By: Kevin Antosz
“Sidney Crosby makes second return” was plastered all over the Pittsburgh newspapers on March 15, 2012. Crosby was making his comeback after he left the lineup on December 5, 2011 showing symptoms of a concussion. It turns out he did not have a concussion, but had a cracked vertebrae in his neck that hadn't been discovered because his medical team failed to initially diagnose it. (The neck injury showed similar symptoms as the concussion, which lead the doctors to believe it may in fact have been another concussion). Following a few months of intensive rehab, Crosby’s neck was healed and he was ready to return for a second time this season.
“Sidney Crosby makes second return” was plastered all over the Pittsburgh newspapers on March 15, 2012. Crosby was making his comeback after he left the lineup on December 5, 2011 showing symptoms of a concussion. It turns out he did not have a concussion, but had a cracked vertebrae in his neck that hadn't been discovered because his medical team failed to initially diagnose it. (The neck injury showed similar symptoms as the concussion, which lead the doctors to believe it may in fact have been another concussion). Following a few months of intensive rehab, Crosby’s neck was healed and he was ready to return for a second time this season.
However, what ensued is what I am going to focus on. More specifically, the negatives of having the best player in the world return to the lineup. Don’t get me wrong, I love Crosby and hope for him to stay in Pittsburgh for the remainder of his career, but with his return in mid-March, the Penguins began a slide in their defensive play that ultimately lead to their early exit from the playoffs. When Sidney Crosby made his return, the entire Penguins team began to play undisciplined defense every night because they figured they could rely on their high powered offense to outscore teams. And it worked, at first. In the first 5 games of Crosby’s return the Penguins scored at least five goals in four of those games. I think this began to fool the fans, coaches and the media into thinking that the Penguins were untouchable with such a powerful offense. All the wins we'd compiled with Crosby back in the lineup overshadowed the poor defensive effort. It remains a mystery to me how the coaching staff failed to recognize these issues. Ironically the great offense and lack of defense were the whole reason they exited the playoffs so early. Before Crosby's return on March 15th the Penguins GAA as a team was 2.57. Following his return to the lineup, that number soared to 3.43 during the final 14 games of the regular season. The defense appeared weak and Fleury wasn’t playing well at all, but we still had the best offense in the league so as long as we were able to outscore teams, no one complained. We got away from the system that Dan Bylsma had put into place, prior to Crosby's return. Without him, “Penguins Hockey” meant good defense, dominant offensive zone time, and getting pucks to the net. With Crosby back, it simply became, "outscore the opponent," even if that meant winning 5-4 every night. The Penguins got away from the system that worked. They became undisciplined defensively and it came back to bite us in the ass in the Playoffs when we faced the Flyers because they were able to match us blow for blow offensively.
The playoffs were where our defense and goaltending completely unraveled. It became clear that changes would need to be made this offseason to our defense, and Ray Shero knows that. The Penguins averaged 4.33 goals/game in the playoffs and they still couldn’t win. Teams don’t average that many goals in the regular season, let alone the playoffs. The reason we didn’t win is because our GAA in the playoffs was 5! Yes, that means to win we would have to put up 6 goals on the board each night. The Penguins were totally undisciplined in their own zone, turning the puck over, never blocking shots and leaving people wide open all series long. The Penguins also lacked effort. There were numerous instances where defenseman weren’t moving their feet and the opposition skated circles around them with ease. Fleury wasn’t his usual self and couldn’t bail the Penguins defense out so the Flyers ended up blowing out the Penguins in most of their wins. One thing that interests me is that Fleury’s Sv% over the last three seasons in the playoffs has been: .891, .899, and .834; it is a mystery to me why Fleury’s level of play has gone down in the playoffs after terrific regular seasons. But you have to wonder if it wasn't more the Penguins defense performing so poorly in recent years that caused Fleury’s numbers to drop. Maybe, maybe not. Nobody really knows, but it is certain this year that the defense played a part in Fleury’s low numbers.
Finally, I want to make sure it is known Crosby is not to be directly blamed for the defense playing badly, obviously it's a team sport. Crosby only betters the Penguins when he is in the lineup. I simply analyzed the effect of his return on the Penguins this season and the consequences when a team puts offense before defense. The solution seems pretty simple for next year: return to the disciplined style of hockey we played under Bylsma, before Crosby returned. We may not put up 5 goals every night, but winning 3-1 counts just as much as winning 8-4. If we can reconfigure this style of play next year, there’s no question the Penguins will be right back in the conversation among the Stanley Cup favorites.
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