Crosby leads the way
PHILADELPHIA — Sidney Crosby promised he'd try to lead slumping Pittsburgh with words as much by his actions. Usually, though, the way Sid the Kid delivers with the puck helps the Penguins more than a pep talk.
Against another sellout crowd in Philadelphia that bellowed nothing but derogatory words toward the Pittsburgh captain, Crosby and the Penguins showed a flicker of hope their season can still be salvaged.
Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal each scored goals, and Crosby had a pair of assists that sparked the sputtering Penguins to a needed 4-2 win over the Flyers Tuesday night.
"It's been a long time that we've played such a solid game," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "We were solid when we had the puck, we were solid when we didn't have the puck, and we got a commitment from everyone."
The Penguins won for only the second time in nine games and scored four straight goals to put an emphatic end to Philadelphia's eight-game home winning streak. They also got goals from Tyler Kennedy and Matt Cooke, and Marc-Andre Fleury nicely rebounded from a first-period blunder to stop 27 shots.
Pittsburgh played the first two periods more like the team that beat the Flyers in last year's Eastern Conference finals than the one that came in stuck in an alarming slump that left them outside a playoff spot.
"I think for us, there's a lot of expectations on our team, because of the players we have on it and because of the year we had last year," Crosby said. "It's not easy when you go through difficult times, but we can make sure that we do our best to improve what happens in the future."
The Penguins, though, sorely needed this win against their division rivals to stop their slide down the standings. This win helps for now, but they'll need to string together a few more like this one before Pittsburgh can say it's ready to think about a repeat of its stirring Stanley Cup run.
Perhaps the Penguins can take some inspiration from last year's Flyers, who overcame a 10-game winless streak to reach the East finals.
Fleury was touched for a goal in the first period when he strayed behind the net on a shot against the end boards by Simon Gagne. The puck knocked off an out-of-position Fleury, back in front of the net and a sliding Mile Knuble punched in the goal in what was essentially an empty-netter.
What could have been the miscue that cost the Penguins, turned out to be a pretty meaningless goal.
"Nobody thought, 'oh no, not again,"' Fleury said. "Everybody kept going, kept working hard and the whole game was great."
Kennedy wiped out the deficit with a backhand to end the period tied at 1.
"We've been having a tough time recently," Crosby said. "With that (Knuble) bounce, we could have hung our heads and felt sorry for ourselves, but we did a good job of staying with it."
Thanks to Crosby, of course.
