Sidney: "I'm Slumping!"

First denile, and then admittance. Sidney is already on the second step to recovery, right?

From the Ottawa Sun:

There are two ways to look at the fact NHL leading scorer Sidney Crosby has only two goals in his last 17 games.

The Senators are catching him at a good time, because he's in a bit of a slump or ... The 19-year-old star of the Pittsburgh Penguins is about to bust loose, so look out.

Crosby has but one point in his last four games.

Is he in a slump?

"A bit," he admitted after the Penguins morning skate at Scotiabank Place, blaming a little bit of bad puck luck lately. "Hopefully my time will come soon."

A bit?? 2 goals in 17 games is more than a BIT of a slump, Sid.

"He's going to have work through this," said Penguins coach Michel Therrien, who is planning on using Crosby with rookie of the year candidate Evgeni Malkin tonight to try and give him both a boost.

"He's going to play against top players every night. Sidney Crosby doesn't surprise other people right now. The last month and a half they've checked him really well, but that's part of his development.

"He's only 19 years old. He's going to have to fight his way through those things. That's why we put him with Malkin, hopefully, it's going to help them be on the same page and fight through this together."

Yeah, hopefully Lurch can help Crosby get some points tonight. Lecavalier and St. Louis are closing in on the scoring title.

Penguins 4 - Flyers 3(SO): We need a Slumpbuster, STAT!

Weird...

Crosby can't get any points during regulation, but has suddenly become money in the shootout.

Did he sell his soul to the (New Jersey) Devil?

Well, at least the Penguins won a game, and, once again, made the Flyers their little bitches with a 4-3 shootout win.

Crosby's totals? 0 points, 6 shots and -2 in 21:17 of ice time...yuk

From NHL.com:

If the Pittsburgh Penguins make the playoffs for the first time in six years, no opponent will be more responsible than the Philadelphia Flyers.

Erik Christensen twice scored tying goals in regulation, then teamed with Sidney Crosby to win it in the shootout and the Penguins swept a season series from Philadelphia for the first time by winning 4-3 on Sunday.

Pittsburgh won all eight games against a once-dominating opponent. Coming into the season, the Flyers were 125-64 with 30 ties and one overtime loss in the last 40 years against their Pennsylvania rivals.

The Penguins nearly didn't win, falling behind 2-0 on goals by Mike York and Braydon Coburn in a sloppily played first period. But Gary Roberts, with the Penguins less than a week, scored once and set up their other two goals in regulation and Pittsburgh won for only the second time in five games after getting points in 16 consecutive games (14-0-2).

This is exactly why Pittsburgh traded with Florida to get the 40-year-old Roberts - his ability to lead and to help win big games down the stretch in playoff races.

"Right now in the Eastern Conference, you can be third one week and eighth the next, so you've got to make sure you don't let any game slip away," Roberts said.

Crosby decided a shootout for the second time in four days, following up Christensen's successful shot against goalie Martin Biron by stickhandling the puck down the slot before going to his backhand to end it.

Both Flyers shooters, Martin Ruzicka and Scottie Upshall, failed against goalie Marc-Andre Fleury after Christensen began the shootout by beating Biron. The Penguins are 7-5 in shootouts and the Flyers are 1-6, last winning on Oct. 26.

Some fans tossed hats onto the ice after Christensen scored in the shootout, even though shootout goals don't count in individual totals.

"I knew it wasn't a hat trick but I will take it," said Christensen, who leads Pittsburgh with a 6-of-10 conversion rate in shootouts.

Crosby is 3-of-11 in shootouts, but also decided the Penguins' 4-3 victory against the Rangers on Thursday by scoring the only goal of the shootout.

"If you keep Crosby off the score sheet, you have a better chance of winning," the Flyers' Simon Gagne said. "It means defensively you're doing something right. But when you get into shootouts you don't know what's going to happen, and we're not very good in shootouts right now."

Crosby, the NHL's scoring leader with 98 points, was held without a point after getting 30 points in his first 15 career games against the Flyers. Crosby has two goals in his last 17 games overall.

Penguins 5 - Devils 4: 15 straight with a point

...and a goal for Crosby!!!

Yes, the 8-game goal scoring slump is over as Crosby buried a laser wrister in the Penguins big 5-4 win over the evil Devils of New Jersey.

The win gives the Penguins 15 straight games with at least a point, breaking an old team record. Sure, the shootout rules and bonus points for OT losses have helped create this artificial record, but 15 straight is still impressive, and gives the Penguins more cushion for a playoff spot.

Crosby was the game's second star with 1 goal, 1 assist, and +2 in a low (for him) 17:28 of ice time. It looks like Crosby is finally BACK.

From Yahoo! Sports:

Jarkko Ruutu scored two goals Friday night to lead the surging Pittsburgh Penguins to a 5-4 victory over the New Jersey Devils.

Rob Scuderi, Jordan Staal and Sidney Crosby also scored for Pittsburgh, which pulled within five points of the Atlantic Division-leading Devils with a game in hand. The Penguins have won five in a row. More impressively, they have picked up at least one point in 15 straight games, winning 13 of them.

Brian Rafalski, Patrik Elias, Zach Parise and Travis Zajac scored for the Devils, who had won 10 of their previous 14.

The Penguins drained the drama from the showdown by jumping out a 3-0 lead in the first period on goals by Ruutu, Scuderi and Staal.

Ruutu got it started when he deflected Josef Melichar's point shot past goalie Martin Brodeur at 3:02.

Scuderi, set up by Melichar, scored at 5:19 from the right point.

Staal got Pittsburgh's third goal of the period with 2:06 remaining, jamming a shot from the slot past Brodeur.

Both teams scored twice in the second period.

Rafalski got his third goal in the last two games at 7:29 to break Marc-Andre Fleury's shutout bid.

Crosby countered for Pittsburgh, ending his eight-game goal-scoring drought with a power-play tally at 10:27 to give the Penguins a 4-1 lead.

Elias scored for the Devils at 12:32 before Ruutu got his second of the game with 3:08 remaining to put Pittsburgh up 5-2.

New Jersey scored twice in the third period to trim the Pittsburgh lead to 5-4. Parise scored on the power play at 2:38 and Zajac fired a shot from just inside the blue line that hit Fleury's glove and popped into the net at 8:50.

Fleury was sharp in the final seconds when the Devils pulled Brodeur for an extra attacker. Fleury turned aside several shots, including an excellent shot by Zajac, as the Devils pressed for the equalizer.

The Devils and Penguins play 3 more times this season. Let's hope those 3 meetings are just as good.

Penguins 5 - Blackhawks 4(SO): Penguins Keep Rolling

It's weird how Sidney Crosby is mired in a slump now with 8 games without a goal. His assists have also dried up some...yet the Pens keep winning!!

Last night was another great example, as Sid the Kid had just 1 lone assist in a 5-4 shootout victory over the Hawks. Sidney fired 6 shots on goal, as he was obviously just a little anxious...the shootout? Sidney was stuffed there, too :(

Still, the most important thing is that the Penguins have been racking up the points, including a new team record for consecutive games with a point
From Yahoo! Sports:

The Pittsburgh Penguins haven't been on a streak like this in 10 years. The surprise is they keep winning games and gathering points without Sidney Crosby scoring goals.

Evgeni Malkin tied the game late in the third period after Pittsburgh wasted a multiple-goal lead for the third game in a row, then teamed with Erik Christensen to score in the shootout as the Penguins rallied to beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-4 Wednesday night.

The Penguins gained at least a point for the 14th consecutive game (12-0-2) -- the first time they've done that since they won 12 times and tied twice from Dec. 19, 1996, through Jan. 21, 1997. They've also won their last four shootouts after losing five of their first six, a major reason why they are tied for fourth place in the Eastern Conference after being out of the playoff picture only a few weeks ago.

"With the skill they have and the streak they're on, they're hungry," Blackhawks coach Denis Savard said. "They were hungry the whole game. It's tough to contain them."

Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury made a game-saving left skate save on Martin Havlat only seconds into overtime, then stopped Havlat and Bryan Smolinski with glove saves in the shootout.

"Fleury made a great save in overtime," Savard said. "That's the save. We had a game-winner on our stick."

Fleury said, "That was the most I could stretch -- and I just got a piece of it."

Christensen began the shootout by beating Nikolai Khabibulin with a shot under the crossbar, and Malkin also got the puck past Khabibulin by faking a shot before pulling it back and pushing a backhander inside the far post.

"I thought he was going to shoot so I got a little frozen, but he tucked it in," Khabibulin said. "I felt like we earned a point the way we played, but then we gave one away."

Crosby, the NHL scoring leader with 88 points, got an assist but failed to score a goal for an eighth consecutive game -- the longest streak of his two-season career. He went seven games without a goal a few weeks into his rookie season.

The Penguins also lost a two-goal lead Thursday in Philadelphia and a three-goal lead Saturday in Toronto, although they came back to win both. They have four shootout wins and one in overtime during their 14-game point streak.

"It wasn't easy, but we found a way again," Crosby said. "No doubt it's rewarding to dig deep when you need to late in games, but we can't depend on that all the time."