One of my favorite sports emblems is the old Philadelphia Athletics logo, the one displaying a white elephant standing on a baseball and wielding a bat with his trunk.
Curious about its origin, I discovered it dated back to the turn of the 20th century. In response to the Athletics signing several top stars, New York Giants manager John McGraw sniffed, “The Philadelphia club will make no money. They have a big white elephant on their hands.”
A’s owner Connie Mack promptly made the white elephant the team’s unofficial mascot.
It seems our Penguins are dealing with their own white elephant of sorts. Delicately put, the less-than-stellar play of team captain Sidney Crosby.
Indeed, “Super” Sid has looked anything but at times. Eight games into the young season, he’s been held off the scoresheet four times already. A fifty percent clip.
For perspective, last season he was held without a point in only 22 of 82 games. Roughly one in four.
It isn’t just a matter of production. It’s the way he’s playing that’s raising a flag. Uncharacteristically fast and loose. He leads the Pens with 17 giveaways, three more than turnover-prone Erik Karlsson and a full five more than Kris Letang.
Projected over a full season, he’d have over 170 giveaways! Extraordinary when you consider the most he’s ever had in a season is 80. Only 57 a year ago.
Even more troubling is the lack of detail in his efforts. He’s built a career in no small part on the riveting attention he pays to the more mundane aspects of the game. No detail escapes him. Sid has always understood that in hockey little things add up to a lot.
But now?
My colleague Other Rick suggested that Sid fully understands the team’s limitations, an understanding that has taken some of the fine edge off his game.
Perhaps.
Again, it’s difficult to imagine a player whose intensity and commitment are legend to be dialing it back a notch, consciously or subconsciously. But to the eye test, that’s almost how it appears.
In Sid’s defense, he’s played with a veritable grab-bag collection of linemates to date, including Dominik Simon-alike Anthony Beauvillier on his left flank for a half-dozen games. No offense to Beauvillier, an industrious winger who hustles and gives his all, but he’s obviously no Jake Guentzel, whom Sid had the good fortune of skating with for the past eight seasons.
An extreme creature of habit and routine, is it possible the absence of his long-time sidekick has had an unsettling effect?
How could it not?
Too, is it possible at age 37, the wheels are beginning to fall off Crosby’s wagon? After all, Father Time is undefeated. The magnificent Mario Lemieux succumbed at age 40, although it could be argued his descent to mere mortal status began a couple of years earlier.
Heck, even indestructible and eternal man-child Jaromír Jágr finally decided to pack it in at age 52.
I made the grave mistake of suggesting Sid was losing it once before. Way back during the Mike Johnston era, No. 87 started the 2015-16 campaign with a paltry two goals in his first 18 games. Unthinkable for a player of his stature. Except for the fact that his idol, Steve Yzerman, had experienced a drop-off at virtually the same age and stage of his career.
If it could happen to the great Stevie Y, why not Sid?
That was 289 goals, 741 points, two Conn Smythe Trophys and two Stanley Cups ago.
Shows you how much I don’t know.
I made a silent vow at the time never to question Sid or his abilities again.
I’m not going to start now.
Hopefully he finds his rhythm, just like he did at the end of last season. Sid’s only six months removed from a Mario-esque tear that saw him pile up nine goals and 25 points over our final 13 games. Despite his pokey start, he still has seven points in eight games. Nearly a point-per-game clip.
If you’re like me, you’re hoping (and praying) No. 87 snaps out of his present funk and becomes, if not the Sid of old, a reasonable facsimile.
Truly, our season depends on it.
Rick & The Other Rick
One night when the Pens were on TNT, Wayne Gretzky made a statement about the Penguins and
Sid the Kid that got me thinking. Gretzky said Sid has put up these numbers and the Pen’s
Management has never went out and got him an All Star Winger. He said Guentzel was the closest
thing to it – then he compared his time at Edmonton and how blessed he was to have big time
wingers. He then said he thought Dubas should go out an get him that type of player asap.
I tried to think of all the guys that played on Crosby’s wing and it is amazing how he’s been able
to accomplish what he has in terms of points. Just something to chew on. As always I look forward
to your feedback.
Hey Mike,
Very good point. There have been no All Star type wingers on this team since the Hornqvist – Kessel days. The top true wingers on the team, Bunting, Rakell and Rust are more middle six. Puljujarvi has some pedigree but hasn’t fulfilled expectations and Beauvillier couldn’t hit the ocean with a beachball. Other than that the Winger position is populated with a bunch of Jacks-of-all-trades, masters-of-none, aka converted centers.
Just one more flaw in Sullivan’s “System”, the coach loves his utility players, players he can move up and down the lineup but who are not truly good enough to star at any one role.
I never thought about this, great point you brought up.
Hey Mike,
Who am I to disagree with Wayne Gretzky? However, I am going to push back slightly. I think Kessel was JR’s attempt at getting an All-Star sniper for Sid. At the time, Phil had five 30+ goal seasons on his resume.
IMHO, it actually detracted from Sid’s game. He kind of became pigeon-holed as a setup guy for triggerman Kessel. Neither of them produced very well when they were together.
Also remember we got Jarome Iginla with the express purpose of playing with Sid. If memory serves me correctly, Sid didn’t want to play with him.
I would argue that Sid actually does better with guys who play like him, which is why he had so much success with Kris Kunitz, Pascal Dupuis and more recently, Guentzel. I personally do consider Jake to be an all-star caliber player. Perhaps more importantly, he and Sid read each other so well and had great chemistry, which is worth it’s weight in gold.
Hindsight’s always 20/20, but maybe we would’ve been better served not to acquire Karlsson and sign Jake instead. Water well under the bridge at this stage.
A last thought. Ray Shero was rumored to be interested in Zach Parise and even tried to sign him, to no avail (the Wild got him). Parise was kind of a Kunitz-plus type player and probably would’ve meshed really well with Sid. But like Iginla, his scoring was already in decline when he became available.
Anyway, my two cents worth. Hope you are well … 🙂
Rick
Hey Rick,
People have very short attentions spans and it seems to be getting shorter and shorter with each passing year. Computers would appear to be related somehow to this ADHD drop in memory, maybe not causal but still related. However, I still remember during the brief but far to extended Mike Johnston era their were many people, some of which were fans, that were suggesting that Crosby had lost a step. From 2014-15 thru 2015-16 regular seasons, at age 27 and 28, our Captain had what was at the time his 2 worst seasons in terms of Pnts/60. However, once Johnston was fired and the playoffs rolled around Sid came on and won back-to-back Conn Smythe Trophies.
These are facts, look them up. find old posts and read the comments, then look at the stats.
Physically, I think Crosby is more than capable of holding his own. Yes he is 37 now, but a 37 year Sidney Crosby is light years better than a 27 year old Anthony Beauvillier.
Emotionally, opur Captain’s morale has to be at an all time low. At his age he is being asked to cover up defensive gaffe’s by an inverted defensive game plan that sends defensemen ill-suited to offensive play into the attacking zone concomitantly requiring the forwards who are skilled at playing offense to drop back and cover the defense. And what may be worse is our coach yelling at his players to engage in seriously risky behavior of going low-to-high in the offensive zone opening the team up for the countless odd man breaks in the presence of pathetic Goaltending from the team’s highest paid netminder.
No Rick, I do think we would see a massive resurgence from our Captain as soon as FSG gets a clue and fires Sullivan. Who knows, with a little luck, that level of change in Coaches (particularly if that Coach doesn’t have an allergy to kids or grit) could re-ignite the fire in both Sid and Geno to put this rag-tag assembly of veterans and prospects on their backs and carry them to at least the conference finals – similar to what they did in 2015-16.