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Thread: Sidney Crosby scores twice in 4-point debut as Pens rout Isl

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    Sidney Crosby scores twice in 4-point debut as Pens rout Isl

    Sidney Crosby scores twice in 4-point debut as Pens rout Isles

    Associated Press



    PITTSBURGH -- One flick of the wrist. One guttural scream. One very simple message to the rest of an equal parts welcoming and wary NHL.

    Sidney Crosby is back.

    The superstar center capped his return from concussion-like symptoms with two goals and two assists in his season debut as the Pittsburgh Penguins roared by the New York Islanders 5-0 on Monday night.

    Unleashing more than 10 months of frustration in 16 energetic minutes, Crosby put to rest all the questions that had popped up during his lengthy comeback.

    Can he still skate? Can he take a hit? Can he play at his nearly peerless level? Can he mix it up?

    The answer -- for the first night anyway -- is an emphatic yes.

    "I don't really have good words for it," coach Dan Bylsma said. "That was special in a lot of ways."

    For no one more than Crosby, who celebrated his first goal in 328 days in decidedly un-Crosbylike fashion.

    After a breathless sprint down the ice in which he weaved through the New York defense and beat rookie Anders Nilsson with a backhand, Crosby raised his arms in triumph and let out a roar punctuated by a hard-to-miss profanity.

    He laughed while watching himself on replay and later apologized for his poor choice of words while admitting "I couldn't hold that in."

    Super Sid?

    Sidney Crosby dominated in his first game since Jan. 5. His return was reminiscent of another Penguins great who returned from a long absence.

    Crosby added assists on goals by Evgeni Malkin and Brooks Orpik and capped his comeback with a second tally, a backhand that fluttered by Nilsson early in the third period to provide the final margin.

    Steve Sullivan also scored for the Penguins while Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 29 shots to collect his 21st career shutout, one behind franchise leader Tom Barrasso.

    Nilsson, making just his second start of the season, made 31 saves for New York but was no match as the Penguins roared to life with their captain back.

    An electric Consol Energy Center crowd greeted Crosby with a deafening roar when he skated onto the ice during warm-ups while "Back in the Saddle Again" blared over the speakers.

    Fans held placards with "Sid" on them -- a directive from Hall of Famer and team owner Mario Lemieux -- while others brought homemade homages to "Sid the Kid," including one that read "Merry Sid-Mas."

    Crosby's return gave a late-November game between a perennial contender and an overmatched also-ran a playoff-like feel, and not just because more than 250 press credentials were handed out, four times the usual number.

    Throughout his achingly-slow rehab the 24-year-old stressed he wouldn't return until he felt 100 percent and stressed it would be nearly impossible to top Lemieux's successful return from retirement in 2000, when he notched an assist on his first shift then later added a goal and another helper.

    Amazingly, Crosby one-upped his boss.

    Displaying the speed that's made him a national icon in his native Canada and the face of the sport before his 25th birthday, Crosby transformed the Penguins from Cup contender to Cup favorite in less than 6 minutes, or the length of time it took for him to find the back of the net for the first time since last December.

    Finishing off a backcheck, Crosby streaked up the ice, took a pass from Pascal Dupuis as he crossed the center line and went to work. He worked the puck to his backhand, slipped past New York's Andrew MacDonald and flipped the puck over Nilsson's glove.

    "I saw for a few seconds they were a little flat-footed," Crosby said. "I was able to get some good speed built up when I got it. I knew I had a chance to go wide."

    He was just getting started, later helping the Penguins go up 2-0 by feeding Orpik on the point and watching his defenseman rifle a slap shot by Nilsson.

    Bylsma said before the game he'd try to monitor Crosby's minutes, but knew it would be difficult to keep him off the ice.

    It was.

    Crosby played nearly 16 minutes and for the first time in nearly a year, absorbed a hit at game speed. New York's Travis Hamonic cleanly checked Crosby to the ground during a first-period Pittsburgh power play.

    "Did I know who it was? Yeah," Hamonic said. "I thought it was just an opportunity to be hard on someone and, you know, that's all it was and just got caught out there battling."

    It was the first real test of Crosby's comeback, and he popped up immediately to get back in the play as the Penguins -- and the rest of the hockey world -- exhaled.

    Even if Crosby wasn't exactly thrilled at getting popped.

    "I was mad at myself for putting myself in that position," Crosby said. "(But) I'm glad I kind of got that over with too early on. There's going to be more hits and probably harder ones."

    He appears ready, which makes his return a "be careful what you wish for" proposition for the rest of the league. The Penguins have been solid without him. During his first night back, they were spectacular.

    Crosby earned a secondary assist on Malkin's power-play goal early in the second and Malkin later provided a highlight-worthy point of his own, threading a saucer pass to Sullivan as Pittsburgh pushed the lead to 4-0.

    "I thought we had a decent start, it's just I think (Crosby's) goal gave them a big lift and they had some momentum from the power plays and they took it to us early in the second and we couldn't come out of that," New York center John Tavares said.

    Crosby capped his brilliant debut with a backhand that fluttered by Nilsson in the third, turning the last 15 minutes of the game into a party worthy of late-spring not the week of Thanksgiving.

    Game notes

    New York defenseman Mark Eaton left the game with a sprained left MCL and did not return. ... The announced crowd of 18,571 marked the 219th consecutive sellout. ... Pittsburgh's James Neal did not score in a home game for the first time this season.

    [url="http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/recap?gameId=400047520"]http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/recap?gameId=400047520[/url]
    Steel Maniac's Time-Based Prediction: Lamar Jackson will be a bust and total flop in the NFL.

    What Actually Happened: Lamar Jackson became the youngest two-time NFL MVP winner ever.

    Gloat gloat gloat


    Boom........

    Hahahahahahaha

  2. #2
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    Re: Sidney Crosby scores twice in 4-point debut as Pens rout

    Man, what a let-down game.

    Wow...electric feel. Memories of Mario's comeback game came rushing back (both 5-0 victories with special, special games from the returning superstar).

    Steigerwald kept referring to the Penguins coming at them "in waves" and I thought that was the perfect description. Crosby showed that he is still the best player in the game. If you focus all of your efforts on trying to stop the Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis line (Duper contributed mightily last night with 3 assists, and I yelled when Kunitz had that open shot on the first shift of the game...really thought that went in...didn't see it hit the crossbar until the replay), then the Sullivan-Malkin-Neal line, that has been perhaps the best line in the NHL this season (didn't realize that last night was first time that Neal didn't score at home all season...awesome stat), will get you. After that, you got the Cooke-Staal-Kennedy line (Staal's playing the best hockey of his career right now, Kennedy was the guy who stepped up his game more than anyone else in Sid's absence last year, and Cooke is in the process of transforming his game from headhunting to displaying more of his underrated skill...he was awesome on the PK last night). As soon as those 3 lines exhaust you, then the checking line of Adams-Park-Asham will pound you into submission. Opposing teams get no rest whatsoever. Not to mention that we finally have our top 2 defensive pairings back (Letang-Orpik and Martin-Michalek) and Niskanen-Engelland (both of which seem to have improved their games since last season) will be the regular third pairing until Reverend Lovejoy gets healthy. And, of course, Fleury looked awesome with a couple of goalie card save en route to a shutout. Needless to say, I'm excited. This team is better than the team that won the Cup a few years ago. If we manage to stay healthy, I don't see anyone stopping this group. That line about going from Cup contender to Cup favorite in a matter of minutes last night rings true.
    Steeler teams featuring stat-driven, me-first, fantasy-football-darling diva types such as Antonio Brown & Le'Veon Bell won no championships.

    Super Bowl winning Steeler teams were built around a dynamic, in-your-face defense plus blue-collar, hard-hitting, no-nonsense football players on offense such as Hines Ward & Jerome Bettis.

    We don't want Juju & Conner to replace what we lost in Brown & Bell.

    We are counting on Juju & Conner to return us to the glory we once had with Hines & The Bus.

  3. #3
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    Re: Sidney Crosby scores twice in 4-point debut as Pens rout

    After last nights team performance I don't think Bylsmagic is ready to shuffle lines around,
    but I'm curious if Neal is going to be playing on Crosbys line since that was the original
    intention when he was traded here.

    Awesome game. Magical night for Crosby and the city of Pittsburgh. I think it was
    Steigerwald who said something like "it's not even fair for the Islanders."

    F_CK YEAH
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  4. #4
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    Re: Sidney Crosby scores twice in 4-point debut as Pens rout

    Quote Originally Posted by Jigawatts
    After last nights team performance I don't think Bylsmagic is ready to shuffle lines around,
    but I'm curious if Neal is going to be playing on Crosbys line since that was the original
    intention when he was traded here.

    Awesome game. Magical night for Crosby and the city of Pittsburgh. I think it was
    Steigerwald who said something like "it's not even fair for the Islanders."

    F_CK YEAH
    You nasty little lip reader, you.

    Steeler teams featuring stat-driven, me-first, fantasy-football-darling diva types such as Antonio Brown & Le'Veon Bell won no championships.

    Super Bowl winning Steeler teams were built around a dynamic, in-your-face defense plus blue-collar, hard-hitting, no-nonsense football players on offense such as Hines Ward & Jerome Bettis.

    We don't want Juju & Conner to replace what we lost in Brown & Bell.

    We are counting on Juju & Conner to return us to the glory we once had with Hines & The Bus.

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