Sidney Crosby Makes History, but Penguins’ Problems Persist

SIDNEY CROSBY | PHOTO COURTESY PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

They’ve only played seven games, but the Pittsburgh Penguins have nonetheless seemingly confirmed who they are, what they’re in for and what they signed up for this season.

Blackhawks 5, Penguins 3 on Wednesday night in Chicago was what it’ll look like on a lot of nights.

The Pens battled back from 1-0 and 3-1 deficits, but ultimately lost because their rookie goaltender picked a bad time to allow the type of growing-pains goal rookie goaltenders will surrender on occasion, and because their power play was MIA, and because they continue to treat avoiding turnovers and otherwise managing the puck the way a team with as many limitations as the Penguins must as optional.
But there was also Sidney Crosby.

The captain’s first two goals of the season kept things interesting, and kept Crosby advancing up the type of all-time statistical ladders that players who have played as well as Crosby has for as long as Crosby has are destined to continue to climb.

The goals were the 655th and 656th of Crosby’s 22-year career, tying him with Brendan Shanahan for 14th in NHL history.

A less obvious but likewise compelling development was Crosby’s first goal tied the game at 1-1 and his second knotted things up at 3-3. The 323rd and 324th times Crosby factored in on a game-tying goal surpassed Mark Messier for fourth on the NHL’s all-time list in that category.

Too obscure for you? It shouldn’t be, given that Wayne Gretzky (451), Joe Sakic (335) and Ron Francis (326) are the only players in history who have managed that more often than Crosby.

Crosby wasn’t able to conjure up an assist in Chicago, but the next time he does it will move him past Joe Thornton and into sole possession of seventh place on the NHL’s all-time assist list.

Perhaps Friday night in Colorado will be the night.

SIDNEY CROSBY | PHOTO COURTESY PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

Crosby approaching and moving past such historical milestones, and to a lesser extent Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang doing the same, constitutes the type of nostalgia the Pens are counting on to mask mediocrity while they continue to build whatever it is they’re trying to build.

Presumably, that would be a team capable of contending again, but if that’s really the case they’re going about it in a strange way.

In the meantime, fans are destined to get what they get — a team that will compete hard but one that’s obviously flawed. This is also a team that is reluctant, for a variety of reasons, to elevate from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton the type of prospects who might someday become components of a contender, and a team that on some nights will manage to wake up the echoes.

The opportunity to stand and applaud the latest all-time something by someone on the way to a 4-3 loss to Boston about covers the gist of what’ll be in store more often than not this season.

There will seemingly always be a statistical designation for somebody, relatively ambiguous or worth appreciating, within reach.

That would have been more of a theme throughout last season, but the Penguins somehow managed to pull off an unanticipated 8-2-2 start that went a long way toward allowing them to exceed expectations and qualify for the playoffs.

They could, theoretically, get hot again at some juncture and change the direction in which they appear to be headed this season, but the early returns haven’t been encouraging.

Still, it could be worse.

Across the commonwealth, the Philadelphia Flyers woke up on Wednesday morning in the midst of a worst-in-franchise history 0-5-3 start.

So there’s that.