He may be 36 years old, but Sidney Crosby still attracts crowds. The proof: my boss from Quebec, Jean-Nicolas Blanchet, had made the trip from the Old Capital to see the Penguins star in action. Probably his only NHL game before the Kings visit the Videotron Center.
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The Penguins captain livened up the show with a three-pointer. To the great pleasure of the boss who was able to witness this 4 to 3 victory for the Penguins in the shootout.
The fathers of the Penguins players who also came to the Bell Center also got their money’s worth. In fact, almost all of them saw their offspring perform during the shootout. There are 12 of them who succeeded one another in front of Samuel Montembeault.
Twelve is plenty! But there was still a little missing to equal the mark of 20 rounds between the Panthers and the Capitals, on December 16, 2014. On the other hand, it is a record in the history of the Canadian. The old mark of 10 was set against the Buffalo Sabers on February 15, 2011.
The Canadian players had fun too, but a little less. They were the ones who had front row seats to the Crosby Show. To think that Martin St-Louis’ troops managed to score three goals in the first period. It hadn’t happened yet this season.
In general, they did well. Particularly in overtime where they directed nine shots at Alex Nedeljkovic. However, what the young Habs skaters have learned is that we cannot afford the slightest relaxation against the Pennsylvania team. Kaiden Guhle can attest to this.
Despite a good evening overall, the Alberta defender had a few more difficult shifts. On the first goal he scored, Crosby showed him that he was a fine fox. Pretending to put pressure on one side, number 87 quickly diverged to surprise Guhle, who was then calmly waiting behind his net.
The ensuing chaos led to the first point of the evening from “Sid the Kid.” The two he added later allowed him to join Mark Recchi for 13th place among the best scorers in NHL history (1,533 points).
“Crosby, you have to watch him all the time. He is everywhere, described St-Louis. He doesn’t commit many turnovers. This is a good example to follow to help us better manage our match. »
Guys on the net
During the two days preceding this confrontation, St-Louis had focused its speech on the importance for its attackers to “play inside”, to approach the opposing goalkeeper at opportune moments.
A deficiency partly explaining why Montreal forwards have the worst performance in the NHL with 53 goals.
We saw some attackers wandering where it hurts. Juraj Slafkovsky, Sean Monahan, who scored a goal there, and Josh Anderson, who once again missed a golden opportunity one foot from the goal line, showed up there.
“We improved that,” admitted the Canadian coach. It now remains to find consistency. When you talk about it, guys absorb it and have good intentions. They must not forget this when we work on other aspects of our game.”
However, it was still the Habs’ backs who led the club’s attack by scoring the first two goals.
Moreover, Jayden Struble scored his second goal in three games. He’s just one away from his career high…from Northeastern.
Difficult numerical inferiority
If the Canadian’s penalty kill unit had managed to do the job, the result of the match would have known much sooner. The Habs allowed two goals while one of its members was in the penalty box.
In this regard, one might wonder if the Penguins have not regained their offensive touch.
It was the second time in as many evenings that Mike Sullivan’s troop took advantage of two numerical superiorities.
Quite a turnaround considering that it had been 0 in 36 previously. Although facing a team that has an efficiency percentage of 73.5% is good for confidence.