Crosby must be stopped
This was mentioned in a similar piece prior to Monday’s Game Four, but it is worth repeating – the Rangers need to do a better job of containing Sidney Crosby.
The Penguins Captain has seemingly drank from the fountain of youth having rediscovered his prime, playing like the Crosby of 2007-10 when he really was at the peak of his powers.
Crosby leads Pittsburgh with nine points (two goals, seven assists) in four games and he’s combined with linemates Jake Guentzel (five goals, one assist) and Bryan Rust (one goal, four assists) for 20 points (eight goals, 12 assists), with 17 of those points (six goals, 11 assists) coming at even-strength.
Furthermore, that line that is so superbly spearheaded by Crosby had a 92.8 percent expected goals rate in a dominating Game Four performance, while they’ve controlled roughly 81.6 percent of the expected goals share over the first four games of the series.
Crosby has elevated his game in the postseason and not only is he making an impact on the stats sheet, but he’s also proving a factor all over the ice in terms of making big plays in the defensive zone, creating space for others and just having the innate ability to make plays happen out of nothing.
He’s also winning 55.7 percent of his face-offs and he’s winning offensive-zone draws at key periods of the game. Crosby has also proven that he can generate offense in transition, sustain zone time and generate cycle chances with the forward having five slot attempts off the cycle.
Put it simply; Crosby has proved unstoppable so far and the Rangers may need to try something different in order to stop him and that lethal Pittsburgh top line if they are to win Game Five and extend the series.
Taking Mika Zibanejad off Crosby given that matchup hasn’t worked may well be the answer, especially given that it would free Zibanejad up offensively (more on that later). However, the simple answer may be that the Rangers may just have to be content with limiting the damage caused by Crosby given that the three-time Stanley Cup Champion seems almost unplayable right now.