2018 Player Report Card: Sidney Crosby

Profile

Name: Sidney Crosby

Position: Center

Age: 30 (31 on 8/7)

Resume (via hockeydb):

Crosby’s goals year to year were down by 15, mainly due to a rotten shooting percentage (including just 7.1% at 5v5), but on the plus side his 60 assists were the most he’s had in years and the prettiest number of all is 82 — as in not missing a single game for the first time in his NHL career.

Fancy Stats

How can a player so good have such a great process, yet get such middling results? It was a season of frustration for Crosby at even strength, as his 5v5 points went from 50 in 2016-17 down to just 35 this year in 2017-18. Ideally this is going to bounce back next season with a better on ice shooting percentage which will rack up the stats.

More of the same here with mind-boggling low Goals For/60, especially with key teammates like Jake Guentzel, Patric Hornqvist and Kris Letang. A key aspect here will be who gets to replace the 500+ minutes that the recently traded Conor Sheary was playing with Crosby? Many fans are hoping it will be Daniel Sprong getting the chance to get a majority of those minutes, but given the strong numbers of Sid + Dominik Simon, as we mentioned don’t be surprised to see the young Czech player getting a solid opportunity to build upon the base in 2017-18.

The 5v5 shots per hour really put this outlook in a nutshell- without Sidney Crosby on the ice the Penguins were mostly dull at generating shots. With him on the ice, they’re almost off the charts good.

One thing that stood out to me that I wasn’t expecting was a bigger than remembered sample in the orange there with Bryan Rust. That could be something to keep in mind over the summer that Rust ended up with Sid a lot, especially towards the end of the season in those last 10-15 games as the playoff stretch drive goes on. Rust is a versatile player who can play on any line or role, but with a new $3.5 million contract, will he stand out a bit and get a chance more in a scoring role?

This is just a show. It’s almost comically funny with this heat map to remember Crosby only got 35 5v5 points in 82 games this season.

From 20 feet in to increasingly even behind the net, goalies have to be sweating. Crosby could be shooting from literally any angle. Along the boards, from the left, from the right, taking it right to the front, you name it. That can’t be a fun feeling to defend against.

Monthly Splits (via yahoo)

This mirrors what we saw with Evgeni Malkin, a very uninterested October - December, following by an outburst in January.

Funky stats:

—Crosby loves to play on the weekends: in the 40 games the Pens played on Fri-Sat-Sun, Sid had 21 goals and 46 points.....The 42 games from Mon-Thurs he had just 8 goals and 43 points.

—Crosby set a career high with 1,935 faceoffs, second most in the league behind Buffalo’s Ryan O’Reilly. He was effective as well, winning 53% of them.

—Hometown hero too: in 41 home games Crosby put up 17 goals, 56 points and was a +16....In 41 road games he only had 12 goals, 33 points and was a -16. 5 of Sid’s 6 game winning goals came at home as well.

—No success against the West. Crosby only scored 4 goals in 30 games against Western Conference opponents this season....And, ironically three total goals came against the St. Louis Blues so Sid only had 1 goal (vs Arizona) in the 28 games the Pens played against non-STL Western teams.

Highlights

So many to choose from, put some in the comments!

Grades

Power play: A++

With 38 PPP, Crosby finished tied with teammate Malkinfor 3rd in the league, with Phil Kessel first overall and Winnipeg’s Blake Wheeler breaking up the Pens party for the 2nd spot. Pittsburgh had a historically great power play and Crosby, as always, was a driving force in it.

Even Strength: C

Tough one to grade, the possession was wonderful but the results were lacking. At the end of the day though, I just need Crosby to find a way to be better than on the ice for 48 GF and 55 GA at 5v5 like he was this year.

Durability: A+

He made it all 82!

Playoffs (21 points [9g+12a] in 12 games): A

If everyone did their job as well as Sid did his, the team would have easily won it all again. Alas, the Pens run came to an end but it wasn’t the fault of the captain.

Overall Grade: A-