The Mystery of the Kid-less Pens

Sydney Crosby is arguably the best player in the NHL. In 42 games, he had 66 points, 32 goals and 34 assists. He was averaging a goal and an assist per game. If he kept up that pace to this day he'd have around 62 goals and 64 assists for a mind-blowing 126 points. But we will never know if that would have happened because Crosby suffered nasty head shots in back-to-back games in early January resulting in a concussion and has been out ever since. With Crosby out for about half the year, you can kill the Penguins playoff and title hopes, right? Well, no, not really. In fact, the Pens have been just fine without Sid the Kid, going 17-11-5 so far in his absence. The question is: how are they doing so well without him? Note that the Pens other star center, Evgeni Malkin, has also been marred by injury this year matching Crosby's games played total of 42, and that this team has had to deal with numerous injuries all season long. The answer is seemingly excellent work between the pipes and some key trades.

In nearly all of January and February, the Penguins relied on superb goalkeeping from goalies Marc-Andre Fleury and Brent Johnson to keep them in games. In fact, the two Pen goalies only allowed 66 goals through 33 games, good for a 1.91 average for those two months. They also had strong play from centers Jordan Staal and Tyler Kennedy, presumingly the ones who took over for Crosby and Malkin, respectively. Staal having 25 points on the year (10 goals, 15 assists in 35 games) and Kennedy having 40 points on the year (18 goals, 22 assists in 72 games). The end of February, beginning of March was when management decided to bring in the calvary.

The trades started February 22nd with the trade of defenseman Alex Goligoski to Dallas for left winger James Neal and defenseman Matt Niskanen. They acquired Neal for his scoring abilities and Niskanen is a great assist man when in good form, only had 6 at the time of the trade though. Next trade G.M. Ray Shero made was two days later, acquiring veteran winger Alexei Kovalev from Ottawa in exchange for a conditional 7th round pick in this year's draft. Shero got Kovalev for his veteran leadership and scoring ability. The trade reunited Kovalev and the Pens, as he played from 99-03 with them. All three players Shero went out and got are all great offensively, obviously adding more firepower while Crosby is out and for when he returns.

Crosby has been two weeks free of concussion-like symptoms and has been on the ice skating 10-15 minutes a session recently. Today he got up to 30 minutes ice time, and now the next step in his recovery is a regular practice. Crosby could be back for the end of the regular season, but will most likely return closer to playoff time. When he does return, the Pens will have a very high octane offense with Crosby, Staal, Neal, Kovalev, Kennedy, etc. Combine that with superb goalkeeping from Fleury and Johnson, and the Pens are yet again Stanley Cup contenders. Now you know why the Pens weren't done when Crosby (and Malkin) got injured, and, more importantly, you know the mystery of the Kid-less Pens.

References

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/players/profile?playerId=3114
http://espn.go.com/nhl/team/schedule/_/name/pit/pittsburgh-penguins
http://espn.go.com/nhl/players/profile?playerId=3541
http://espn.go.com/nhl/players/profile?playerId=3339
http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/nhl/news/story?id=6145303
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=6154492