capitals lost a road game for the first time this postseason in a lackluster showing against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 4 of their playoff series. Pittsburgh evened the series two games apiece with a 3-1 win at PPG Paints Arena.
T.J. Oshie scored the Capitals‘ only goal on a power play, while Jake Guentzel scored twice (once on an empty net) and Evgeni Malkin added a goal for the Penguins. Braden Holtby had a strong night outside two messy goals allowed, making 21 saves. Matt Murray had 20 saves for Pittsburgh.
It was Washington’s first game of the series without top-line winger Tom Wilson, who began his three-game suspension for an illegal check to the head on Zach Aston-Reese.
Whether or not due to Wilson’s absence, the top line was ineffective. Alex Ovechkin did not take a shot on goal and Devante Smith-Pelly struggled in Wilson’s place.
“I think anytime 43’s out of the lineup, you see a loss,” Oshie said. “He’s stepped into a very big role for us and done a great job and we miss him, but we’re gonna have to do a job here without him.”
Lest Capitals fans thought their team would go up 3-1 against Pittsburgh for the first time since 1995 and have a chance to clinch at home Saturday, the Penguins made sure this series would last at least six games, as it did when the Capitals lost in 2017 (seven games) and 2016 (six).
“It’s been a long series the last two years,” Nicklas Backstrom said. “That’s what we prepare for, and what we’re prepared for now.”
Pittsburgh did a better job of puck management than in earlier games. The Penguins kept possession in their offensive zone for much of the first 10 minutes and went on their first power play just 70 seconds into the game. Smith-Pelly lost his handle on the puck in the offensive zone more than once.
The Penguins opened scoring midway through the second period. Matt Niskanen lost his stick, and with a Pittsburgh odd-man rush heading up the ice, Smith-Pelly gave Niskanen his. Niskanen got to the rush late and took Dominik Simon’s initial shot in the leg. Guentzel stuffed in the loose puck behind traffic.
Washington answered three minutes later when Guenztel was called for tripping. Nicklas Backstrom dribbled the puck patiently around the right circle before passing to T.J. Oshie in the slot for a one-timer.
“Nick doesn’t really surprise me about where he can put the puck these days,” Oshie said. “I was ready for it, he knew I was ready for it. I knew it was just a matter of time until he felt like it was the right time to put it through.”
But during a Penguins’ power play late in the second for an Oshie interference, a shot bounced off the inside of the right pipe and Holtby sprawled across the crease. The puck glided to the left inside corner of the painted area, Patric Hornqvist made a play on it and Evgeni Malkin dove in to poke it across the line.
It was only ruled a goal after an official review, and then it withstood a Trotz challenge that sought goaltender interference.
Before the review, Malkin said he did not think the puck crossed the line all the way and was mad at himself for a missed chance. Rather than taking any credit, Malkin gushed over Hornqvist’s play to set him up to score.
“It’s not me. It’s [Hornqvist]. He’s unbelievable,” Malkin said. “He stay in front and he take rebound and give me right away. It’s unbelievable. I see the open right side and tried to shoot quick as I can and tried to get the puck go in.”
But where Malkin saw a clutch hockey play, Trotz and his staff saw goaltender interference.
“Our video coaches and staff looked at it. Hornqvist came in and drove a pad, and we didn’t feel that Orpik had pushed him in,” Trotz said. “He was grabbing him at the end but he forced that situation, pushing the pad. Most goaltenders have the ability, once they get their edges down, to move to any other puck. He wasn’t able to do that.”
Oshie assigned himself the brunt of the blame for going to the box in the first place.
“I shot us in the foot there with that penalty. I was trying to make a smart play by taking away their D-man’s stick and ended up being a dumb play by clipping his skate there,” Oshie said. “I think that was kinda the turning point in the game, when they got that goal there when I was in the box. So I gotta be a little smarter than that.”
The Capitals had extended zone time in the middle of the third period, but could not take advantage of scoring chances. Jake Guenztel added an empty-netter in the final minute, tallying his NHL-leading 10th goal of the playoffs.
Wilson’s hits in Games 2 and 3 and subsequent punishment have dominated the series’s headlines this week, butCapitals players like Niskanen were not ready to use his absence as an excuse.
“You can complain about this or complain about that, or wonder about this or whatever,” Niskanen said. “You just keep playing the game really hard, keep believing. I think we’re building a belief that we can beat these guys. We know we’re going to have to play really well, but it’s possible. We think we can do it.”
Trotz was not upset with the performance of Wilson’s replacement on the top line.
“I think Devo did a really good job filling in,” he said of Smith-Pelly. “Obviously Tom’s a unique player, but I thought that line was going pretty well head-to-head.”
With the series a de facto best-of-three, the Capitals host Game 5 Saturday at 7 p.m.
(Associated Press) The best evidence that the NHL’s Department of Player Safety made the right call in suspending Tom Wilson three games is that few people are pleased with the decision. Given the spark and fire that Wilson provides the Washington Capitals, this is a significant suspension. He is gone for the key games of this series. But some fans, particularly those in Pittsburgh, wanted the book thrown at the rugged Washington forward for his high hit that broke Zach Aston-Reese’s jaw. At a minimum, Penguins fans wanted Wilson gone for the rest of the Eastern Conference semifinal. With this suspension, Wilson can be back for Game 7. Can you imagine how fired up the Washington fans will be if Wilson comes back for Game 7? Even some neutral fans believed the suspension should be five games or more. The other unhappy folks are those who believe Wilson’s hit was a legal check. Let’s not forget that officials on the ice saw it that way. Wilson was not penalized. Some former NHL players have also tweeted they thought the hit was fine. We all watch the same videos in these situations, and none of us agrees on what we saw happen or what the league’s reaction should be. Maybe that’s part of the problem. The illegal check to the head rule, as it is written now, provides a gray area in which heavy hitters like Wilson can operate. On the ice, the officials believed his hit was clean because Aston-Reese saw Wilson coming. He had time to prepare for the blow, and Wilson made contact with Aston-Reese’s shoulder before driving upward into his chin. The NHL had to dig deeper to suspend Wilson on the technicalities of Rule 48. He was suspended for changing his angle of attack to make it a more dangerous hit, and then for driving upward to make the head the main point of contact. It was pointed out, in the Player Safety explanation video, that Wilson could have delivered a clean hit if he had continued on his initial path and drove through Aston-Reese’s core. Maybe the Wilson situation is another reminder that it is time to remove the gray area from head shots. Maybe it’s to change the rule to read that if a player makes contact with the head, intended or not, it is a minor penalty. If the referee deems it intentional or reckless, it is a major penalty and a game misconduct. That would reduce the number of head shots. No gray area. Just like we do with stick fouls. You are responsible for your stick. If it cuts someone, you are in the penalty box. Under a zero-tolerance head shot rule, you would be responsible for making sure you don’t make contact with the head. Some argue it would eliminate hitting from the game. Don’t believe that. These are incredible athletes who always find ways to adjust. They would find ways to be physical. If that were the standard, would Wilson have run over Aston-Reese by driving into his chest? We will never know for sure. But we do know is we want to protect players’ brains. And we don’t want players checked in the face hard enough to break their jaw. More: Capitals' Tom Wilson suspended three games More: Penguins furious Tom Wilson was laughing after hit More: Former tough guy Daniel Carcillo to donate his brain for research
Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson was suspended for three games for an illegal check to the head of the Pittsburgh Penguins' Zach Aston-Reese, who suffered a broken jaw and concussion on the play. (Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)
The Capitals and Penguins have played three games in their second-round series. The action has featured a pair of shoulder-to-head hits by Washington’s Tom Wilson, the latest resulting in a broken jaw and concussion for Pittsburgh’s Zach Aston-Reese in Game 3 — and a three-game suspension for Wilson.
Caps fans would be livid if, say, Brett Connolly was knocked from action with a borderline hit from the same Pittsburgh player who caused, say, Matt Niskanen to exit the previous game after a similar blow.
Washingtonians’ opinion entering Game 3 would’ve been loud and clear: There should’ve been a suspension!
But since Pittsburgh defenseman Brian Dumoulin was on the receiving end Sunday in Game 2, Caps fans were relieved when the NHL decided Wilson and his shoulders could carry on. After reviewing the play, the Department of Player Safety determined that Dumoulin moved his head just prior to contact, making the contact unavoidable.
Maybe that was the right call. Just like in the NFL, deciphering split-second. high-speed movements in super slow-motion is an exceedingly frustrating — and often ineffective — way to legislate games. Especially when trying to gauge intent.
The league also ruled in Wilson’s favor during the first-round series against Columbus, when his shoulder-to-head hit drew a penalty and caused Blue Jackets forward Alex Wennberg to miss the next three games.
The trend is bright red, in all caps.
“The hit on Wennberg for me is a dangerous hit,” Columbus general manager Jarmo Kekalainen told reporters after the Blue Jackets won the series opener.
After the Dumoulin incident, Penguins defenseman Kris Letang told reporters “we all know who (Wilson) is and what he does on the ice. We expect that from him.”
Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan mostly held his tongue following Game 2. But Tuesday, after Alex Ovechkin’s goal with 67 seconds left gave Washington a 2-1 series lead, Sullivan let it out.
“We lose a guy to a broken jaw that’s going to require surgery and a concussion because of another high hit to the head,” he told reporters. “At some point, we would hope that the league might do something.”
Wilson wasn’t penalized immediately for the hit, as officials at the game, amazingly, concluded the contact was shoulder-to-shoulder. That prompted a reasonable question from Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto on Twitter:
“How do you break a jaw when it’s just shoulder-to-shoulder?”
The league corrected that mistake a day later, suspending Wilson for three games for an illegal hit.
After Tuesday’s game, the Capitals chose not to make Wilson available to reporters, leaving it to teammates and coach Barry Trotz to explain/defend No. 43’s actions.
They would never admit it, but I suppose the task can be tiresome.
You know the line about certain players, how they’re loved when on your team but hated when on the opposing team? That’s usually a nice way of saying those guys are jerks. Their style often falls on the wrong side of the line according to impartial observers opposed to impassioned fans.
Trotz and Ovechkin and others in the Caps’ dressing room can’t come out say “Tom is dirty,” even if they believe it. That would be heresy.
They might talk about it among themselves. They might chew him out in private conversations. They might grouse to a confidante. But they can’t make a public declaration, can’t violate the code that binds teams across sports. United fronts, we’re in this together, and all that.
If not, he has a well-earned reputation for plays that raise the question.
And he’s not living it down with three iffy hits through nine game this postseason. He has an uncanny knack for winding up in situations where questionable, controversial contact occurs. Hitting opponents in the noggin might happen a lot, but it’s always unavoidable and unintentional, just a regrettable result of guys zipping around on ice skates.
“I’m at no point trying to target the head at all,” Wilson told reporters Sunday after the Dumoulin incident.
If Wilson in fact is dirty, he’s really good at playing innocent.
According to Pro Hockey Talk, he’s the most penalized player since he entered the league in 2013-14. Despite all those penalties, and despite all the ejections and marginal plays, before Wednesday’s action by the league, he’d been fined or suspended only three times.
The Department of Player Safety began rectifying that with Wednesday’s suspension.
I’m all for giving someone the benefit of the doubt, on principle. But when the same guy needs it over and over, it makes me wonder if he truly deserves it.
Even when he plays for the home team.
• Brooklyn-born and Howard-educated, Deron Snyder writes his award-winning column for The Washington Times on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Follow him on Twitter @DeronSnyder.
Tom Wilson has made Games 1, 2 and 3 of this latest second-round showdown between the Capitals and Penguins all about him.
He shouldn't get the chance in Game 4. The guess here is he will, though.
The NHL's Player Safety staff is not strongly positioned to suspend Wilson for his nasty knockout of the Penguins' Zach Aston-Reese on Tuesday night. Wilson was not penalized for the hit, the nature of which brought expected differing opinions from the Penguins and Capitals.
There is no doubt on which side of the line the NHL fell.
Former referee Paul Devorski, at PPG Paints Arena to supervise Game 3 for the league, said that a lengthy huddle by the on-ice referees and officials resulted in that group deciding, "You know what? We've got a good, clean check here."
Actually, what we've got here is a failure to grasp what year we're in.
Uh, guys ... it's 2018.
It might be the year the Capitals finally best the Penguins. Their 4-3 win Tuesday night pointed the Capitals in that unexpected direction.
It also might be the year remembered for the NHL taking a regrettable backward step when it comes to protecting players from unnecessary brain injuries.
Until the past couple of games between the Capitals and Penguins, everybody associated with the NHL at least attempted to pretend hitting players' heads was, well, a bad look for the league. So how is the league going to look if Wilson, who failed to eliminate the Penguins' Brian Dumoulin in Game 2 but in Game 3 likely put down Aston-Reese — broken jaws and concussions tend to shorten postseasons for players — freely finds his next victim in Game 4 on Thursday night?
This league doesn't care how it looks.
If a cancelled season, a couple of shortened seasons and enough dead-puck seasons to turn off Gordie Howe's ghost failed to smarten hockey fans to the fact the NHL does not buy into perception being reality, why would the latest or next headhunting expedition by Wilson change anything?
At this point, after 16 often cringe-worthy postseason contests between the Capitals and Penguins over these past three springs, the NHL should just as well place these clubs in a garbage compactor and abandon any pretense that these are "hockey plays" we're witnessing.
They're not.
And the guess here is that somewhere, some smart lawyer is going to show a day's worth of hits like the ones consistently delivered by the Wilsons of this world to a jury tasked with trying to decide if the NHL ever cared about players' safety.
To Gary Bettman, as sharp a legal mind as has existed amongst legendary commissioners of professional sporting leagues, the question is: "Do you?" If the answer is "yes," Bettman should at least instruct on-ice officials to penalize Wilson for his dangerous, damaging high hits. If the answer is "yes," Bettman should authorize his player safety department head, George Parros, to suspend Wilson for at least Game 4.
Why (especially if Wilson has yet to sit in the sin bin for skull-cracking a couple of Penguins)?
Easiest answer Bettman could give is the NHL does not need to give lawyers any more ammunition in future legal wars over brain damage. But "because I said so" also would do from Bettman.
Wilson had no answers for questions about his assault on Aston-Reese. The Capitals would not make him available to the media after Game 3.
That decision was just as well. It is not as though Wilson could say anything that would erase the image of him laughing on the Capitals bench after the hit on Aston-Reese.
There are a lot of bad parts about what has happened in this best-of-seven series, which the Capitals lead 2-1. One of the worst is Wilson's hits overshadowing what might be the moment for which Capitals fans have been forever awaiting.
For the first time in their professional careers, Alex Ovechkin is poised to get over on Sidney Crosby.
His team, if not better, is playing smarter than the Penguins. The Capitals also are acquitting themselves better defensively and between the pipes, and they are showing themselves much more poised and prepared to play a full 60 minutes.
Only a third-period scoring barrage by the Penguins' indisputably devastating top line in the third period of Game 1 has prevented the Capitals from being ahead 3-0.
But who cares about the hockey when the Capitals and Penguins play it in the playoffs? We've got brains to scramble.
And there will be more scrambling, because this league allows brains to be treated like eggs when the stakes are highest.
Tom Wilson is a really good hockey player who consistently has shown no respect for his peers, his sport or these times. He has what it takes to be the NHL's next John LeClair.
Instead, he is channeling George Parros the player.
Parros the NHL executive should take Wilson out of Game 4 and put the focus of this series where it should be: the Capitals taking it to the Penguins.
Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals scores past Matt Murray #30 of the Pittsburgh Penguins late in the third period of Game Three of the Eastern Conference Second Round during the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at PPG Paints Arena on May 1, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images)
Game 3 of the Washington Capitals‘ second-round Stanley Cup Playoffs series with the Pittsburgh Penguins was decided on one clutch play by two old linemates, Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin’s game-winning goal delivered the Capitals a 4-3 win Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena in a game marked by growing animosity between the two rivals.
With 67 seconds left in regulation, Nicklas Backstrom and Ovechkin drew a 2-on-1 breakaway and Kris Letang fell to the ice defending Backstrom. Ovechkin’s first attempt hit the post, but on the rebound, he swatted the puck in from mid-air.
“Usually he’s flying there,” Backstrom said. “It’s 2-on-1 on breakaway. I knew it was him. He did great job sticking with it too. I think he hit the post first, then knocked it in. Huge win. We’ll take it.”
“I hit the post and it’s a good thing I didn’t raise my arms up. I finished up the play and got lucky,” Ovechkin said.
Capitals coach Barry Trotz “had a good feeling” the duo would score as he watched the play develop.
“They’ve scored a lot of goals together. They’re pretty dynamic over a number of years,” Trotz said. “Backy got the puck, you know he’s going to deliver it. World-class goal, obviously.”
Backstrom was on the ice for the play because top-line center Evgeny Kuznetsov switched out. As a result, he had slightly fresher legs than the rest of the players from both teams, who were gassed by that point.
“He changed earlier, I think, so I was only on for 20 seconds and I saw that they had been on for a little bit,” Kuznetsov said. “Probably the first time in my career that I looked fast.”
It was Backstrom’s third assist and Ovechkin’s second goal of the night.
Years from now, hockey fans might be less likely to remember the final score than Tom Wilson’s crushing hits and the fights that followed, but Game 3 was a back-and-forth affair only decided in the final minutes. Altogether, it added a new chapter to the most heated NHL rivalry of the decade.
Evgeni Malkin returned to action for Pittsburgh after missing three games with an injury, but he was in the penalty box when Washington opened scoring in the second period. Backstrom grabbed a rebound and set John Carlson up for a high-slot one-timer. Pittsburgh answered in just four minutes when Jake Guentzel deflected a shot below Braden Holtby’s glove and in.
Moments later, the Capitals allowed a power-play goal for the first time since April 15. Malkin attacked the crease with a short shot off Holtby’s stick and Patric Hornqvist poked the puck in.
Chandler Stephenson scored an equalizer, but Sidney Crosby broke the tie before the end of the period on a bang-bang play set up by Guentzel.
The extracurriculars sparked by Wilson’s hit stayed contained within the high-scoring second period. In the third, Matt Niskanen tied the game 3-3 on a blue-line shot that snuck beneath Murray’s glove and careened off his skate and behind him. In the waning minutes, the Capitals overcame Pittsburgh’s zone time and pulled off the game-winner.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said the winning goal was an example of a problem his team was trying to reduce: giving up odd-man rushes.
“We have extended zone time with that shift. We just gotta be smarter with the puck at that time of the game and in that end of the rink, and make sure that we give our forwards another opportunity to make a play at the net,” Sullivan said.
Holtby made 19 saves in the win.
“It was a game we had to work right to the end for,” Holtby said. “I thought we played really well in a lot of areas. They were forcing us to be real patient and wait for our chances and it was a real tough game for both teams. We accomplished what we wanted to and now we enjoy it for a couple minutes, refocus and focus on Game 4.”
By Adam Kilgore https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/ April 30, 208 Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates after scoring a third period goal against the Washington Capitals in Game One of the Eastern Conference Second Round during the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Capital One Arena on April 26, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images) Saturday afternoon, Sidney Crosby walked on skates from the practice ice into the cramped visiting locker room at Capital One Arena and placed his black CCM stick into a rack, jiggling it until it fit. He navigated a horde of notebooks and cameras in front of his locker, sat down and pulled on a black Pittsburgh Penguins cap. At the end of a brief media scrum, a question — one he was perhaps more qualified to answer than anyone on the planet — made Crosby pause: Did he believe hockey instinct could be honed through repetition? “Mmm,” Crosby said. “Maybe.”
He mulled his answer, a clue to how one of the greatest hockey players ever views the game. Crosby, 30, is playing at his highest level in these Stanley Cup playoffs, having recorded seven goals and eight assists in eight games, controlling games either through muscular stickhandling or planting himself in front of the net. All four Penguins goals in their second-round series against the Washington Capitals, which heads back to Pittsburgh tied at 1, have come with Crosby on the ice. If the Penguins win a third straight Stanley Cup — a distinction no team has earned since the New York Islanders captured their fourth consecutive title 35 years ago — Crosby will again be the engine.
Having overcome the concussion scares of his mid-20s, Crosby has reached the apex of North American sports, a player so embedded at the top of his game and so regularly excellent that it becomes tempting to take him for granted or look past him at newer, fresher stars. Crosby often ends up on a secondary tier of the hockey world’s consciousness. Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, 21, won last year’s Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player. Auston Matthews, 20, is the face of one of the league’s most storied franchise, the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The sport is growing faster and younger, and Crosby is doing neither, probably in the former case and certainly in the latter. Still, those inside the game have no doubts about his eminence. Like baseball’s Mike Trout, Crosby is a metronomic exemplar of all-around skill. Like basketball’s LeBron James, he has established all-time-great bona fides as he remains at the crest of his performance.
“The last couple seasons, he’s been the best player,” Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen said.
“I truly believe he’s the best player in the world,” NBC analyst Jeremy Roenick said.
“Still the best guy in the league,” former teammate Brooks Orpik said.
The quality that allows Crosby to remain atop the league, coaches and teammates say, is his unique work ethic, an ability to specify subtle areas for improvement and work with meticulous precision until they match the other elite elements of his game. While his natural ability — powerful skating, pistol-quick hands, uncommon feel — made him a phenom, his creative, distinct capacity for work has enabled him to stay atop the NHL.
“He’s a generational talent,” Penguins Coach Mike Sullivan said. “He does things that you can’t teach, and that’s part of what makes him what he is. What separates him from other elite players is his appetite to be the best and his willingness and his drive to be the best.”
Craig Adams, now retired, arrived in Pittsburgh in 2009 and practiced in the same positional group with Crosby for six-plus seasons. When he first came to Pittsburgh, he appreciated that Crosby worked hard. But, well, it was the NHL; everybody worked hard. “It doesn’t make you special,” Adams said. The specificity of Crosby’s work struck him. He noticed a habit: If Crosby missed a scoring chance one night, he would replicate the situation the next day in practice.
“He’s able to pick things he thinks he needs to get better at, and he’s very deliberate at practicing those things and working on those things all the time,” Adams said. “He’s methodical about doing that on a daily basis.”
Former Penguins coach Dan Bylsma recalled one night when a puck bounced off the end boards and toward Crosby, standing in front of the net. Crosby missed the scoring chance, and it ate at him. The next day, Crosby discussed the play with coaches, then asked for pucks to be smacked off the end boards in identical fashion.
“He’ll do it 100 times, until it becomes second nature,” former teammate Pascal Dupuis said. “Trust me, he can analyze his own game better than anybody else. When he sees something of his own game that’s not where he thinks it should be, he works on it and works on it until he gets really good at it. As far as him getting better, I’ve never seen anybody else doing it that way.”
For Crosby, the idea to re-create game situations in extreme detail came naturally. Missed chances gnawed at him, and through specific work he ironed perceived flaws.
“I don’t know if you call it a mistake, or you call it something you wish you could do over again, but yeah, he’s always done that,” Troy Crosby, Sidney’s father, said Saturday afternoon while lingering outside the Penguins’ locker room at Capital One Arena. “For a long time he’s done that, ever since he was a kid. For as long as I can remember.”
“It’s an instinctive game,” Crosby said. “Sometimes, things come easier than others. Just being aware of what those are, the areas you’re not comfortable or don’t feel as comfortable in, you just try and develop those things. It’s not something you think about or pick apart. It seems to come pretty naturally. If you play that many games over the course of the year, you kind of get reoccurring things.”
Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins skates against the Philadelphia Flyers in Game Six of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Wells Fargo Center on April 22, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Penguins defeated the Flyers 8-5. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Early in his career, Crosby racked up assists with modest goal totals, so he started arriving 10 to 15 minutes early for practice to rip shots from specific spots on the ice. The next year, he led the league in goals. In his first three seasons, he sat in on penalty-kill meetings, even though he was not on the penalty kill — he wanted to be ready, just in case. One year, he decided he needed to improve on the draw, and he became one of the best faceoff men in the league.
“He’s made a ton of changes,” said Capitals center Jay Beagle, a frequent faceoff foil of Crosby’s. “I mean, it’s no surprise that if he doesn’t like a little part of his game, he’s going to come back the next year better.”
“He’s still the hardest-working guy I’ve ever played with,” said Orpik, now a Capitals defenseman. “That’s probably the one thing that people overlook — how he achieves his success. A lot of guys are just naturally gifted. He obviously has a lot of natural gifts. But I mean, I’ve never seen someone as committed to getting better as him.”
Late this season and into the playoffs, Crosby scored a spate of fall-off-your-couch-and-scream goals, whacking pucks out of the air and past goalies, in one instance after an aerial tip to himself. They appeared to be feats of improvisational genius, the product of instinct and divine hand-eye coordination. To an extent, perhaps, they were. “I don’t know,” Crosby said. “It’s just instincts.”
Teammates believe otherwise. Bylsma remembered watching Crosby work on batting pucks and said the chances the goals were a result of practice was “100 percent.”
“He does practice weird stuff like that,” Niskanen said. “He’s naturally very intelligent. Really, I think his on-ice awareness is so high, he knows where the puck is at all times. A lot of guys don’t have the awareness to even try to something like that.”
Orpik remembered how Crosby would ask teammates to stand in the corners and rifle waist-high shots toward him as he stood near the net. When the pucks flew at him, Crosby would use the shaft of his stick to knock them into the net, like a bunt in baseball.
“Just stupid little stuff like that,” Orpik said. “You would think it would never happen in a game. He would work on it for hours at a time if it meant he would score one goal that way. … A lot of people label it as lucky. With him, guys that practice with him know there’s not a lot of luck involved there.”
Of course, if you are going to target a specific skill to improve, it helps to be Sidney Crosby. His creativity allows him to create and execute plays in practice that others cannot.
“I try to do a couple of drills, where he’s like on the goal line, and there’s a shot coming, and he deflects it under the bar,” Pittsburgh winger Tom Kuhnhackl said. “We’ve tried that a bunch of times. It’s either up somewhere on the rafters or it’s on the ice. I’ve never even managed to get it on net.”
And so, do those extra hours create instinct? Or does instinct make the hours pay off?
“It’s got to be both,” Crosby said. “One without the other, you’re probably not getting those opportunities.”
Over the years, Crosby has built a complete game, and his collection of skills makes him a skeleton key in skates. As Pittsburgh has tweaked its roster, Sullivan often places new players on the same line as Crosby. Whatever strengths they possess, Crosby can accommodate them. Teams often build around superstars. Crosby’s game is so well-developed, he can conform to whatever teammates are available.
“We ask them to play their game and not try to do something outside of their game, and Sid will make the adjustments,” Sullivan sad. “Sid has the ability to adapt and adjust based on who we utilize beside him. He’s one of the easier guys to play with because he has the ability to adapt to the guys we put beside him.”
The work also made him a natural leader, worthy of the “C” on his chest even if he were not the team’s best player, let alone the league’s. Sullivan called him the best leader he has ever met, in hockey or otherwise. When Crosby devotes himself, it leaves teammates no choice.
“He practices the way he would play in a playoff game, and he does it every day,” Penguins General Manager Jim Rutherford said. “When he’s on the ice, he never takes a day off. He’s just driven by perfection. That’s how he drives our team.”
“Just the way he works on things after practice, it’s something new every day,” second-year winger Jake Guentzel said. “But he’s usually one of the first ones on and one of the last ones to get off the ice. I think everyone notices that. He’s the guy we all look up to.”
In the past two years, Crosby has displayed a consistent on-ice calmness sometimes missing in prior playoff runs. He faced greater expectations and pressure than perhaps any Canadian player since Wayne Gretzky, and when those forces combined with his perfectionism, they could boil over. Now, though, observers no longer see actions that led some rivals and experts to label him a “whiner.”
“He has grown and matured so much as a — I don’t want to say ambassador or leader — but he has been able to mentally handle the negative attention on the ice so much better,” said Roenick, an NBC analyst who in the past has criticized Crosby’s on-ice demeanor. “He is not letting anything bother him. A couple years back against Boston, he’s going after (defenseman Zdeno) Chara, he’s yelling at the refs, he’s visually frustrated at being taken advantage of on the ice. Which stars get. They get slashed, they get punched in the face. They get the attention you don’t like from other players. Sidney has been able to let that go and understand and almost use it to his benefit.”
Roenick added that he has never impugned Crosby’s behavior off the ice, where those around him regard him as an ideal avatar of the sport. Capitals Coach Barry Trotz was an assistant on Canada’s 2016 World Cup team, which Crosby guided to the gold medal while leading the tournament in points.
Outside the team hotel one night, Trotz watched Crosby sit down next to his son, Nolan, who lives with Down syndrome. He watched Crosby start a conversation and play on Nolan’s iPad with him, even though Crosby had never met Nolan before.
“I know he gets pulled in a lot of different directions, but he’s very personable, very sincere in a lot of ways,” Trotz said. “He’s a good representative for the game.”
And he is still, in his 13th season, the best at playing it. He has melded work and instinct like no player in he game, and like few in any sport. He entered the NHL with more talent than any prospect in a generation, but it is the work that makes him its best player.
“Some guys are talented, but they use their talent and that’s it,” Dupuis said. “He’s talented, and he wants to be there every day. He feels like the better version of Sidney Crosby, it’s going to be tomorrow. ‘Tomorrow, I’ll be better. Tomorrow, I’ll be better.’ “
In the 2016 playoff series between the Penguins and Washington, the Capitals' Brooks Orpik targeted the head of Olli Maatta.
When the teams met again in the 2017 postseason, Washington's Matt Niskanen cross-checked Sidney Crosby in the melon.
This past Sunday, the Capitals' Tom Wilson targeted the cranium Brian Dumoulin.
The NHL seems to consider these incidents to be “hockey plays.”
They aren't.
Nor are they coincidental.
Is Capitals coach Barry Trotz telling his players to injure Penguins?
Or is it an unspoken understanding?
Or are the frustrated Capitals trying to win a war of attrition because they haven't beaten the Penguins in a playoff series during the Alex Ovechkin era? Hang that 0-for-3 up there among the pretend banners.
Whatever might be going on stinks. But when an ex-goon who didn't possess an ounce of hockey talent is in charge of the NHL's Department of Player Safety, hockey is that much more likely to turn to excrement.
Ken Dryden's opinion should mean more than that of George Parros, the thug who inexplicably got an office job with the NHL. Dryden is a Hall-of-Famer, a six-time Stanley Cup champion, a Cornell University graduate and a lawyer. He might be the greatest goaltender of all time.
Dryden thinks every shot to the head should be disciplined, whether intentional or accidental. As Dryden said, “The brain doesn't distinguish. The damage is the same.”
But Wilson didn't even get a minor penalty for his hit on Dumoulin, let alone a suspension. Wilson did almost exactly the same thing to Columbus' Alexander Wennberg in Washington's first-round series. He got a minor but no suspension. Wennberg missed three games.
There's little the Penguins can do.
Retaliating would be counter-productive. That's not the Penguins' style. If enforcer Ryan Reaves was still a Penguin, that wouldn't deter Wilson. Injuring opponents is his job. The NHL could regulate but doesn't want to.
The NHL has a New York lawyer as its front man: commissioner Gary Bettman. But it's still beholden to that old-time Canadian mentality that dictates toughness should be as important as skill, and that a price should be paid in blood and brain cells, especially in the playoffs.
That's exactly what the NHL shouldn't want. Better to avoid bad PR and future jurisprudence. But the “N” stands for Neanderthal, not National.
Wilson is a galling example of the NHL's laissez-faire attitude toward player safety. Wilson never has sold one ticket or induced anyone to turn on a TV. But the NHL protects players like him at the expense of those who do.
Wilson has made a career out of playing cheap but has been suspended only twice during his five NHL seasons. One of those times, Wilson was banned for two preseason games. That might be the most laughable punishment ever.
The NHL doesn't have many pure meatheads left. Wilson is one of a dying breed that isn't dying fast enough. (That's meant figuratively, disciples of faux outrage.) He had a fluky output of 14 goals this season because he's playing on Ovechkin's line. That falsely inflates Wilson's credibility.
Wilson didn't even get a disciplinary hearing for his hit on Dumoulin. The NHL's Department of Player Safety reportedly feels Dumoulin moved his head at the last minute. If that's true, Wilson certainly kept his shoulder and elbow aligned with the path of Dumoulin's noggin.
The only way the Penguins can stay within their game and still avenge the Capitals' shenanigans is to win the series.
Despite the body count, the Penguins are in decent position to do just that after splitting the first two games at Washington. The Penguins had the NHL's best home-ice record during the regular season and return to PPG Paints Arena for the next two games.
All of the Penguins' injured players practiced Monday. All are game-time decisions for Tuesday. It seems likely some return sooner, not later.
Playing better in the first minute of periods would help the Penguins.
The Penguins have allowed goals within the first 128 seconds of a period four times out of a possible six during this series. That includes conceding just 17 seconds into Game 1 and 86 seconds into Game 2.
Such goals provide a big psychological lift to the teams scoring them. For those victimized, it's a bummer. The Penguins can't keep starting out flat.
Mark Madden hosts a radio show 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WXDX-FM (105.9).
