Pittsburgh Penguins 2016 Champions - Sidney Crosby Part 2

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Sidney Crosby was still leading through the chaos long after NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman handed him the Conn Smythe Trophy and then the Stanley Cup.

Crosby was calling for teammates, telling them to grab their family members and pointing them in the direction of the Stanley Cup, which he placed on the ice, a short distance away from the Zamboni entrance. Here was Crosby, fresh off of the Pittsburgh Penguins' 3-1 championship-clinching win against the San Jose Sharks in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final at SAP Center on Sunday, orchestrating photo ops for his teammates and their moms and dads, wives or girlfriends, sisters and brothers, uncles and aunts. This was moments after Crosby got the nod as the best player in the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy in a vote by select members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association after finishing the postseason with 19 points (six goals, 13 assists) in 24 games.

"There's so many guys who contributed," Crosby said. "I look at this as a total team effort. I just tried to work hard every night, do my job just like everyone else. I don't know if I did anything different or specific; I think everyone just competed, everyone tried to do what's expected of them, tried to play their role. If you do that every night you have a pretty good chance of winning."

Crosby didn't lead the Penguins in scoring this postseason; that was right wing Phil Kessel with 22 points (10 goals, 12 assists). But ask anybody around the Penguins and they will tell you Crosby led in every other category, regardless if you could put a number on it or not.
"He's our leader," Penguins left wing Conor Sheary said. "If he's not scoring goals or putting up points, he's our guy in the locker room. I know the Conn Smythe means the best player, and he's been our best player and he has been all year." Crosby, though, did have some strong numbers.

Nineteen points in 24 games is nothing to scoff at. He had three points (all assists) in the Cup Final, but that's the same number of points Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews had in the Cup Final when he won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2010.

"He was our leader all the way through and he was great," right wing Patric Hornqvist said. "Maybe he didn't have the points he wanted to have, but he was our leader on and off the ice, and that's all that matters in the end. He's a winner and he made sure we won."
Crosby's last assist came on Hornqvist's empty-net goal at 18:58 of the third period Sunday. Crosby blocked Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic's shot, got the puck back, delivered it to Hornqvist, who did the rest to seal the championship.
"I'm going to remember that for a long time," Hornqvist said.
Crosby scored three game-winning goals against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Final, including one in overtime. He had eight points in the Penguins' five-game first-round series win against the New York Rangers.
He won 52.4 percent of his faceoffs and averaged 20:26 of ice time in the playoffs.
"His numbers don't indicate the impact he had on helping this team win, or the impact he had on a game-to-game basis," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "He was a great leader for our team. It started by example with his performance and how he played. He's a complete player. He plays at both ends of the rink. He's a great faceoff guy. He kills penalties when we need him to. He plays in all the key situations. I could tell as we went through this postseason that he knew that our team had something special. He was going to will this thing."
It wasn't long ago when Crosby was wondering if he'd get another chance to will the Penguins to a Stanley Cup championship. Problems with concussions robbed him of 101 games between 2011 and 2012. There was significant turnover within the organization after the 2013-14 season, when the Penguins blew a 3-1 series lead to the Rangers and lost in seven games.

Jim Rutherford replaced Ray Shero as the general manager. Mike Johnston replaced Dan Bylsma as coach. The Penguins were a first-round bust last season. One year later, the Penguins had a new coach and 10 players playing in the playoffs that were not on the team last season, including four rookies, goalie Matt Murray, Rust, Sheary and Tom Kuhnhackl.

"It's not easy to throw a bunch of guys together and develop that chemistry, that trust," Crosby said. "It doesn't happen overnight. When you look at the group, how many new players we brought in, it was pretty special what we were able to do."
Crosby had to adapt to make it happen. In 2009, when the Penguins had previously won the Stanley Cup, Crosby finished with 31 points, five fewer than Evgeni Malkin, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy that year. At that point, Crosby, then 21, had to be a major scorer because the Penguins didn't have the same type of depth they had this season. He had plenty of help this time around. The "HBK Line" featuring Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino and Kessel took some of the pressure off of Crosby and finished with 56 points. Malkin had 18 points. Hornqvist had 13, including nine goals. Kris Letang had 14. Chris Kunitz had 12. Bryan Rust scored six goals, including two in Game 7 against Tampa Bay.

In the Cup Final, the Penguins got goals from defensemen Ben Lovejoy, Ian Cole and Brian Dumoulin. Cole hadn't scored in 104 straight games before he scored in Game 4. Nobody, though, could play Crosby's role. To his teammates, he's the heart and soul of the Penguins.

"He's a great leader," said retired Penguins forward Pascal Dupuis, who was on the ice in uniform for the Cup celebration. "Just the way he acts, the way he treats people, the way he wants to win every night, the way he handles himself around media, around anybody in the hockey world, I think you raise your hat to him."
Dupuis actually did raise his hat when he said that. Crosby couldn't see him do it; he was still orchestrating the photo ops, yet another sign of his leadership.
"He wears the 'C' for a reason," Sheary said.

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Make it a double-double for Sidney Crosby, who owns the tiebreaker in any argument against his greatness.
"I think it places him up there with the greats of the game of all-time," Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.
Crosby became a two-time Stanley Cup champion when the Penguins defeated the San Jose Sharks 3-1 in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final at SAP Center on Sunday, seven years to the day when he won the Cup for the first time. He is the ninth player in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup twice and two Olympic gold medals. Crosby joins Igor Larionov, Viacheslav Fetisov, Peter Forsberg, Martin Brodeur, Scott Niedermayer, Duncan Keith, Jonathan Toews and Drew Doughty as the players who make up that prestigious fraternity.

In addition, Crosby won the Conn Smythe Trophy for the first time after finishing the Stanley Cup Playoffs with 19 points (six goals, 13 assists). It was the one trophy that was missing from his mantle.

"I could tell as we went through this postseason that he knew that our team had something special," Sullivan said. "He was going to will this thing. I thought he was just terrific throughout the course of this postseason."
Adding his second Stanley Cup to gold medals won in 2010 and 2014 garnered the respect of the hockey community too.
"When you're able to combine both the Stanley Cup and the gold medal, I think it says a lot about the leadership you have, the player, the performance," said Brodeur, a three-time Cup champion. "Doing both one time is one thing, but when you start adding 'em up, I think it justifies a little more who you are. When you win the second one, it just validates that the first one wasn't a fluke."
Let's get one thing straight: Crosby didn't need to win the Stanley Cup again or the Conn Smythe Trophy to validate his career. Look at what he had already accomplished before taking the ice for Game 6 on Sunday:
One Stanley Cup championship, two Olympic golds, gold at the 2015 IIHF World Championship, gold at the 2005 World Junior Championship, the Hart Trophy in 2007 and again in 2014. Crosby was a lock for the Hockey Hall of Fame before NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman handed him the Stanley Cup on Sunday. But when you're constantly compared to the greatest to ever play the game, when you're considered by many to be the greatest now, validation in the form of multiple championships matters. Gordie Howe would still be "Mr. Hockey" if he won the Cup one time, but he won it four times and lived one of the greatest lives in hockey history. Wayne Gretzky would still be a legend had he won the Cup once, but winning it four times cemented him as "The Great One." Mario Lemieux is "Le Magnifique" in part because he won the Stanley Cup twice.
"I'm sure it will give him a much different perspective on it all and I'm sure he will appreciate it more," Niedermayer said of Crosby. "The rest of us will be able to say, 'Well, he is a winner.' He stuck with it and he was able to win again. It's one more notch, one more accomplishment. It's a big deal."

Crosby's window to win again never closed in the seven years it took him to get back to the top of the mountain, but it looked broken, like he nearly was five years ago. He lost 101 games of his career because of concussion problems from January 2011 through March 2012. Nobody worried about Crosby winning again at that point; there was only concern for his well-being and questions if he would be the same player, or, worse, ever play again. He did. He came back. He resumed being dominant. The Penguins didn't, at least until now. They lost in the first round in 2012, a brutal and embarrassing series against the Philadelphia Flyers. They made it to the Eastern Conference Final in 2013, but scored two goals in four consecutive losses to the Boston Bruins. They blew a 3-1 series lead to the New York Rangers in the second round in 2014 and lost in seven games. They were blown out by the Rangers in a five-game series last season.

"That is another part of his journey that, to me, is impressive," said Niedermayer, a four-time Cup champion. "I'm sure he's had times when there has been a lot of frustration and questioning, whether it be his own game, his teammates, the organization or whatever. You wonder when things aren't going well. The expectations were that they would have been back in more Finals than they've been and maybe won a couple more along the way. To have the determination to stick with it is something that he should be proud of and it should be regarded highly from other people."
Crosby stuck with it this season too. He had a very un-Crosby-like start with no points in the first six games and 22 in 32 games by Christmas. Worse, the Penguins were a mess, 16-14-3, out of a playoff position, trying to learn a new style under new coach Mike Sullivan, who took over for Mike Johnston on Dec. 12. Considering how last season ended, the questions regarding Crosby's greatness and his stature as the best player in the world was real. Dare we ask, was he still the best in the world? Many dared. Crosby had to answer, for himself and for the Penguins. That's his responsibility as the face of the franchise, the face of the NHL. Nobody else has that responsibility.

He never skirted it. He never has. He responded with 63 points in his last 48 games. He is a Hart Trophy finalist.

"That's the character he's had," Penguins left wing Chris Kunitz said. "The guy has been in the media since Day One, and the guy has never changed. He had to grow up through all of this and always take it on his shoulders. That's the role he has in the media. He does it every single day.
"The expectation is always above and beyond everybody else."
Crosby didn't ask for all of this; his talent demands it. He knows that. He knows that nobody else in the NHL faces greater pressure to be great on a game-to-game basis more than he does.
Alex Ovechkin might come close, but he did not come into the League with the same fanfare as Crosby. The Washington Capitals captain didn't have the torch passed to him the way Crosby had it passed to him from Gretzky, who got it from Howe. Ovechkin also hasn't won the Stanley Cup or an Olympic gold medal.
"That's the pressure that these guys have, the Wayne Gretzkys, Mario Lemieuxs and Sidney Crosbys of the world," Brodeur said. "It's all about winning the Stanley Cup, being winners. It validates him. The window closes and you have to take advantage. He did."
Twice, in the Olympics and the Stanley Cup Playoffs. And he's not done.
Crosby will keep trying to win the Cup. He's only 28, very much in his prime. Who knows, maybe he'll get a chance to win another Olympic gold medal. That's still to be determined. We already know he'll have a chance to win with Team Canada at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. If he does, it'll just further cement his legacy, one that can never be questioned again. The argument is over. Sidney Crosby wins.
"He's the best player in the world," Penguins left wing Patric Hornqvist said.