Given the recent troubles the NHL has faced regarding lockouts, you would be forgiven if you stopped watching, paying attention to, or even acknowledging the sport.
But there is one storyline that you, as a sports fan, should be following. It’s the story of Pittsburgh Penguins’ center Sidney Crosby.
Hampered by concussions, the star center played just 21 games last year and a mere 41 games in 2010-11 – just a year after leading the league with 51 goals. While in the throes of his concussions, many wondered if we had seen the end of Sid the Kid.
Well, it appears we have definitely not seen the last of Crosby - fingers-crossed, knock-on-wood, and salt-over-the-shoulder all included.
Crosby has not only picked up where he left off in 2009-2010, but he’s surpassing the lofty expectations he set for himself when healthy. Remember, he had 101 points as a rookie, and has seasons with 120, 103, and 109 since.
This year, he’s on pace to stand with the elites.
In 30 games – a league-best, which is a great sign for Penguins fans – he leads the league with 35 assists. That pace gives him 1.17 assists per game, which if holds true for the rest of the season, would result in the 26th best assist/game ratio of all time. You know, among guys like Gretzky, Lemieux, who between them own 19 of the top 25 assist-per-game ratios in history.
Crosby’s pace, if continued, would give him 96 assists at seasons’ end if the season were to be the full 82-game schedule – good for No. 16 all time. Of course, thanks to the lockout, the season will be just 48 games long.
Crosby also has 13 goals this year, giving him a league-best 48 points. Should he keep THAT pace up, he’d finish a full 82-game schedule with 131 points, tied for 41st all-time with former Gretzky teammates Jari Kurri and Brett Hull. To put it in perspective, no one has scored that many points in a season since 1995-96, when Mario Lemieux scored 161 points. In fact, the most points scored in a season since Lemieux was when Joe Thornton scored 125 in 2005-06. And, no one has even reached 120 since Crosby in 2006-07.
So we’re talking rarified air here, and it’s too bad it had to happen during a locked-out season. Still, what he’s doing this year isn’t lost on some of the greats of the game.
“… in my mind, I don’t think there’s any question Sidney Crosby is the best all-around player in the game,” Wayne Gretzky recently said. “His hockey sense is so strong and so solid, combined with his God-gifted talent of being able to see the ice, see the entire picture in front of him. And, most importantly, I don’t care how good you are, if you don’t have a work ethic, it doesn’t matter. There’s no question that each and every game, he’s one of the hardest-working guys on the ice. In my mind, he’s the best player in the game today.”
So if you won’t take it from us, feel free to take it from Wayne Gretzky – go see Crosby play, or check him out on TV, because if recent form holds, we might not see the likes of this production again anytime soon.
Your thoughts or comments?