Penguins Notebook: Crosby Reacts to Latest Honors; Sullivan Roasts Steigy

CRANBERRY — Would you rather be honored by your peers for being a complete player, the smartest player, or the player your teams wants on the face-off dot for a crucial third-period faceoff?

Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby was honored by the NHL Players Association on Tuesday in a league-wide poll of all players. Crosby got a few votes for best overall player (about 1.5%) but was a solid winner in the Most Complete Player category, as well as Smartest Player.

And by a good margin, players would want him taking that important faceoff at the end of the game. Players rightfully respect Crosby.

“I mean, those are the guys you compete against every night. That’s one of the best compliments,” said Crosby.

“I mean, you’re always trying to learn. You’re always trying to get better. If that allows you to be in the conversation for (most complete player), then obviously you’re doing something right. But I don’t think about that a lot. I’m like minus-20 something. I don’t like being on for goals against. I think you’re always trying to get better and, you know, find different areas of your game that you can improve no matter how long you’ve played, and ultimately, those things hopefully translate to the win. So that’s the motivation.”

Crosby couldn’t help a bit of self-effacing smile when he admitted he was a minus-22. Certainly, there few people, if anyone, that would lay the Penguins’ defensive struggles on him.

It is the sixth straight year that colleagues and teammates have designated the indomitable Penguins pivot as the player who plays equally well and just as ferociously in the defensive zone as the offensive end.

Crosby edged Sasha Barkov by a margin of roughly 35% to 30%.

This season, Crosby is one point shy of his third straight 90-point season. By rough math, Crosby has directly factored into about 38% of the Penguins’ offense.

Crosby won all three honors and wasn’t quite sure how to respond when Pittsburgh Hockey Now asked him which was a bigger compliment?

As you see in Crosby’s quote, he misunderstood what it meant to take the final faceoff. His mind went to retirement–not a must-win draw.

“Yeah, I’d go (with) complete. I don’t want to think about a final faceoff quite yet. I appreciate that, I mean, there’s so much that goes into trying to be productive and trying to be a good teammate and all those things,” said Crosby. “So yeah, I would say that that one probably means more.”

No, no one is quite ready to think about Crosby’s final faceoff just yet.

Practice Notes

—Kris Letang was absent for a medical appointment.

–P.O Joseph was a full participant. His status remains unknown. Coach Mike Sullivan wouldn’t commit to him being ready for the final game of the season.

–Kevin Hayes had a maintenance day.

Penguins Lines

Ville Koivunen-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust

Danton Heinen-Evgeni Malkin-Rickard Rakell

Donnor Dewar–Joona Koppanen-Philip Tomasino

(P.O Joseph)-Vasily Ponomarev-Valtteri Puustinen

Defense

Matt Grzelcyk-Erik Karlsson

Ryan Shea-Conor Timmins

Ryan Graves/Vladislav Kolyachonok/Filip Kral

Mike Sullivan has Some Fun with Steigy

Paul Steigerwald is the long-time radio and TV play-by-play of the Penguins. Before he began play-by-play, he was the color analyst beside Mike Lange on the team’s simulcasts through the 1980s and 1990s.

It’s fair to say that Steigerwald has been involved in or present for more Penguins history than anyone, with the possible exception of Eddie Johnston.

Steigerwald does the Penguins’ weekly radio shows and the radio postgame show. So, when our good friend Steigy showed up to the rink in shorts on Tuesday, coach Mike Sullivan broke character and had a little fun.

It was a refreshing mood lightener as the Penguins’ funeral procession has an unfortunate number of days between games 81 and 82. The team practiced on Tuesday and will again on Wednesday before playing the Washington Capitals on Thursday. There will be nothing for either team to win.

“Look at Steigy with the shorts today! His legs look like a couple of out of bounds markers–like white sticks,” Sullivan said, breaking into full laughter. “You ought to do a couple of squats. It’s good to see you.”

These were moments in which Sullivan was easily the most relaxed he’s been all season. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen Sullivan laugh like he did Tuesday. It wouldn’t be the worst thing for him or the team (or us) if he relaxed more often. The next year or so is not going to be easy for anyone.

As we approach the campaign’s end, yep, we’re all human (and Steigy consented to us using the exchange because he’s a good dude who enjoyed the roast, too).