Sidney Crosby was held off the scoresheet by the Philadelphia Flyers in Games 1 and 2 of the playoffs. But his lack of production shines a bigger spotlight on where the Penguins are in their retool.
After two games of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers, we know this about the Pittsburgh Penguins: without a step-up performance from superstar center and captain Sidney Crosby, they're done.
This hasn't been an easy season for Crosby. He got hurt on the biggest stage of the sport, being sidelined in Canada's Olympic gold medal game against the United States.
And although nobody is hanging Pittsburgh's two first-round-series losses to Philadelphia on Crosby, it's crystal clear the Penguins are only going to go so far as No. 87 can carry them.
Unfortunately for Pens fans, Crosby has been held off the scoresheet completely, despite averaging 20:14 of ice time and generating a team-high seven shots on net through two games.
Fellow star Evgeni Malkin has a goal and an assist in two games, at least.
But we shouldn't forget that the Penguins are in the early stages of a transitional era, and despite the shrewd pickups by Pens GM Kyle Dubas, his team isn't at a point in its retool where it has the depth to sustain itself if Crosby isn't producing offense. Just look at the 5-6-3 record the Penguins had while Crosby was out.
And really, you only have to look at the regular-season totals to see where the Penguins are in their roster rejuvenation.
Their top five scorers in the regular season are all over 30 years old. Their highest scorer under 30 is 28-year-old Thomas Novak, who had 42 points.
The first round is a small sample size, but of the five players who have a point for Pittsburgh through two games, four of them are over 30 years old.
So in the future, the hope is for Ben Kindel, Egor Chinakhov, Rutger McGroarty, Harrison Brunnicke and other youngsters to continue to grow so they can do the heavy lifting once the older core retires or heads elsewhere. Otherwise, the team will have a rocky transition to a new era.
But for now, Penguins coach Dan Muse needs to do everything in his power to get Crosby in a place where he's contributing points every game during the rest of this series. The pressure on the rest of the Pens' lineup will be eased significantly.
Otherwise, it's going to be game over for Pittsburgh in very short order.
Crosby is currently skating on a line with wingers Bryan Rust and Yegor Chinakov – not exactly an all-world combination. But the brilliance of Crosby is that he makes his linemates better.
So there is reason for optimism that Crosby will come through with some memorable performances against the Flyers and get the Penguins back in a good place in this series.
Nevertheless, the Flyers exposed the Penguins' lack of depth in Games 1 and 2. And unless they get some stretches of superior play from Crosby, the Pens' boat is almost assuredly going to sink completely out of the playoff picture.
And that means we just might be seeing some of the final playoff games of Crosby's Hockey Hall of Fame-worthy career.
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