Crosby raises his game

From NHL.com

Crosby raises his game -- again
Wednesday, 05.13.2009 / 10:46 PM / Conference Semifinals: Washington vs. Pittsburgh
By Adam Kimelman - NHL.com Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- Maxime Talbot first met Sidney Crosby when he was 16 and Crosby was 13. It was at a summer camp in Los Angeles run by their shared agent.

Crosby was just starting to build a name in the hockey world as a prodigy. But Talbot knew even then just what he was seeing -- greatness.

"He already had this fire in his eyes," said Talbot.

But even Talbot couldn't have realized just what was to come over the next eight years.

In that time, Crosby has dominated at every level of hockey -- midget, junior and the NHL. And as good as he's been in his short pro hockey career -- a Hart Trophy, an Art Ross Trophy, a Lester B. Pearson Award in four seasons -- he's raised his game to still another level during the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Crosby has been compared with Alex Ovechkin almost non-stop since the two arrived in the NHL together in 2005. Each has won major awards, each has guided his team into the playoffs -- but not until this year's Eastern Conference Semifinal series have the two been matched up head-to-head.

After seven rounds, it's no contest -- Crosby by knockout.

"You look at the way Sid leads and has the fire in his eyes," Talbot said. "I think by winning that Game 7 Sid won that battle."

Crosby finished the series-within-a-series with 8 goals and 13 points. Ovechkin, no slouch, matched Crosby with 8 goals and added 6 assists to outscore Crosby, 14-13. But when it mattered most, in Game 7 at Verizon Center, it was Crosby scoring a pair of goals and adding an assist as the Pens skated away with a dominating 6-2 victory.

Ovechkin scored the Caps' first goal, but it was his turnover that allowed Crosby to skate in alone for a power-play goal 2:02 into third period that completed the Penguins' scoring.

The breakaway off a turnover he helped create is what makes Crosby such a special superstar. He's not just a scorer. He makes his teammates better, he backchecks diligently, blocks shots, and fights for every inch of ice.

"He's unbelievable," teammate Craig Adams told NHL.com. "I've had the opportunity to play with some pretty good players, and the one thing they all share in common is they're ultra, ultra competitive. Sid's a pretty soft-spoken guy and he's not going to come out and make this series about him and Ovechkin, but he's a competitive guy. You know he wants to win. I thought he was just unbelievable every game."

It was Crosby's third multigoal game in this year's postseason, and two of them have come in the Penguins' biggest games of the playoffs -- Game 6 of the first round against Philadelphia, when he scored the game-tying goal and an empty-netter to close out the Flyers in Philadelphia, and Wednesday in Washington.

"There's a steely resolve about the character in question when big games come around," said Penguins coach Dan Bylsma. "Game 6 in Philadelphia -- I didn't know quite what it meant, but I knew it meant he was going to have a big game. And he was that way for every game this series going in. He was focused and knew the opportunity he had and he did a great job on a big stage."

Penguins TV broadcaster Bob Errey won a pair of Stanley Cups playing with Mario Lemieux and has watched almost every game of Crosby's career.

"He's a big-time player," Errey told NHL.com. "He's the leader of the hockey club. If there's one player I want, if you give me that vote today, I'll take Sidney Crosby. He's great on and off the ice, he's great for his teammates. He goes into the dirty areas to score goals, he scores big goals. We didn't know what he'd do in a Game 7, but we're not surprised by what he's doing here. I'm not surprised."

Of all the superlative plays Crosby has made, Errey said the play he made on the game's first goal -- the third time in four games in Washington that Crosby scored the game's first goal -- was a mark of his excellence. He kicked the rebound of Sergei Gonchar's point shot onto his stick and shoveled it into the net to start the Pens' onslaught.

"To me he's the best player I've seen use his hands and feet to ever play the game," Errey said. "Again tonight, using his right foot to get the puck to his stick -- that was on purpose, that wasn't luck. He practices that. It doesn't come natural … he works on all those things. That's why to me he's greatest player in the game."


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Take that AO. He totally fell on his ass Babz, at least admit it.

Didn't he have a goal in the game? If scoring a goal every game is totally falling on your ass, then I'm sure teams would love to have all their players fall on their ass.

Nope, he didn't have a goal in the first games against the Rangers.

As far as goals go, Crosby scored more. And you kept saying Washington was going to win because they have Ovechkin, but they didn't. Pittsburgh won because of Crosby. Yea, for the supposedly "best" player in the league atm (that's what you've been saying at least), yes he fell on his ass.

TheRealFan wrote:

Nope, he didn't have a goal in the first games against the Rangers.

Um...he just played the Pens...

TheRealFan wrote:

As far as goals go, Crosby scored more.

And Ovie had more assists.

TheRealFan wrote:

Yea, for the supposedly "best" player in the league atm (that's what you've been saying at least), yes he fell on his ass.

What was it, 14 points in 7 games. I'd say that's pretty damn good and he didn't fall on his ass.

babaganoosh wrote:

TheRealFan wrote:

Nope, he didn't have a goal in the first games against the Rangers.

Um...he just played the Pens...

Dude, you sure you watch hockey? Everyone knows AO played the Rangers in first round.

TheRealFan wrote:

As far as goals go, Crosby scored more.

And Ovie had more assists.[/quote]

Crosby still made his team win the series, thus making him more valuable.

TheRealFan wrote:

Yea, for the supposedly "best" player in the league atm (that's what you've been saying at least), yes he fell on his ass.

What was it, 14 points in 7 games. I'd say that's pretty damn good and he didn't fall on his ass.[/quote]

Wait, what was it you said when both Crosby and Ovechkin had hat tricks in the same game? That Crosby's goals didn't matter as much in the end because Washington had won the game?

Isn't it a bit hypocritical of you now to say that AO's points is good when in the end they did fall short against the Pens?

Oh wait, it only applies to Crosby, doesn't it?

TheRealFan wrote:

Dude, you sure you watch hockey? Everyone knows AO played the Rangers in first round.

Actually...I don't.

But let me just get this straight. Your argument for Ovy falling flat on his ass is that he won the series in the first round? I thought we were talking about Caps vs Pens here, but apparently he fell flat on his ass before even coming into this series...

TheRealFan wrote:

Crosby still made his team win the series, thus making him more valuable.

Why does winning = valueable? Winning is a team concept, valueable is an individual concept. Your statement is the equivalent of saying Garon was more valueable than Ovechkin because his team won.

TheRealFan wrote:

Wait, what was it you said when both Crosby and Ovechkin had hat tricks in the same game? That Crosby's goals didn't matter as much in the end because Washington had won the game?

Isn't it a bit hypocritical of you now to say that AO's points is good when in the end they did fall short against the Pens?

Oh wait, it only applies to Crosby, doesn't it?

No, because you're looking at all of Ovechkin's points with the assumption that they all came in losses. So no, it's not hypocritical because when I mentioned Crosby's 3 goals, I only talked about that 1 game, not his overall series' numbers.

He didn't win the series alone in the first round, but he was probably the main reason why they came back in the game and eliminated the Rangers. His last games against the Pens were really bad. The two or three, he played really great but then he went nowhere. If he had played the same way he did at the end of the series against the Rangers, they would have had a chance of winning.

So now you're saying winning is not valuable? Wasn't that one of your arguments why Brodeur was better than Roy, because he had more victories? Look at the work Crosby did with Malkin and Fleury, they had some games where they weren't on top, but seriously, you can't deny that they all came through in the end, especially Crosby.

His points came in more losses than victories though, you can't deny that.

TheRealFan wrote:

So now you're saying winning is not valuable? Wasn't that one of your arguments why Brodeur was better than Roy, because he had more victories?

That was ONE of my arguments. If you recall, I mentioned that you can't use accumulated team stats, but you also need efficiency stats as well and that's why Brodeur was better than Roy because he essentially beat him in every statistical cateogry, not just 1.

TheRealFan wrote:

His points came in more losses than victories though, you can't deny that.

Sure I can, because what you said was completely false. 11 of 21 points came in a win, that's more than half. So his points came in more wins than losses, so there, I denied it.

The Pens won, Crosby has as much points in less games than AO, how much mroe do you want him to dominate AO?

He played 1 less game. Since he has 21 points in 13 games, his points per game average is under 2, so logically he'd only score 1 more point in that extra game. 1 point is not dominating.

One point is one point and you should know as much as I do that one point can make all the difference in a game. It's the difference between winnng and losing.

Ok, but is 1 point "dominating"? When you score 21 points, does 1 point suddenly push you over the edge?

Okay, maybe "dominating" is a bit too much, but that definitely puts him over Ovechkin. And one more point he'd make in a game, well calculate that at the end of a season, or at the end of the playoffs. That makes a handful more points.

1 more point in every game regular season game he didn't play, and Ovechkin still scored more this year. The handful of points still doesn't help Crosby this year. Try again next year.

You're right, he'd be 2 points shy of Ovechkin's number of points. However, his point/game is still superior to Ovechkin.

Then tell him to actually stay healthy and play the damn games

Well, it's not like I want him to be hurt. lol

Well...I do

We always knew you were a Crosby hater... (and a sissy lover, you know what I'm talking about. lol)

TheRealFan wrote:

(and a sissy lover, you know what I'm talking about. lol)

But I don't like your dad...

babaganoosh wrote:

TheRealFan wrote:

(and a sissy lover, you know what I'm talking about. lol)

But I don't like your dad...

You know damn well that the term sissy applies to Marty. In fact, you can see his picture next to the word.

Your dad's name is Marty?!

babaganoosh wrote:

Your dad's name is Marty?!

Nope, sorry to deceive you, my dad is not Marty Brodeur. If he was, I think I'd be crazy by now.

Why? Don't like the millions and millions of dollars?

I like the millions and millions but I'd be too scared of having a stick thrown at my head all the time.