Penguins: Breaking down Sidney Crosby’s strengths and weaknesses

Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby will go down as one of the NHL’s greatest players ever. But what makes him an all-time great?

When he retires, Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby will be known as one of the all-time greats. He’s accomplished just about everything a player can accomplish, including three Stanley Cups and two Olympic gold medals.

Last week, I provided some video to highlight Evgeni Malkin’s strengths and weaknesses. Today, we are going to do the same thing for Crosby.

@FauxCentre on Twitter has Crosby pegged as the best center in the NHL.

Strengths

Creative offensive zone entries

This play shows a trio of Crosby’s strengths. Crosby starts this sequence by winning a puck battle in the defensive zone and skating the puck out. Crosby then waited for Dominik Simon to generate speed through the neutral zone.

From there, he attempted to make an area pass to Simon. Crosby’s puck placement here forced the Tampa Bay defender to turn his hips and lose the race to the puck. Crosby anticipated Simon winning the puck battle and completing the return pass. As it turns out, he was correct. Crosby then finds Jake Guentzel for a back door tap-in.

The 2019 outdoor game was certainly an eventful one. Halfway through the contest, Crosby enters the zone with the Flyers having four players back and the Penguins with three forwards in the offensive zone. Crosby had to get creative to buy some time and even things out.

To do that, he pump fakes and then looks a defender off with Jake Guentzel cutting to the net. After buying about three seconds, Crosby finds Justin Schultz entering the zone for a point shot and an eventual goal.

After losing both games in Nashville, the Penguins were back on home ice for Game 5 of the 2017 Stanley Cup Final. Crosby set the tone from the opening faceoff. On the first shift of the game, Crosby caught Nashville’s top defense pair of Roman Josi and Ryan Ellis flat-footed. He had a step on them and split them for a high-danger scoring chance.

Note how tight of a window that Crosby had to put this puck in between the skate and stick of Ellis and come away with it. Crosby drew a penalty and the Penguins scored on the ensuing powerplay. If he would have buried this shot, this would have been my pick for the eventual Crosby statue.

Sid down low

With the exception of Jaromir Jagr, I have never seen a player that is harder to knock off the puck than Crosby. His center of gravity and lower body strength are elite. He consistently wins puck battles and makes defenders look foolish along on the goalline. I could have done an article just highlighting this area of Crosby’s game.

From a defensive standpoint, Kings forward Anze Kopitar is no slouch. He has won two Selke trophies as the NHL’s best defensive forward. Kopitar maintains a good gap control throughout this clip and eventually knocks the puck loose with his skates. Crosby’s lower-body strength and stiff-arm prevailed as he maintained possession and found Conor Sheary for a quality scoring chance.

As soon as Crosby catches this pass from Bryan Rust, he captures the attention of all of the Ranger skaters that were on the ice. Crosby eludes Tony DeAngelo three times and changes directions four times on this play. Jake Guentzel did a terrific job of finding some open ice as Crosby found him for a quick scoring chance.

This was Crosby’s first game back following sports hernia surgery. He had a 4 point night and didn’t miss a beat. The play of the night was Crosby working the goalline and leaving Ryan Donato in 2019.

Zach Aston-Reese did a nice job of curling up and creating a better passing lane for Crosby. Crosby threaded the needle and found Simon’s tape, who made no mistake in burying his shot. Matt Dumba was backpedaling and gave Crosby way too much time and space.

Mats Zuccarello did not account for Simon. Jason Zucker was caught puck watching. I’m sure Zucker is glad to now be riding shotgun with Crosby rather than attempting to contain him.

Relentless on the forecheck

Crosby could not corral the bouncing puck as he entered the offensive zone. As soon as Montreal defender Jordie Benn committed to his backhand, Crosby closed his gap and limited his options. As a result of Crosby’s puck pressure and pursuit, Benn put the puck right onto the tape of Jared McCann. By this point, Benn was toast. Crosby had a step on him and it led to a 2 on 1 with Jake Guentzel. Crosby caught the pass and slid the biscuit past Carey Price for an early lead.

Zach Werenski appeared to have a day and a half to get this puck out of the Blue Jackets defensive zone. That was until Crosby came flying in on the forecheck to take away some of his time and space. Werenski attempted to use the boards and start the breakout. Crosby took the wall away and trapped the puck between his body and the glass. Basing on his reaction, Werenski thought that he got the puck past Crosby. That was not the case.

Offensive awareness

There is a trio of Crosby’s strengths on display in this clip. He begins this play by winning a puck battle against beat Erik Johnson along the wall. Then, he pulled off the curl and drag around Sam Girard. Crosby is well aware that Phillip Grubauer has taken away the large majority of the lower portion of the net.

This is where Crosby’s offensive awareness is on display. If he were not aware of this, he would have shot the puck sooner and right into Grubauer’s equipment. He patiently waited to shoot the puck between the far post and the portion of open-ice that Grubauer could not cover.

Lethal in transition

The line of Guentzel, Crosby, and Simon read off of each other very well. This was exactly the case on this play. Crosby stops on a dime and receives Simon’s pass. Crosby was cognizant of the screen that Guentzel was providing in front of the net.

Crosby recognized he could not have gotten his shot through. He glided backward until he could see the mesh of the net. If he would not have done this, he likely shoots the puck into the traffic in front. This play developed so quickly that two Flyers ended up falling over.

Justin Braun and the Sharks were not that familiar with the high flying 2016 Penguins. Braun attempted to poke check the puck away from Crosby as the Penguins were flying through the neutral zone. When Braun stepped up, Crosby found the open ice and had Patric Hornqvist making a beeline for the net.  Crosby completed the pass past Braun right onto Hornqvist’s tape. Regardless of if he was going to step up or sit back, this was a lose/lose proposition for Braun.

Weaknesses

Well, there are not many to choose from here. There are not many that exist. Crosby was not having a great 2019-20 defensive season from a statistical standpoint. It is noteworthy that he was dealing with a sports hernia for the first month and a half of the season. Crosby’s most notable weakness is his coverage in the lower portion of the Penguins defensive zone.

If there was a play in which you could accuse Crosby of going through the motions, this would probably be it. He whiffed on his attempt to knock the puck off of David Pastrnak’s stick. He never picked up a Bruin to cover. Marcus Pettersson and Crosby both got caught puck watching. As a result, both of them failed to account for Brad Marchand in the slot. Not a recipe for success.

When I saw this play live, I remember being surprised that Melker Karlsson made this look so easy. Crosby appears to have overestimated his ability to tie up Karlsson. He could have also assumed that Karlsson was just going to skate into the left-wing circle or corner and open-up for a one-timer.  Either way, Crosby lost the body position battle.  Karlsson peeled off and created separation. Then, he found the puck and the back of the net.

Ultimately, the weaknesses in Crosby’s game are minimal. Similar to Evgeni Malkin, he is a generational talent that the Penguins are very lucky to have.

If the 2019-20 season resumes, we shall see if Crosby’s defensive metrics improve. Considering his ability to consistently improve, I would bet on seeing some improvement in that area. Thanks for reading!